<p>I've been talking to a friend's D, a junior, who has started to look at colleges. Her dream school at this point is Rice U. She also likes Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. Her GPA is 4.2 and I assume her test scores are high. The whole family is really brainy. </p>
<p>I think she would be a reasonable candidate for these schools, but...we all know she needs safer schools on her list, but she doesn't know where to start. She wants students who are serious but outdoorsy and not necessarily studying all weekend. Would like a greek presence on campus, though she's not sure if she'd participate. Would like a place offering lots of club and intramural sports. Right now she in interested in Hispanic studies.</p>
<p>I will be doing my own research to help her out, but wanted to tap into the expertise here too. Thanks in advance. Oh, I think this family would not need to apply for FA. I can think of tons of great "safe" small LACs but not so many mid-sized. Geography is not an issue.</p>
<p>These are all good suggestions. I’ve been wondering about honors college at ASU, for example (probably better on Hispanic studies than some) and I’d love to find out which CA schools might be appropriate.</p>
<p>University of Miami and Tulane offer a Hispanic Studies major, and both schools have a Greek scene as well. They’d be strong matches/possible safety-ish schools for students who would qualify at Rice, Cornell, or CMU. What’s her state school - is she interested in that as a safety?</p>
<p>I think her parents can pay all expenses. Our state school is UVM–Univ of VT, a good school, but if she wanted that, she’d probably not be asking me for safeties. I’ll ask her though. The Hispanic major is just a thought of a hs junior. She wants a good school with good options.</p>
<p>I would find a diplomatic way to ask the parents if they can afford the $55k per year that many privates are costing these days. (They may not even know that privates are costing that much! My neighbor (who has a HS senior) about had a stroke when I told him a short time ago.)</p>
<p>It’s hard to sometimes know about another family’s financial intentions - even if you’re a close friend unless the person has directly told you. </p>
<p>If the family tells you that they can pay XX (which is less than $55k), then the student needs to target either some cheaper schools or some big merit schools.</p>
<p>The UCs in California are taking more high stats out- of- staters now to help with costs. They’re still good places to be- she might want to check out Berkeley, Santa Barbara or
San Diego. Any of the UCs would provide a better education and more academic student body than ASU, imo.</p>
<p>moonchild, I have heard good things about the ASU’s Honors. It is like a separate college within a larger school.</p>
<p>Your friend’s D has a good, solid in-state safety option with plenty of different majors to choose from. While OOS public school like a UC or UW (plenty of outdoorsy, non-pretentious nice kids here at U-Dub) may look interesting to her, please warn her that the budget cuts severely affected these schools in many ways. Before she even considers these options, she needs to take a look at this: [Local</a> News | Budget cuts swell class sizes at UW | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010898857_bigclasses27m.html]Local”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010898857_bigclasses27m.html) Will she be happy about sitting in a room with 699 other freshmen and using a clicker? I’m not saying that these schools are not worth her parents’ money, but she has a much lower-priced equivalent in her home state.</p>
<p>Will she consider a LAC or does she want a slightly larger student body?</p>
<p>Thanks, moonchild, I was wondering what UCs to look into. ASU undergrad tends to be a party school, but the honors college must not be, I think.</p>
<p>Tulane has one of the leading Latin American Studies programs in the country (some say ranked #2, although I think that is meaningless. But it is very good). At Tulane she would likely get a very nice merit offer of about half total costs, given those stats if you are correct about her test scores. So for example this year those stats would have gotten her between $20-25K and total COA is about $52K. Even if they can afford the $52K, nothing wrong with saving the money at a very good school. As was mentioned, Tulane is about 30% Greek, nice weather, good club sports, and as far as weekends go, well it is New Orleans.</p>
<p>The Honors College at ASU is called Barrett, and my D seriously considered it. They have put a lot into it and the just this year opened a separate section of the campus that is devoted to Barrett. So now the Barrett kids have their own brand new dorms, cafeteria, gym, I think maybe even a small theater or something like that, and other facilities. It was quite the investment. The flip side is that with the budget crisis (almost as bad as California) they have cut back on a lot of things, and the NMF scholarships have been severely trimmed.</p>
<p>StitchInTime - I have to disagree with your characterization of a Safety School. The latter part of your quote is referring to the schools that are top 15 to 20 as ranked by USNWR. The Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, etc. are crapshoots for virtually all students. As Harvard has said numerous times, they could wipe out every accepted student for an incoming class, take the next 2,000, and not see a decline in quality.</p>
<p>Below that level, safety school is true or not true relative to the applicants stats and the schools standards. For schools like Bucknell, American, and the others mentioned there, if the student has stats at or above the top 10-20% of students that have been admitted in the past, the odds of the applicant getting admitted are extremely high and therefore it is a safety. Because life has weird little surprises, an applicant would apply to 3-5 of these safeties just to be sure, and also to see who gives them the best offer regarding merit scholarships.</p>
<p>But you cannot take overall admit rates out of the context of the particular applicant that way. It just makes no sense. Your own quote says that. Also, if you are going to quote like that, you should say where you are quoting from.</p>
<p>American U has taken 98% of applicants from one of my kids’ high schools in the past five years, and 100% of those with a 2000+. Ditto Boston U and Northeastern. </p>
<p>It’s context, folks. Our flagship takes under 40% – but it is a highly likely admit for kids coming from the programs my kids were in.</p>
<p>I think it’s safe to say that the OP has reason to believe this particular student will be very competitive at some excellent schools, which means she will be high in the applicant pool at some that are less selective. A student with an excellent GPA, good course rigor, good ECs and SATs that are at/above 75th %tile for a college that has an acceptance rate in the mid 30s should have an excellent shot at acceptance, esp. if the student identifies specific programs or characteristics that will make her an appealing admit to that school.</p>
<p>If she’s not looking for merit or FA, as OP stated, and has the SAT/ACT to match that GPA, I’d go with one or two likelies and focus heavily on target/low reach/reach schools.</p>