Need target/safety ideas please

College Search & Selection
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I know it may be early, but we’re looking to start a list for my high-achieving S24. He has a bunch of reaches on his list so far but nothing else, and we’re struggling to think of schools that would fit.

His S22 brother just went through the process, but S24 has a very different profile and wants a totally different experience.

S24 is gay and wants a progressive school in a progressive city or another country. We’re from the Midwest (not Chicago) and he wants to be far from here. He’s interested only in the coasts (with the possible exception of Chicago) or out of the country.

He’s 4.0+ GPA with high rigor (BC calc, AP chem, APUSH, honors physics and AP Spanish next year as a junior) and will likely have SAT of 1500+. In the US, he’d consider Brown, Tufts, Columbia, Northwestern (maybe the only middle-country school), USC, Pomona, Berkeley, Stanford, UW. Out of country, he would LOVE to attend Cambridge or Oxford in the UK or U Toronto in Canada. And we have NO ideas about targets/safeties abroad.

For XCs, he has a lot of leadership roles at his school, including several in the area he wants to study — psychology. A good, deep, spiky XC focus in that area. Plus considered a top leader in his school. He’ll be 4-year varsity and 3-year varsity in another sport. Likely captain of one or both teams. So not a cancer-curer, but solid.

Obviously, all of these schools are reaches/high reaches. Maybe UW a target but probably not.

He clearly needs some targets and safeties. Any suggestions?? In or out of the country. Thank you!

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If your son might consider a small-city school with realistic access to a major city, Vassar would make a good match.

For a school with an excellent psychology program on the opposite coast, look into Pitzer.

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Good ideas. Thank you!

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University of Rochester. You don’t list LACs, but Skidmore? Oberlin, Bates, Bard, Connecticut College? Fordham? NYU?

I am focusing on match/safety type schools, I don’t think you need more reaches :slight_smile:

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It’s been moved by someone to college search and selection…which is also a good choice.

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Seconding NYU.

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UMiami could be a little more likely than the ones that are high reaches for everyone. Also has a very international vibe.

U of Toronto may also be of interest. Not on the coast, but with their study abroad opportunities he could find a coast for a year in another part of the world.

Lewis and Clark College may be a target and UPortland would be safety/likely.

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Assuming one of his main criteria is to be in a progressive city and you’re looking for targets and safeties:

Washington DC: American University or George Washington

Los Angeles: Occidental

Denver: University of Denver

Twin Cities: Macalester (I know, he doesn’t want Midwest, but this school really fits the other criteria and it’s such a great college)

Is Burlington, VT too small? If not, UVM is awesome!

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Oh, and you probably already considered this, but what about McGill in Montreal?

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Cost constraints? Safeties must be affordable, and targets could be reaches if they are only affordable with a reach-level merit scholarship.

Also, do you mean that he has a 4.0 unweighted GPA (all A grades)?

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We are fortunate to not have any cost considerations.

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Yes, unweighted. He has a few A+'s to offset 2 A-'s.

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These are all great suggestions. Thank you.

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Psychology is his intended major.

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Assuming out-of-state UC prices are affordable, here are some UC admission rates for frosh entering fall 2021:

Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2021 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 30% 11% 2% 1%
Davis 85% 55% 23% 10%
Irvine 60% 31% 14% 1%
Los Angeles 29% 6% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 98% 96% 89%
Riverside 97% 92% 62% 23%
San Diego 75% 35% 5% 1%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).

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Be careful of colleges that use “level of applicant’s interest” in admissions, with American University being a prominent example. American University apparently does not like being used as a “safety” (particularly behind other DC schools like George Washington or Georgetown), so it has a reputation of waitlisting or rejecting “overqualified” applicants who do not show that American University is a top choice (e.g. by applying ED or otherwise indicating that it is preferred over more selective colleges that are commonly also applied to).

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My daughter (rising senior) doesn’t have quite the same stats as your son, but she is looking for something similar. Great schools in progressive cities on the coasts, so I’ve been leaving no stone unturned. (We’re also from the Midwest, and she really really wants to leave). There aren’t that many schools that fit this critera. This is especially true if your kid is not going to be competitive for Ivys, or Ivy-level schools in terms of competitiveness of admissions. We can’t for example, realistically have Brown, Columbia, Stanford, Northwestern, Pomona, or Berkeley on the list.

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Agree. American is on our list as well, and we’re struggling with whether we should try to squeeze in a visit, just to show that my daughter is genuinely interested in the school.

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@Twoin18 may be more familiar with UK universities.

One thing that is often mentioned here when UK universities come up is that the transition from US high school to UK university is even greater than to a US university. At a US university, students are expected to have more self motivation and time management skill than in the more supervised environment of US high school. UK universities are generally said to be even more so, and the final exam may be the entire grade in the course. UK students may be used to grades being based entirely on final exams, but that may be a big change for many US students.

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