<p>I'm currently a junior and I'm compiling my list of schools to apply to for the upcoming fall. Some colleges on my list currently are Princeton, Yale, Amherst, and Swarthmore.
I have a list of twelve colleges so far, but they are all mostly reaches/matches and I'd like to narrow that list waay down as well as add a couple safety schools.
I live in Massachusetts, so one of my safeties will most likely be UMass Amherst, but I dislike the size of the school, among other things, so I'd like to find more safeties in case I don't get into any of my top schools.
Some of my stats:</p>
<p>4.4 weighted GPA
Rank 5/339
2260 SAT (690 CR, 770 Math, 800 Writing) --> Planning on retaking in October for an increase in CR
By the end of senior year I will have taken all honors courses except two (Health and Personal Finance) and hopefully seven AP courses (US History, English Lang, English Comp, Calculus AB, Biology, Music Theory, French)</p>
<p>Can anyone help me add some safety schools to my list? Some criteria I'm looking for, but won't necessarily make or break the deal:</p>
<p>-New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey
-1000-6000 undergrad students
-Good psychology program (counseling/clinical wise, not research based)
-rural or suburban would be best because I'm not sure how I feel about the city yet
-EDIT: financial aid situation is not the most important, but would still like to receive some aid for an 100K-150k income household. I would be the only child in college since my sister graduated.</p>
<p>I completely forgot to mention that, sorry! Financial aid will not necessarily make or break the deal, but my parents would still like to receive some aid for an 100K-150k income household. I would be the only child in college since my sister graduated recently.</p>
<p>You need to find out what they are willing to contribute, and run some net price calculators on the various schools to check whether the net price is realistic for you and your parents.</p>
<p>So, how much can your parents pay each year? some of these schools cost $60k per year. Unless your parents have a huge college savings acct for you, they won’t likely be able to pay $60k per year out of that income. </p>
<p>So, ask them how much they would like to pay each year. </p>
<p>For a school to be a safety, you have to know for sure that it’s affordable.</p>
Then it’s not a safety. A college must be affordable and the student must be willing to attend it for the school to be a safety. The college budget question is important.</p>
<p>The following list meets the size and geography requirements and shows the average net price for families with income over$110,000. Don’t know anything about the psychology program.</p>
<p>Name Avg Net Price Family Income over $110,000
SUNY College at Oneonta 18143
SUNY at Fredonia 18188
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry 19164
SUNY at Geneseo 19267
Lycoming College 20910
Niagara University 22458
Touro College 22727
Massachusetts Maritime Academy 22746
Canisius College 23113
Saint Vincent College 23164
Westminster College 23513
Le Moyne College 24224
Susquehanna University 24406
Ramapo College of New Jersey 24571
King’s College 24805
Mercyhurst College 25144
Saint John Fisher College 25199
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Erie-Behrend College 26600
Messiah College 26984
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Altoona 26993
Elmira College 27225
Juniata College 27370
Duquesne University 27696
Lebanon Valley College 28806
Assumption College 29072
Washington & Jefferson College 29336
Elizabethtown College 29515
University of Scranton 29798
Saint Michael’s College 30012
Siena College 30043
Moravian College and Moravian Theological Seminary 30190
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences 30278
Clark University 30516
Allegheny College 31345
St Lawrence University 32128
Endicott College 32450
Emerson College 32482
Saint Anselm College 32486
Gettysburg College 32962
Nazareth College 33250
Mount Holyoke College 33443
Muhlenberg College 33645
Hobart William Smith Colleges 33857
Dickinson College 34060
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 35633
Drew University 36141
Bentley University 36555
Saint Joseph’s University 36805
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 37241
Wheaton College 37393
Union College 37490
Quinnipiac University 37495
Stonehill College 37631
Bryn Mawr College 37909
Ursinus College 37949
Simmons College 38501
Fairfield University 38625
Sacred Heart University 39571
Brandeis University 39634
Lafayette College 39834
Smith College 39888
Sarah Lawrence College 40681
Skidmore College 41985
Franklin and Marshall College 42999</p>
<p>The following list meets the size and geography requirements and shows the average net price for families with income over$110,000. Don’t know anything about the psychology program.</p>
<p>Name Avg Net Price Family Income over $110,000
SUNY College at Oneonta 18143
SUNY at Fredonia 18188
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry 19164
SUNY at Geneseo 19267
Lycoming College 20910
Niagara University 22458
Touro College 22727
Massachusetts Maritime Academy 22746
Canisius College 23113
Saint Vincent College 23164
Westminster College 23513
Le Moyne College 24224
Susquehanna University 24406
Ramapo College of New Jersey 24571
King’s College 24805
Mercyhurst College 25144
Saint John Fisher College 25199
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Erie-Behrend College 26600
Messiah College 26984
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Altoona 26993
Elmira College 27225
Juniata College 27370
Duquesne University 27696
Lebanon Valley College 28806
Assumption College 29072
Washington & Jefferson College 29336
Elizabethtown College 29515
University of Scranton 29798
Saint Michael’s College 30012
Siena College 30043
Moravian College and Moravian Theological Seminary 30190
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences 30278
Clark University 30516
Allegheny College 31345
St Lawrence University 32128
Endicott College 32450
Emerson College 32482
Saint Anselm College 32486
Gettysburg College 32962
Nazareth College 33250
Mount Holyoke College 33443
Muhlenberg College 33645
Hobart William Smith Colleges 33857
Dickinson College 34060
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 35633
Drew University 36141
Bentley University 36555
Saint Joseph’s University 36805
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 37241
Wheaton College 37393
Union College 37490
Quinnipiac University 37495
Stonehill College 37631
Bryn Mawr College 37909
Ursinus College 37949
Simmons College 38501
Fairfield University 38625
Sacred Heart University 39571
Brandeis University 39634
Lafayette College 39834
Smith College 39888
Sarah Lawrence College 40681
Skidmore College 41985
Franklin and Marshall College 42999</p>
<p>Thank you for the quick responses!
Whenever I ask my parents about their ideal finances for college, they never give me a straight answer; they always say something along the lines of “don’t worry about the money”. I know that for my sister (who attended MIT), they paid around 20k-30k per year, however, if that helps!
Sorry I can’t give a more comprehensive answer, I can hardly get an answer out of my parents.</p>
<p>Put at least very one low cost safety on your list, in case your parents’ ability to contribute is much lower than they are leading you to believe.</p>
<p>If you do not mind going to the midwest, look at Truman State and University of Minnesota - Morris. Both start at low list prices, and Truman State has automatic-for-stats merit scholarships that you can look up on its net price calculator.</p>
<p>You don’t mention your PSAT score. Will you be NMF? If so, Northeastern would be an easy safety, though not a small town school. You would get automatic full tuition scholarship and honors program with all its perks. They use common app with no extra essay, so it’s just a matter of paying for the app fee and to send scores.</p>