<p>Hey, I'm looking for a safety school with a good History department.</p>
<p>Stats:
White male, rural public highschool (>30% go onto non-community college education, Avg SAT~<1000)</p>
<p>Rank 2/240 , 4.08 Weighted GPA (~99%)</p>
<p>SAT I: 2240 (800 CR, 700 M, 740 WR) - Retaking November, hoping for 2300+ (fluked Math section on Oct. test)</p>
<p>Subject Tests: 800 US History, 720 Lit. (Hard as balls), 690 IIC (Retake Dec., 750+)</p>
<p>Activities...
Key Club (10-12)
Math League (9-12)
Newspaper Staff (10, Editor 11, Editor-in-Chief 12)
Skateboarding Club (Founder/President 11-12)
Comcast Academic Challenge Quiz Bowl (10, Captain 11-12) Debate Club (Vice President 11-12) Foreign Culture Club (10-12)
Science Olympiad (11-12)
Student Film Society (10-12)
Teens Against Tobacco Use (11-12)
RCIA (9-10)
Science Fair (9-11)
Honor Society (11-12)
Music...
Piano Student at Blainer's Studio of Music (9-12)</p>
<p>Awards</p>
<p>Academic...
Michael C. Ferguson Scholar (11)
Most Outstanding Performance in Computer Science (10)
Most Outstanding Performance in Honors Civics (10)
Most Outstanding Performance in Honors English (11) Most Outstanding Performance in AP History (11) Superintendent's Commendation for Advanced Geometry (9)
Superintendent's Commendation for Advanced Trigonometry (9)
Superintendent's Commendation for Advanced Statistics (10)
Superintendent's Commendation for Advanced Precalculus (10) Superintendent's Commendation for Analytical Geometry/Calculus A (11) Superintendent's Commendation for Analytical Geometry/Calculus B (11)
Math League Conference High Scorer (9, 11)</p>
<p>Community Service</p>
<p>Community Library Volunteer (9-12)
Polar Bear Plunge for Special Olympics (10)
Peer Mentor for Autistic Students (11-12) Habitat for Humanity (11-12)</p>
<p>Essays+Recs Solid, English teacher called essay "great piece of work". Stresses how skateboarding taught me to deal with failure+set goals (skateboarding club is only really "quirky" activity)</p>
<p>You have a very good record. Pick a safety that you can really love and that you can visit. I would say going to the US NEWS list at or around #20-#50 ranking (either LAC or Univ) will yield lots of safer bets. Look for schools that have formulaic (score based) admissions or those that accept over 50% of applicants & where your SATs put you up above the 75% of that school.</p>
<p>If you tell which match or reach schools interest you & why, what region you like, financial concerns, etc people can suggest more specific safeties. </p>
<p>By applying to EA or Rolling safeties you can have admission in hand relatively soon, but hurry to make deadlines.</p>
<p>I would say the top state schools (which are stats oriented) are safeties for you, for example UMichigan or UCLA. Schools like Emory and Wake Forest are safe matches.</p>
<p>Your post is all about your qualifications, in other words what an adcom would look at. And BTW half of what you've listed is just fluff that you should leave off of any college app; putting them down isn't going to impress an adcom, its just stuff to inflate a list. Science Fair. Honor Society. Superintendent's Commendation ... All this stuff carries no weight. Any kid can enter the Science Fair, for example, and nobody knows how much effort the put into the entry if all they know is you entered. What matters is winning it. And what hat adcoms applaud is winning the regional competition, and they really sit up and notice if you win nationally.</p>
<p>But you've asked about safeties, and all you've said is a school on the east coast. That narrows it down to about 2,000 or so :) Giving a few hints about your competitiveness is important in judging what's a safety for you. But thats ALL you gave. More important in picking a college, I'd argue, is what YOU want in a college. Until you have a very detailed description of what you want such as number of students, urban/rural location, whether students live on-campus or in the community or are commuters, student-professor interaction, presence/absence of greek life, access to alumni, and the dozens of other factors that go into finding a college that is a good FIT for you than you're just throwing darts in the dark and are unlikely to recognize the right school when you see it.</p>
<p>And picking the safety is perhaps the most important choice you make. No exaggeration. Maybe your essays don't hit the right chord with the adcoms, or the recs aren't well written, or the dice just don't go your way. Whatever. The safety is the one school you're sure is going to take you, and it better be one you'd be willing to attend in case none of the others come thru. Every spring there are anguished posts from students who didn't get in anywhere except the safety, and they write to say "I don't even want to go there. What do I do now?"</p>
<p>mikemac thanks for your advice. To be honest, I really don't care about location (ie urban, etc) or size. I know my ECs are extremely weak; that's why I want a good safety that I'm happy at, because I figure I have a small chance at being admitted to any of my other schools (Swarthmore ED, Penn, UVA, William and Mary). I really just want a school with a good History/English department that I can get into no problem. Right now I'm just testing the waters to see what my options are.</p>
<p>I think you underestimate yourself, you are getting into UVA and William and Mary at worst. You should actually add some more reaches also, to hedge your bets. I think Vassar of UNC-CH would be a great safety for you (UNC loves stats).</p>