<p>My dd is applying this year, and I'm starting to get anxiety. (Let's be honest - Ice had anxiety for a long time, but it's peaking now. This is d number 2, and d1 was a mess during admissions season.)</p>
<p>D2 is applying ED to Dartmouth. Hope she gets in, but who knows?</p>
<p>Stats are: SAT 2210, ACT 33, SAT2 770, 780, 760. Gpa UW 4.0, W 4.8, 14 APs (scores of 4 or 5 on all prior to this year, AP Scholar with Distinction), top 1% small public school.</p>
<p>Recs are stellar; ECs are very good (heavy on school and local leadership and community service, has athletics but varsity only, not college competitive, some unique ECs)</p>
<p>The problem is the list. It has no real safeties. Money is an issue - at meet fill need schools we are fine. Otherwise, there is a gap.</p>
<p>Current list:
Dartmouth ED
Boston College
Northwestern
UVA (out of state)
Duke
Rice
Georgetown
Tulane (safety-ish)
State schools are huge and not really appealing, but will apply</p>
<p>Majors: undecided, leaning towards med school or non-profit work in education or IR. Looking for a medium-size school. Any party of the US is okay, but shed prefer the NE, as she's never had seasons. :) Any suggestions would be welcome! Thanks!</p>
<p>How much can you afford? What is your Home state? A safety must be affordable. Have you run the Tulane net price calculator? I understand they give good merit aid which may work for your D.</p>
<p>Tulane can’t be a safety unless you convince them that you want to go there. They’ll wait list you if they think you’re using them as a safety. They have excellent merit aid, however, and your child could be a candidate for significant aid. You’ll want to apply very early to Tulane and complete the Why Tulane? essay and reach out to them. If you can convince them to admit you, they will send the admittance letter with a merit award and then tell you you’re a candidate for their tuition/ride awards. So if the initial award makes Tulane affordable to you, and your D would go there, and they have her major, Tulane could be a safety. Great city. Happy student body.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of schools that are full tuition/full ride, some of them automatic. These too might qualify as safeties:</p>
<p>Home state is AZ - guaranteed admission and decent aid.</p>
<p>We can pay about 20k a year, but that would be a bit of a stretch.</p>
<p>I agree on the above about Tulane - older d had some surprise waitlist results at " safety" schools. She’s shown interest, but it doesn’t rank at the top of her list, so In not positive it will come across as genuine.</p>
<p>Relax! (Don’t have a child go thru the med school app process…that will turn any remaining natural-color hair gray.)</p>
<p>If your D is serious about med school, then she should be serious about choosing a school that won’t jeopardize her GPA. </p>
<p>Her stats are very good, but they are average for school like Dartmouth, Duke or Rice. Most schools weed the premed prereq classes. Is your D aware of that? </p>
<p>Is your D a NMSF? </p>
<p>Rhodes College isn’t a safety, but it could mean enough merit to end up with a remaining cost of about $20k. I know that Curmudgeon’s D got great merit there, but she has an ACT 35.</p>
<p>I would steer all OOS premeds away from any Calif schools, so although a few would give your D some merit, the award probably wouldn’t be enough…and Calif doesnt’ need any more premeds!! </p>
<p>If $20k is a stretch, then if that were reduced to $15k, then your D would need a full tuition award. There are some OOS publics that would provide, and some have very good honors colleges…would she consider them?</p>
<p>First, your daughter’s high school accomplishments are excellent. She is to be congratulated and (IMHO) she is quite competitive for every university you’ve listed. Unfortunately, it seems to me that you/she have two significant problems:
With the possible exceptions of Tulane (and, as others have suggested, it is uncertain), EVERY university you’ve delineated is HIGHLY competitive. Literally tens-of-tousands of truly outstanding and entirely deserving applicants will be denied in this year’s admissions cycle by Dartmouth, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, etc.
Clearly, that means a highly reputed and AFFORDABLE safety school (or, perhaps two) is REQUIRED, which obviously is this thread’s purpose. However, an institution that cannot be funded at $20K annually simply is not a viable “safety school,” notwithstanding near-assured acceptance.</p>
<p>Therefore, I offer two suggestions:
In-state universities – I understand they are not preferred – may be your financially optimal safety alternative.
