Safeties and "Middle Colleges"

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Can you help me find some potential safeties and middle ground (ex. amherst, harvey mudd, etc.) colleges for me to apply too? I live in Minnesota, and will definitely want a school with a strong math and science program. Beyond that, I don't have any idea what I want to major in. Maybe chemistry, computer science, or a field of egineering.... Please don't ask if I want to be recruited/run/swim in college because I don't.</p>

<p>Here some colleges I will definitely be applying to:</p>

<p>Stanford
Princeton
U Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
U of Minnesota</p>

<p>And here are some stats so you can get a rough idea of my profile:</p>

<p>Stats:
Male, MN, Caucasian, No hooks, rising senior</p>

<p>GPA: 3.995 Unweighted
Rank: 6/557
SAT: 2250 Single Sitting (Only time I took it) (750M, 740 CR, 760 W, 11 Essay) - Will retake in fall to try to get 2300.
SAT II: 800 US History, 740 Chem, 800 Math 2
AP Tests: APUSH (5), Euro (5), Calc BC (5), Lang/Comp (5), Stats (5)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Cross Country (Varsity Captain), Swimming (Varsity Captain), Track and Field (Varsity Captain), Debate, Student Council (Officer), National Honors Society (Leadership in committees), National Spanish Honors Society</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I wouldn’t consider Amherst or Harvey Mudd “middle ground”. They are reaches for nearly all applicants. By one poster’s reckoning a few years ago, HMC was more selective than Stanford.
(<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/687793-selectivity-ranking-national-us-lacs-combined-usnews-method.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/687793-selectivity-ranking-national-us-lacs-combined-usnews-method.html&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

<p>Match schools might include Rochester, Michigan, Brandeis … or perhaps Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, Carleton and USC. These schools are all expensive, so they might not be good matches if they don’t fit your budget or (if applicable) your financial aid strategy.</p>

<p>Case Western is a low match that has been rather generous with merit aid.</p>

<p>If Minnesota fits your budget, and you have a good range of low-high match schools (taking costs into account), you may not need another safety.</p>

3

<p>^^I agree, while Amherst and Harvey Mudd are good applications for you, they are not safeties for anyone. There is too big of a gap in between UMinnesota and your other schools. I’d look into some of the following: UMichigan, Carnegie Mellon, URochester, Bucknell, Cornell, Wash U (last two are not really safeties).</p>

4

<p>^ No, Cornell and WUSTL ar not safeties. They are reaches for nearly everyone.</p>

<p>Here are the stats of some students rejected or waitlisted from Cornell for the class of 2014 (according to the CC “stats profile” data):</p>

<p>M / CR / W / Rank / GPA
760 / 770 / 720 / top 5% / 3.98
760 / 800 / 800 / top 5% / 4.17
800 / 690 / 770 / top 5% / 3.95
800 / 730 / 750 / top 5% / 4.0 (WL)
700 / 710 / 800 / top 5% / 3.9 (WL)</p>

5

<p>^^I thought that I clearly stated that the last two schools are not safeties, however, they seem like good choices that the OP can consider.</p>

6

<p>William & Mary, Colgate, Vanderbilt, U of Rochester, Leigh, Davidson come to mind as schools just outisde the “most selective” but great schools</p>

7

<p>Minnesota is a fine school for your subjects, and inexpensive to you as an in-state student. It does not seem like it is selective enough for you to worry about not getting accepted, so it is probably a safety assuming you can afford the in-state price. You can probably add Wisconsin as a similar school due to the tuition reciprocity deal it has with Minnesota (although it may be somewhat more selective).</p>

<p>If Minnesota and/or Wisconsin are safeties that you like, then you need not apply to any other school that you would not choose over them under any circumstances. What is really important is that your application list contains safeties that you like and can afford; it is not necessarily incomplete because it may be missing matches (as yours may be) and/or reaches.</p>

<p>If you want to add LACs, you have a fine one at in-state cost (Morris) to consider as a possible safety LAC.</p>

8

<p>“ground (ex. amherst, harvey mudd, etc.) colleges”</p>

<p>since when are those schools “middle colleges”? Those are TOP schools that are very hard to get into. </p>

<p>Are you looking for matches and safeties?</p>

<p>Purdue would be match/safety, but NOT unless your family will pay the cost. You would probably get about a $9k per scholarship, but you’d still have to pay about $32k per year.</p>

<p>UIUC would also be a match/safety for you…but again, NOT unless your family will pay for it. </p>

<p>How much will your family pay each year?</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the advice everyone; sorry that I said that Amherst and Harvey Mudd were of medium difficulty, I really don’t know what I’m talking about… =p. I think I’ve got all I need, thanks to all who’ve replied! You’ve all been a great help!</p>

10

<p>Note that Amherst may not be as strong in some of the science subjects you are interested in (particularly CS; it does not even have engineering) compared to some other LACs like Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, and Bucknell. Yes, it is in a consortium, but the strongest school for CS in the consortium is the cheaper state school, University of Massachusetts - Amherst.</p>

<p>For other sciences (not engineering or CS), Carleton and University of Minnesota - Morris should be investigated.</p>