Safety School Suggestions?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m an incoming high school senior and am having trouble finding safety schools to apply to.

Just some general info:

Weighted GPA: 4.19
Unweighted GPA: 3.92

SAT: 1370
ACT: 30

Note: I have only taken the SAT and ACT once and am going to retake them in a few weeks. I’m confident I can raise my score a fair amount.

AP Classes:
World History - 5
APUSH - 5
Environmental Science - 5
English Language - 5

Note: Next year, I also plan to take AP French, Art History, Gov, Econ, Lit, and either Euro or Stats.

Activities/Awards:
Editor in Chief of newspaper for 3 yrs
French Club President for 2 yrs
Co-lead critic of theater critic team for 2 yrs
Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Ambassador
Girls State Delegate
Write for two local publications

I plan on studying journalism (possibly double majoring in journalism and political science).

My dream schools are Northwestern, USC, UCLA, University of Chicago, and Columbia. I would really like to go to a school either in or close to a big city (the exact location or region doesn’t matter to me). I also would really like a school with a strong journalism or English program.

The main issue I’m concerned with is cost. Without a good amount of financial aid, I probably won’t be able to afford my dream schools, so I need to find some more affordable safety schools. If anybody has any suggestions of some safety schools that seem like a good fit for me, I would be extremely appreciative. Thank you!

2

What about your state schools? What can your family afford to spend?

3

There is no financial aid for OOS students at UCLA. If you are OOS, take UCLA off your list. The others you list are all reaches with your stats. You need safety AND match schools.

4

My recommendation is to not get too caught up in the numbers (such as average SAT) and go to a place that has a really strong program in what you are looking for. Northwestern has the best (in my opinion) J-school in the nation, but you will need to get your SAT’s up for that school.

My safety suggestion is Syracuse University, because it has one of the highest ranked Journalism schools in the nation and you will easily be accepted. (AVG SAT is 1270 I believe, so you have got it.)

However, if you increase your scores just a little and are able to financially pay for it, I highly recommend NYU for your match. They have great journalism and english departments and I think everyone considering journalism should at least look at the school.

For your reach school, you should be locked in on Northwestern. Northwestern’s location to a large urban area, and its junior year internship programs, Medill seems to offer opportunities that other journalism programs cannot. It is one of the most respected schools in Journalism and job placement is something no student has to worry about there.

5

@descartsphilospher While the OP would likely be admitted to Syracuse the Newhouse school is highly selective and a reach. Internal transfers to Newhouse are not common either.

6

Take a look at Emerson.

7

NYU, Newhouse, Emerson etc. are likely not safety schools financially for the OP.

8

@nerfherder1 , in which state do you live? In-state publics are usually the first place to look for lower costs.

Firstly, you need to run NPCs on any schools that interest you–preferably with your parents, using real figures–in order to get an idea of how much they would cost. Speculation is fairly useless. At some schools a family with an income of, say, $100K per year would get nothing, and at others it could get a substantial award. At some schools that claim to meet need a large part of that is with loans, at other places they only expect kids to take out the federal loan amounts, or less. You need to be aware, if your aren’t already, that schools normally figure that the family EFC comes out of past (savings), present, and future (loans, home equity, etc) income.

Safeties need to be financial safeties as well as academic safeties. If you get into a nice school that costs around $60K per year, and they give you a big merit award of $30K per year, but your family can’t pay $30K per year, it doesn’t do you any good. It also doesn’t do you any good if the award comes with a very high GPA requirement and you can’t make it. Sometimes one bad semester is enough to lose it. Then what?

Here is one list of “top 10” undergraduate journalism programs:

http://college.usatoday.com/2016/09/30/best-journalism-schools/

Mizzou is probably your safety on that list. Note that Columbia, with its famous School of Journalism (of which my S the reporter is a grad :wink: ) isn’t on the list at all, because it is a graduate program. Of course, as I gather you know, one doesn’t have to major in journalism as an undergrad to be one, and at Columbia you can take courses in the graduate school.

Here is one list of “top 11” graduate programs:

http://journalismdegree.org/2015/top-11-graduate-journalism-programs/

If you loo at a lot of these lists you’ll see some other names, such as Ohio Unuversity, pop up frequently. I think that might be a good match/safety for you, at least academically.

BTW, NYU is notoriously expensive and has notoriously bad FA.

Lastly, beginning journalists have really low pay. Don’t take out a lot of debt! :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

Thank you all for replying! I think some of the schools mentioned (like NYU, Syracuse, and Emerson) may be too expensive, but I’ll still look into them. For those asking, I live in California. I’ll definitely look into some state schools as per the recommendations (if anyone knows of any California public schools with a good journalism program, please let me know!). Once again, thank you all so much for all the help!

10

Temple isn’t as expensive as some of the private universities mentioned here, and you might qualify for some merit aid. They have good Journalism, Media, and Communications programs. DePaul would be an academic safety for you, and they’re also strong in those areas. You might get some merit aid, and - although they’re private - they are not as expensive as NYU, BU, Emerson, et al. Chicago is a great city for Journalism; Philly is pretty good, also.