@merc81 I love Hamilton so much. I’d even consider joining a sorority if they had a good reputation, but I certainly don’t want Greek life to take over my life, like I fear it would at a place like Bucknell (great school, but the people I know who are entering in the fall have a party-hard reputation).
You have an odd list of schools for your intended field of study, with a few exceptions.
@onthebubble How so? As I wrote in my original post, I’d likely be an English major and a Music minor. If a school offers Journalism, I might major in it because that is a career I’m interested in. Do you have any suggestions?
Your first post says “English/Journalism/Communications”. Very few of the schools being discussed offer Journalism and Mass Communications.
If English is the priority, then St. Lawrence would be a good idea. With your stats you would likely get a very large merit award and SLU is a great place.
Taking another look at your original post, you have a terrific list and a lot of schools you are likely to get admitted to. I think you get in ED to Hamilton, and very likely to Northeastern and SUNYBing as well. If you want absolute certainty certainty add UVermont, which I don’t believe has another essay in the supplement and is a trival application since you are doing Hamilton and Northeastern early anyway using the common app. UVM also has a nice honors program.
I don’t think you need any more safeties unless none of these pan out. If that were to happen, it would be around Dec 15th. Many schools that would be safeties have Jan 15th deadlines and you would have time to adjust your strategy, but I think you should visit some of your other top choices and maybe revisit Hamilton and do an overnight to solidify your conviction that you want to ED to Hamilton.
My son applied to both Hamilton (accepted) and Haverford (waitlisted) and while on paper seem very different, he felt after visits they both had a lot in common. The students were friendly and accepting, the honor codes/open curriculum (Hamilton) showed trust and respect between students and administration along with a serious desire to learn. DS was not at all interested in Greek life and could have been happy at either school.
If Haverford becomes your 1st choice and you can afford it, I agree with the advice to apply ED, Also, Hamilton has ED2 so if you did not get in to Haverford you could apply to Hamilton before regular decisions.
As you are a legacy at Lafayette, and have an ACT score above the middle 50 range, as long as you write a solid essay, demonstrate interest and have no red flags in your application, you should get in and that is your safety.
@ClassicRockerDad @Mom24boys @wisteria100 Thank you all very much! I’m feeling a lot more confident in my list now 
OP - I saw NYU on your list, which surprised me considering the emphasis on more rural campuses. If you are interested in an urban setting, Eugene Lang College at the New School would be a near-safety for you. It is located within a few blocks of NYU, but is a small, progressive liberal arts college. Would you be applying to Gallatin at NYU? I would add Goucher as another possible low-match/safety.
@woogzmama I agree, NYU is definitely the outlier. But I live 45 minutes away, and I have yet to tour. I have a bunch of friends who attend, and their programs at the Clive Davis Institute and Gallatin sound incredible. If I went to NYU I’d probably want to major in Music Business at Clive Davis because of the acclaim of the program and emphasis on popular music. I guess I still fear the size and lack of a campus at NYU, but I still want to tour. Thanks for your suggestions, I will look into them!
If you’re a legacy and can afford full pay, then I’m okay calling Lafayette a safety; for anybody else, however, I’d be very careful. My son got wait-listed there with stats above the 75th percentile, and he demonstrated plenty of interest.
If, for some reason, you’re denied or deferred at Hamilton, I’d apply ED2 to whichever school is your clear second choice --Tufts and Lafayette seem to really like that ED commitment. (Frankly, that’s the only demonstrated interest Lafayette seemed to care about, in retrospect.)
Be careful looking at Haverford’s average stats. At such a small school, a lot of athletes and students with other hooks will fill a lot of spaces, so other will needs stellar stats and a grand slam Honors essay to be competitive.
@LucieTheLakie Thanks for your insightful input! If you don’t mind me asking, where did your son end up?
Alabama.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy safety, I highly recommend it. They have a great liberal arts program called The Blount Undergraduate Initiative and a terrific student newspaper, The Crimson White, that’s broken some big stories in the past. (NPR’s Debbie Elliott is a Bama grad, BTW, and Bama has an NPR affiliate on campus too.)
Mind you, my son is studying engineering, so the needs were very different, but he was looking to do that in a LAC environment. It turned out Alabama had everything Lafayette was offering, but obviously on a MUCH larger scale. And he qualified for the Presidential Scholarship, so it’s costing us a fraction of what Lafayette would have. Fortunately, he was ready for a bigger university by the time he graduated. (He originally was looking for a SLAC, and turned down a few for the Bama package.)
Good luck to you! (The daughter of close friends of mine is a Hamilton grad. Her dream from the time she was a wee little one was to break into publishing, and she has. Took a while and a lot of hard work, but Hamilton was the perfect fit for her with their strong writing program.)
@LucieTheLakie Ah, University of Alabama sounds amazing! Sadly, it’s too far away for me. I have some anxiety issues, so staying closer to home is an essential for me and my family. Thanks again for your help!
St. Lawrence, Connecticut College, Trinity (CT) and Wheaton (MA) would give you a range of good options to consider.
I didn’t read every post here, so sorry if this is redundant or off-point.
But FWIW my son applied to Binghamton EA, and heard back from them very early on. This was some years back.
I don’t recollect now whether he heard from them before the application deadline for most other schools, but this may well have been the case. If it is the case, and you get in, then you may not need to find any other “safety”. And if you don’t get in you would still have time to apply elsewhere.
The challenge in targeting a private college as a safety is some of them “yield protect” to an extent, meaning they may well reject an over-qualified applicant who they don’t believe is really interested in attending. In which case, your supposed safety isn’t a safety.