Safeties, particularly in New Englandish area?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I'm a rising junior at a large public high school in a boring-ish town in Kentucky. White, female, and haven't done a whole lot of the standardized testing yet... Got a 31 on the ACT as a practice run (didn't study much beforehand) and a 218 on the PSAT this past year (also without studying much). Took the SAT earlier this month; scores still pending.</p>

<p>CLASSES</p>

<p>Planning to take 3 to 5 AP classes. Our school works on the block system, so it's pretty well impossible to take more than 5, plus the ones that exist have a reputation of being very very very very hard.</p>

<p>Buuuuut, should I feel adventurous, I'll be taking AP Calculus, AP English (Language and Composition), AP U.S. History, and AP Biology this coming year. Senior year I'll take AP English (Literature).</p>

<p>There's a chance I'll drop the AP US History / AP English combo in favor of focusing on Calc and Bio my junior year, or I'll drop AP Bio in favor of the AP US History / AP English Combo. I just don't know yet.</p>

<p>All my other classes are honors 'n' shiz.</p>

<p>EXTRACIRRICULARS</p>

<p>Academic Team: a member since fourth grade, won state twice, state qualifier every year since seventh grade (first year when you can qualifty for state), love the team to death and might make it the topic of my essay</p>

<p>Piano: since first grade, no competitions or anything but I do love it</p>

<p>Girl Scouting: since first grade, awarded silver award, will begin gold project this coming year</p>

<p>Band: member of school band since sixth grade (oboist), seated in All-District Band every year, play with local youth symphony and play piano in school jazz band</p>

<p>Choir: plan to be a member sophomore through senior years</p>

<p>Clubs: was secretary in Student Technology Leadership Program and historian in Literary Club, plan to run again for offices this coming year, and perhaps start a literary journal and poetry slam at our school with the Literary Club</p>

<p>Other: I've attended computer camp every summer since fifth grade and will likely be a counselor-in-training next summer; I design websites as a hobby in my spare time, and sometimes help out friends who need sites for various reasons (school clubs, local organizations, etc.). I've also entered and won various writing contest type things.</p>

<p>WITH ALL THIS IN MIND,</p>

<p>I need some schools.</p>

<p>This coming fall, I plan on touring the New England area (Swarthmore, Wesleyan University, Brown, UPenn); however, all the schools I'm looking at so far are, I know, very very difficult to get into.</p>

<p>I'm looking for safeties... ANYWHERE in the United States is fine with me, geographically — I want to get far away. I only mention the New Englandish area because that's where I'm touring...</p>

<p>Preferably, I'd like a medium-sized school with about 4,000 to 8,000 undergrads, located in a large city or in the suburbs of a large city. Also, I'd prefer a pretty "intellectual" student body — kids who aren't afraid to talk politics 'n' religion 'n' all that, even outside of class. However, I'm pretty adaptable (the disadvantages of Swarthmore's smallness I think can be overlooked due to its proximity to Philly, and Wesleyan's seems like it's so unique and intellectual that it can't be missed).</p>

<p>The favorites on my college list, so far, include Stanford, Harvard, Pomona, CMC, Pitzer, WashU, Rice, Reed, and Cornell.</p>

<p>So yeah. Anyone with safety ideas would be much appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Hey there! You have a really good point. I want to go to a bunch of really top notch liberal arts colleges, but i'm kind of nervous about not making it either. I need to benefit from this thread too!! </p>

<p>MM...it really depends on I guess what types of colleges you have in mind. I think I know St John College is very intellectual. The kids who go there ( so I heard) are really smart but the admission rate is really high. May be you want to try for that? I have the same problem so i'm sorry...I can't help you much!</p>

3

<p>Case Western comes to mind.</p>

4

<p>Brandeis, Tufts, Rochester (smallish city). George Washington a little further down the pecking order.</p>

5

<p>Tufts and Brandeis both have very low acceptance rates... I wouldn't really feel safe calling a school a safety unless it had an acceptance rate around 50% or better.</p>

<p>Case Western's a great suggestion, though — I've been looking into them and they're on my safety list now.</p>

<p>Keep 'em coming, guys!</p>

6

<p>Clark U, Worcester, Mass.</p>

7

<p>second on Clark</p>

8

<p>azureeye, I would recommend the following as less selectives:
Conn College, Barnard </p>

<p>If you would consider small town instead of big city then add Smith and Skidmore.</p>

9

<p>"azureeye, I would recommend the following as less selectives:
Conn College, Barnard "</p>

<p>OP has already stated she is not comfortable with Brandeis as a safety; according to stats in 2007 US News Barnard is more selective than Brandeis.</p>

<pre><code> Admit % mid-50% SAT (w/o writing) top 10% HS
</code></pre>

<p>Brandeis 38% 1270- 1440 74%
Barnard 27% 1290- 1450 83%
Wesleyan 28% 1300- 1490 71%</p>

<p>Weighing all these parameters, US News 2007 edition overall selectivity ranking of the referenced LACs is as follows:
Barnard #9
Wesleyan #14
Connnecticut College #35
Smith #41
Skidmore #59</p>

10

<p>Tufts and Brandeis are certainly not safeties for anyone. Especially Tufts with an average SAT of 1450 and an acceptance rate of 25%</p>

11

<p>Have you considered Hampshire? Somewhat small, but I think it fits most of your criteria.</p>

12

<p>Brandeis admissions rate dropped 7 points this year. Its now at 31%.</p>

13

<p>"Especially Tufts with an average SAT of 1450"</p>

<p>Is that figure for accepted students for Class of 2011? Source?</p>

<p>For Class of 2010:</p>

<p>Accepted Students (<a href="http://admissions.tufts.edu/?pid=121):%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.tufts.edu/?pid=121):&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>1433 (overall mean)
1432 (arts & sciences mean)</p>

<p>Enrolled Students (<a href="http://www.tufts.edu/ir/Fast%20Facts.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.tufts.edu/ir/Fast%20Facts.pdf&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>1405 (overall mean)
1403 (arts & sciences mean)</p>

14

<p>ummm not much of a difference there...</p>

15

<p>The real point is to note that one needs to specify whether a given SAT average is for accepted students or enrolled students. The number used in the Common Data Set is for enrolled students -- and that is the number picked up by USNWR, Princeton Review etc. The accepted student number is always higher (well, maybe not at H and MIT; I don't know). It would be incorrect to have someone assume that Tufts' SAT average for enrolled students is 1450 (unless someone shows me it is).</p>

16

<p>Some average SATs from the Princeton Review website-</p>

<p>Princeton 1450
Dartmouth 1437
Columbia 1432
Brown 1390</p>

<p>Tufts not listed.</p>

17

<p>Tufts, Holy Cross, Brandeis. Colby.</p>

18

<p>Union & Syracuse are two NE schools that might work.</p>

<p>Maybe add Scripps to your list?</p>

19

<p>My definition of safety schools are schools with a high acceptance rate. Tufts, Holy Cross, Brandeis and Colby are very selective schools. </p>

<p>I do agree with Clark, though. Very good school, not overly hard to get into.</p>

20

<p>Thanks for the suggestions, guys.... Clark may fit the bill quite nicely, along with some others.</p>

<p>Does anyone know anything about Fairfield University or Providence College? They both seem to have pretty high acceptance rates + lots of out of state kids + good size student bodies, and I was wondering what kind of rep they have?</p>

<p>Also, these suggestions are all nice — are there any others? I think the New England area's covered now, so anywhere else (California, Texas, midwest) would be neat to explore.</p>