The Northeast abounds with fine, long-respected LACs; many essentially ensure need-based assistance to the level determined by a fully accurate and comprehensive NPC submission. I’ll wager that in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio there are 25+ outstanding LACs that may meet your qualifications AND may – no guarantee – be affordable with your $20K annual contribution. I’d focus on this group; examples include, Trinity, Wesleyan, Bates, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Colgate, Bucknell, Allegheny, Kenyon, Dennison, Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster, Bennington, Union, Skidmore, Sarah Lawrence, and several others. </p>
<p>I agree with all of the above. If I really thought pre-med was a strong possibility, I think I would advise her differently, as suggested above. She is a person who likes to help people, and she likes science and the idea of a helping profession, but I think that her talents will likely lead her elsewhere.</p>
<p>LACe are probably the best option for more “prestigious” choices that would ultimately serve her well, but she wasn’t attracted to the concept. (Sister goes to one, and it’s a great fit, and we toured many LACs in that process.) Most of the ones shed pick are not safeties, either, unfortunately, although the money would probably be better.</p>
<p>Hi Sakacar3, my son’s stats are similar and we are in a similar position financially (I can possibly do 20K, but 15K would be a lot more comfortable!), and we are in Arizona too! </p>
<p>We are using ASU as our primary safety school because they will likely give a pretty decent financial package to high-scoring kids like these. And the Barrett Honors College is really very good from what I understand. I believe they even have a separate dorm for the honors kids. So even though it’s a gigantic school, our kids would at least be in a smaller program with other smart kids. It’s not the top school on my son’s list (he wants Stanford!), but he is “willing” to go to ASU if need be. <em>Keep in mind you have to apply by November 1 to get the maximum benefits at ASU.</em> I’m actually going to call them tomorrow to make sure we are on track.</p>
<p>Tulane is another potential safety, but we are shying away from them because my son is really not in love with idea so I don’t feel like we can sincerely give them the hard sell they are wanting from their top scholarship award recipients.</p>
<p>All the LACs that people are mentioning sound good…I’ve also been told that Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Pitzer might give good financial packages, but they are in LA, for better or worse. We are also looking at the University of Denver and Colorado College, both of which seem really neat, and I love the CO locations.</p>
<p>You might consider Pittsburgh if it’s not too big for your “medium sized” definition. Your D could get decent merit aid, esp coming from AZ, and it’s well known for being good in the sciences and pre-med. They ended up being my middle son’s 2nd choice even though they started as his safety. He’s at U Rochester (another you can consider - definitely medium sized), but I wouldn’t consider them a safety due to financial issues. They are a meets need school though, so it might work out. Run their NPC. I just wouldn’t count on it as much as Pitt.</p>
<p>Chris 17 mom - If your son is seriously considering Barrett, make sure he applies for the Flinn (by Oct 17). The application is kind of a nightmare, but you really can’t beat the scholarship. (Barrett is a great program, but you have to make sure that your major is on the Tempe campus, or you end up with a problem.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the suggestions - I will definitely research them.</p>
<p>Hi Sakacar3, thanks for the advice. We are definitely applying for the Flinn Scholarship! Actually we are in the middle of that process right now and you are right, it is a huge pain. But the scholarship is amazing, so it’s certainly worth the effort to try. We are also applying for Barrett of course, and we are trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. The Barrett people told me that being on the west campus was an option, is that wrong? Chris’ major is going to be Political Science, and there are 3 choices for that at ASU. One is a BA in polysci, and then there are two BS options for polysci majors. The one listed for the west campus looked a lot more interesting so I put him down for that, and the Barrett people said it was fine…is that wrong? I wish they would not make it so complicated; Chris doesn’t care about which campus he’s at; he would just need to be in the Barrett program and major in polysci. Gosh!</p>
<p>South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Small school. Lots of faculty/student personal interaction. Excellent reputation. Fun location for adventurous outdoorsy types of people but also small city amenities in Rapid City. An excellent bargain, tuition-wise.</p>