<p>Hi. I need to narrow my list of safety schools to 2 or 3 schools. Currently my list includes Babson, Bates, Bennington, Bowdoin, Bucknell, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, Swarthmore, and Vassar.
I have a 33 on the ACT, 3.6 unweighted GPA, I take lots of APs and have good extracurriculars. </p>
<p>I would not consider Carleton or Swarthmore a safety school by any means. </p>
<p>Nearly all of the schools mentioned are high match/reach</p>
<p>Currently Bennington is your only safety</p>
<p>What safeties do you recommend? </p>
<p>You have one. If you would be happy going there then you dont need more</p>
<p>Several of the schools on your “safety” list are high reaches. I think you need to start from square one.</p>
<p>If those schools are your safeties, what are your match and reach schools? </p>
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“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means” Inigo Montoya</p>
<p>Maybe your local state school? I think any school which admits fewer than 35% of applicants cannot be a safety, even with great stats</p>
<p>My reach schools are ivy leagues. My targets are University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis.
I would like my safety schools to be good schools with some level of prestige. </p>
<p>@StressedSuzie A safety school is one that’s appealing to you, affordable, and practically guarantees admission with your stats. None of your schools besides Bennington meet the safety criteria.</p>
<p>I would also add that I would not consider Chicago or WUSTL as targets/matches, even if your ACT is within their 50%. These are very selective schools who accept fewer than 20% of applicants. They are low reaches at the best.</p>
<p>Bennington is a safety, IF you can afford it.</p>
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<p>Well yes, wouldn’t we all. The truth is that although your stats are competitive, you are not at the very top of the stat heap, so unless your non-academic accomplishments are really pretty extraordinary, you’re not a stand-out candidate for these really prestigious schools.</p>
<p>You certainly have a good shot at all of these schools, but a “good shot” at an Ivy school, or U of Chicago, or Swarthmore, still means you are competing with thousands of other students whose stats are just as good as yours, or better – and every one of these schools receives many more qualified applications than they can make room for. You may be qualified on paper, but that doesn’t mean there’s a spot for you in their freshman class.</p>
<p>If some of the replies on this thread sound a little brusque, it’s because this conversation happens many times every year with students like you who have been told that they can get into all these competitive schools. If you think the people here are exaggerating, go to the school-specific forums on this site and read the threads where students post their stats along with whether they’ve been admitted, waitlisted or rejected. You will soon see that there seems to be no real rhyme or reason for many schools as to who they admit and who they reject. Nobody can assume that if they apply to every Ivy, they’re bound to admitted to at least one.</p>
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<p>I’m going to assume your GPA is on a 4.0 scale? Bowdoin, Carleton, Swarthmore are reaches. I’d say Vassar is a high match. Colby, Colgate, Bates, and Bucknell are mid-low matches. Babson and Bennington are safeties.</p>
<p>If safeties were prestigious then they would quickly become non-safeties because they would soon get lots of apps.</p>
<p>How much will your family pay each year? Safeties often do NOT give much need-based aid. Some give good merit scholarships.</p>
<p>What is your major and career goal? What is your home state?</p>
<p>For a school to be a safety, you have to know FOR SURE that you have all costs covered.</p>
<p>In addition to the financial aid component mentioned above, I would urge you to consider fit. It is surprising to me that both Babson (a strictly business school) and Swarthmore (which does not offer business at all) are on your list. What is your prospective major? I would give the schools on your list the following designations:
Swarthmore - Reach
Bowdoin - Reach
Carleton - Reach
Vassar - High match
Bucknell - Match
Bates - Match
Colby - Match
Colgate - Low Match
Babson - Safety
Bennington - Safety</p>
<p>If you are happy with both Babson and Bennington (which would definitely be unique!) as your safeties, and they are affordable, then you should be set with safeties. </p>
<p>I agree with the above posters that neither UChicago nor WashU are matches for you, especially with a 3.6 GPA, unless you have a major hook. They are both reaches. </p>
<p>If you think that Colgate does not belong in the top half of this list, you may be in for a surprise.</p>
<p>But I would hope that the well advised college applicant takes in hard data from colleges’ websites, first hand
knowledge from currently enrolled students and guidance counselors, and visits to these schools’ admissions offices to frame up what is a “reach”, what is a safety, and everything in between, in terms of what your complete application delivers up for consideration. </p>
<p>Good luck with your college search!</p>