<p>I want to be an engineering major, and I'm planning on applying to very selective schools. However, I understand that there is a good chance that I'll be rejected from all of them, so I'd like to establish a list of safety schools. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>UW GPA: 3.98
Rank: None
Rigor: All honors and 5 APs both junior and senior year
ACT: 36! (35 E / 35 M / 36 R / 36 S / 11 W)
Income: ~100k
State: TX</p>
<p>Could I consider these schools safeties?</p>
<p>Purdue
Case Western Reserve
Georgia Tech
UT Austin</p>
<p>Yep those are all safeties except maybe Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>They would only be safeties if you know you can afford them. Purdue gives out very few scholarships to OOS students. UT is a safety if you are in the top 7% of your class. You might want to look at Texas A&M, too (top 10% needed).</p>
<p>With your stats,Georgia Tech is a safety for admissions, but can not be counted as a financial safety. Their academic merit scholarships are highly competitive. Need based financial aid is another matter, depending on your net price, and whether your family can afford it.
Similarly true for Purdue & Case Western.</p>
<p>No. As others have pointed out, getting accepted is only one part of the equation. You have to be able to come up with the money to pay for the schools. </p>
<p>In fact, even at schools where they guarantee to meet full need, which none of your listed schools do, the schools themselves define that need and it often does not agree with what your parents may be willing and/or able to pay. You might want to run some NPCs on all of the schools on your list to make sure they are even within the ball park of affordability. With the costs being over $60K a year, these days, it has become a crucial issue for many students and families, and schools as well.</p>
<p>GT and Purdue do not have much for OOS kids in terms of aid, and their merit awards are not easy to get. My son’s friend who went there for a year (has transferred) had stats right up there and his family was paying full freight for the privilege. Not a dime of merit money. My son with nearly perfect SAT1 scores got into GT, but didn’t get any money from them either. Case may have some merit awards that can bring down the cost for you. But do see what your family is expected to pay for you. A lot of the top schools give zero in merit money, so it is ALL need based and with a family income in the 6 figure range, what your family will be asked to pay may be way up there.</p>
<p>As for UTAustin, talk to your GC as to what your chances are in getting in there with your grades. That and Texas A&M. From what I understand with the way those two schools have admissions, even a perfect ACT/SAT isn’t going to make them safeties. Your class rank is what will do that.</p>
<p>A safety is a place where your stats flat-out guarantee admission. If those institutions don’t post something like “We admit anyone with a X.X and a score of YY or ZZZZ” on the website, while they may be pretty safe, they aren’t completely safe. For engineering, some dead-on safeties are on this list: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>If you are a US applicant, once your parents have filed their taxes this spring, ask them to help you run the Net Price Calculators on the websites of several institutions on your list and for at least one home-state public U that offers your major. That will give you an idea of which might prove to be affordable.</p>
<p>If you aren’t a US applicant, check the aid policies very carefully at each place that you are considering to find out if there is any chance that you would be eligible for the amount of aid that you would need. In that case, your safeties would probably be in your home country.</p>
<p>Your financial situation determines your safeties as well. You have pricey OOS schools and a pricey private on your list. If your parents won’t pay, then those aren’t safeties. </p>
<p>Purdue would likely give you their Presidential for about $10k per year, but the total cost is around $40k. So would your parents pay the other $30k per year? </p>
<p>Since you have the stats for assured large merit at some schools (not the ones on your list), then include a couple of them as your safeties. </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay? If you don’t know, ask them. </p>
<p>Are you a likely NMSF? What was your PSAT?</p>
<p>I got a 192 so I will not be a NMSF.</p>
<p>If your school does not rank, UT Austin is not a safety. UT Austin fills most of its incoming class with top 7% (or whatever) class rank applicants, leaving a smaller number of places for those from schools which do not rank (including various elite magnet and private schools with super-competitive applicants) and out-of-state applicants.</p>
<p>You should be able to find some safeties here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-16.html#post15557250[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-16.html#post15557250</a></p>
<p>I would say Purdue is a safety because Purdue acceptance rate is like 68%. I applied to Purdue because it has rolling admission and there was a high likelyhood that I would receive merit aid. I was accepted right away in Oct with $10K merit aid, it’s in the top 10 engineering school for undergraduate.</p>
<p>AF1, Purdue would only be a safety if the OP’s family can pay $33K/year (the cost after $10K merit).</p>
<p>Does the 33k include room and board?</p>
<p>As I stated above my son has a friend at Purdue. Though the “on paper” COA is about $42K for the school for OOSers, the real cost, according to the parent whom I’ve spoken to, has come up to close to $50K. The airfare can be high so transportation costs built into COA estimates don’t really cover that well with so many who can commute or who live within driving distances from the school. If you live somewhere that does not have much in the way of inexpensive air fare, that cost can go up quite a bit especially if you want to visit your student. Some other costs went over estimates as well, so the actual price paid was way up there.</p>