Safety School Suggestions? Desperate for Help!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Lately I've been searching for safety colleges whose programs, student life, etc. match my interests, but the typical college search websites haven't been of much assistance. I just want to find at least three decent safety colleges where I would be happy to attend, so I could desperately use some help! </p>

<p>Here are some facts that might be of some use:
1. I aspire to become a lawyer down the road, but I'm not 100% sure on what major I want to study. To give you an idea, I'm interested in Economics, Philosophy, English, and/or History, so I would prefer to attend a university with a strong undergraduate emphasis and humanities program. Internship connections are very important!</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I prefer a mid-sized to large 4-year university near either a very urban area or a very rural one (if I can't have the best of both worlds, I might as well have the best of one, right? haha). Note: Weather typically doesn't concern me, but I would rather live in a cold area than a hot one.</p></li>
<li><p>I have little to no interest in Greek life or sports, but I do want to attend a college with a sense of unity and school spirit so I suppose a football team would be necessary. </p></li>
<li><p>I prefer a college that is more liberal than conservative. </p></li>
<li><p>Some stats:
2120 SAT score (730 R + 670 M + 720 W)
SAT II Bio: 730
US History: 700
Math 1: 690 ughhh curse the arithmetic gods!
9 total AP classes
~4.6 weighted GPA
rank 2/160</p></li>
<li><p>Leadership/Extracurriculars (to keep it short, I will refrain from adding details)
Mock Trial, some awards
Founder/President Philosophy Club
ASB/Student Govt- Class President, other positions
Founder/President of 2 different clubs based on art (painted classrooms, designed t-shirts for organizations, gave art lessons to elementary students, etc etc)
Art Museum Volunteer
Volunteer Illustrator for a Magazine </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sooo...obviously I'm quite the art enthusiast, but I'm not interested in becoming a professional artist myself. However, I really do want my future college to be involved in the arts, where a student such as myself can take art classes, visit art museums nearby, join art clubs, OR JUST BE AROUND PEOPLE WHO APPRECIATE ART. (Oh! I really enjoy filmmaking as well!)</p>

<p>Please, I know you may have better things to do, but if you could take the time to help a stressed senior out and list a few safeties and some matches, I would be eternally grateful! Thanks so much in advance!</p>

2

<p>What is your home state and how much can your family afford? Go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the pinned threads for some merit aid options. You’d get at least some money at U of Alabama.</p>

3

<p>Temple and Pitt would probably be good fits for you. Both are in cities with great museums and cultural scenes, have broad liberal arts curricula, are relatively affordable, and have D-1 football and basketball teams. </p>

4

<p>I agree with u of pittsburgh
I would also look at muhlenberg college (not exactly following your guidelines) </p>

5

<p>Here are some you may want to look into: Villanova, American University, College of William and Mary, Fordham, Hofstra</p>

6

<p>run the net price calculators for the schools that are named. figure out if your parents can afford the Expected Family Contribution at any of them. A safety must be absolutely affordable AND a place you would be happy at and glad to go to.</p>

<p>Economics is a social science, not a humanities. Your scores are high enough to suggest that you would be safe in economics or humanities at a school where you’re a match. </p>

<p>Safeties often take the most work to figure out, OP, so you’re doing the work expected if you want a good safety. I wish I could convince more students to take safeties seriously.</p>

7

<p>A safety MUST be affordable…so how much will your family pay? You have to know that all costs are covered.</p>

8

<p>It’s not a safety but you should look at Wesleyan. </p>

9

<p>This is not an answer to your question, but I just wanted to point out that you don’t need a football team to have a great sense of “unity and school spirit”. My D attends Mount Holyoke, a women’s liberal arts college with no Greek life or football team, and they have an incredibly strong community, with TONS of school spirit and traditions. So, I’d say keep an open mind on that one :)</p>

10

<p>Ursinus, Villanova and St. Joe’s come to mind in the Philly area. Best of luck to you! </p>

11

<p>Your post SCREAMS UPitt. </p>

<p>The have the number 2 philosophy department in the whole country. Philosophy is great pre-law training because about arguments and logic. The honors college is very nice and you might get a nice scholarship to boot.
Furthermore, it’s rolling admissions, so if you apply now, you’ll be admitted in October and can stop worrying. </p>

<p>Wisconsin-Madison is another great option. </p>

12

<p>You might want to look at the DC area schools - American should definitely be a safety, Maryland as well and while not in DC it is easily accessible via Metro. GWU perhaps - harder to get into than American so you might need to take a look Naviance if you have access. </p>

13

<p>Thanks so much, guys! I will definitely look into all those schools. :)</p>

14

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<p>American is big on “level of applicant’s interest” (“very important” according to <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=475”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=475&lt;/a&gt; ) – they probably don’t want to be a “safety” behind GT and GWU. So if you apply there, be sure to show enough of whatever interest it is looking for so that it does not look like you are applying there as a last-choice safety.</p>