<p>Hello! I'm a senior prepping for where I will apply and I'm trying to add some solid safety schools to my list. The more selective colleges I'm going for are UChicago, Northwestern, Rice, Reed, and Amherst. My safeties so far are McGill (but I'm worried about financial aid in Canada) and University of Washington Seattle. I visited Loyola Chicago and didn't like the feel of the campus. (I've loved Rice, UChicago, and Northwestern's campuses). I'm trying to avoid staying close to home, so Indiana is out of the picture (I liked Butler but it's in my zip code).</p>
<p>I definitely want to be in a city environment but still with the college campus feel (I'd settle for a suburb). I'd prefer a mid-size school (5,000-15,000) but I'm willing to go bigger, and I'm looking for schools with strong foreign language / linguistics programs if possible (definitely solid humanities programs). My GPA is 3.9 and my SAT is 1910 (the first time I took it; I took it again and studied, my practice test was 2100 and my official results come back tomorrow).</p>
<p>If you like Amherst, Hampshire would be an excellent safety since you would still be able to take courses at Amherst.</p>
<p>UTexas Austin is decidedly larger than mid-size, but is in one of the greatest college cities of the entire nation. One of the top public linguistics programs.</p>
<p>UWisconsin Madison is excellent for linguistics and the city is often referred to as a colder version of Austin.</p>
<p>Overall, make sure your safeties satisfy two requirements: you are extremely likely to get in AND you will be genuinely happy if you end up there. Many students make the mistake of not paying enough attention to the second requirement.</p>
<p>^ If the OP is worried about FA at McGill then being an OOS student at UT is a terrible idea. The cost would be ~$52K/year. You forgot the other part of being a safety - the school being affordable.</p>
<p>OP, what is your family willing to pay? Going OOS is expensive. Heck, today staying in-state is expensive - just not as much.</p>
<p>But you are correct, OP needs to have at least one (ideally two) in-state options to fall back on. </p>
<p>@pcarbide If you’re in Indiana, UChicago can’t be all that far from Mom & Dad, really. If you’re willing to go there, then surely there is somewhere in Indiana you could consider as a last-resort safety net. I spent 2 of my college years only 3 hours from home, and that was far enough for me to feel like I had my independence.</p>
<p>Cost will be an issue. A safety has to be affordable and right now, those OOS publics would be expensive. The concern isn’t just about Canada’s McGill…the concern is many/most/all OOS publics. </p>
<p>A 2100 will not likely get merit/instate rates at UTexas. </p>
<p>Safety schools are really the schools that will not only take you, but that you know you can afford. You don’t want a lot of “ifs” in the picture in terms of whether you get the money or not. It’s often harder to get a free ride than to get into selective schools, bar in mind. So you need to find out what your parents are wilin got pay and waht your NPCs are at each school, and make sure that you have some options that don’t have any qualifiers. YOu just don’t know what you will get when a school does not guarantee to meet need.</p>
<p>DePaul, University of San Francisco, University of San Diego, University of Puget Sound, University of St Thomas (MN), Pitt (in Pittsburgh) would likely be urban safeties for you.</p>
<p>My parents are separated, never married, and I live with my dad who makes somewhere between 15-30k a year (I’m not sure how much). I applied for an academic summer program last year and with my dad’s FAFSA information they gave us $1000 out of a potential $1200 available in scholarship. My mom is not willing to help pay.</p>
<p>Thanks for the school suggestions! Looking through them all now.</p>
That’s a terrible idea. The two schools are very, very different, and being able to take an occasional course at Amherst (assuming you could even get into the ones you wanted–it’s not a free for all) is in no way the same as attending the college.</p>
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The town of Amherst (have you visited?) is neither a city nor a suburb–so maybe you need to re-think that choice.</p>
<p>I live with my dad who makes somewhere between 15-30k a year (I’m not sure how much).</p>
<p>You have to be careful with your apps and use a thoughtful strategy. Much will depend on your new SAT scores. If you do get a 2100+, you probably will have more options. </p>
<p>However, keep in mind that the schools that give the BEST aid will want to see your MOM’s financial info…and they won’t give you any aid if she refuses. So, will that be a problem??</p>
<p>You can’t just blow off your instate schools. Those may end being your only affordable choices. it sounds like your dad can’t contribute much towards college. What has he said?</p>
<p>Have your dad fill out the net price calculators at the schools that interest you. Note which ones will also demand your mom’s info.</p>
<p>You can’t call UWash a safety. It will not be affordable. Most (nearly all) OOS publics won’t be affordable.</p>
<p>You’ll likely get close to maximum financial aid at schools that use FAFSA only (based on your father’s finances), but many of those schools don’t give much (or any) aid (just using it to handle Pell grants and direct loans). This appears to include the Indiana publics, even for in-state students (and most publics are worse for out-of-state students).</p>
<p>But a lot of the schools with better financial aid require additional forms from the other parent; if your mother refuses to give the information, or has a non-trivial income but refuses to contribute, you won’t get enough financial aid at those schools.</p>
<p>If you apply to a school a safety school an money is an issue but you feel like you are in the top 10 or even 5 percent of there applicants you will get lots of scholarship money</p>