<p>* I had always thought of my local city’s state university as a safety, but I have recently found out that their average accepted student has an SAT of less than 1500 (out of 2400). I realized I would never be close to academically satisfied at that school.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Since safeties often give poor need-based aid, then you need to be sure that your safeties are affordable.</p>
<p>What about your state flagship or other flagships that give huge merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Do NOT pay attention to the “avg test scores” of a large state school. That doesn’t tell you anything about how challenging your major will be or how smart your classmates will be.</p>
<p>At large schools, the higher stats kids will be concentrated in about 12 majors. These large schools offer 100+ different majors. Those with lower scores will likely be found in the less challenging majors. If you’re in a STEM major, Business major, or one of the challenging humanities majors or similar, you will be challenged academically.</p>
<p>My kids go/went to a flagship university (one has graduated). Both are STEM majors. The “average ACT” at this school isn’t high. However, the upper quartile of the school is an ACT 30+ (96th percentile and above). The school has about 600 national scholars on campus and over 2000 with full tuition scholarships (ACT 32+). Since many of those kids are concentrated in STEM majors, there’s no reason for the classes to be “dumbed down” or anything like that. </p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>What is your budget (how much will your family pay each year)?</p>