<p>Gotta agree with Jamimom. Other considerations might include Georgia Tech, Illinois, Lehigh, Rochester, Texas, UCSD and Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Matches could include (in addition to Jamimom's suggestions of Chicago, Harvey Mudd, Johns Hopkins): Tufts, Cal Berkeley, Harvey Mudd, CMU, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, Wesleyan, WUSTL and Rice</p>
<p>My recollection of our visit to Ann Arbor is that Michigan does not discriminate at all against out of staters because relatively few of them actually enroll. The ultimate balance between in-state and out of sate was ok with them. I was left with the firm impression is that the stats you see for admitted students are good for all.</p>
<p>In the materials, I believe Michigan was pretty straightforward on what GPA, SAT score one needs to get in. I can't remember exactly where -- please check on line.</p>
<p>carnegie mellon...great school!!!!</p>
<p>UC Santa Barbara for physics (world class department in a university that is otherwise good, but not in the top 25). Reed. Brandeis?</p>
<p>Actually, the posters have been right on target with their suggestions. My question was what would be a safety school for a very strong candidate who is advanced in math. Use of the word "safety" is relative. No student can be guaranteed admission to some of the top schools, but they should be able to find other choices that meet their academic needs. I asked the question here because our state school would not meet Ss needs. I do agree, however, that it makes sense to reconsider choices if a student shows signs of senior slide.</p>
<p>My S liked Marties suggestion of looking at past Putnam participants. This has been one of his major questions at schools weve visited.</p>
<p>My son, a freshman at Rice (he just fell in love with it and applied ED) plans to be an applied physics major. He looked at most of the schools mentioned at the outset, as well as Cal Tech, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and Amherst. He used Ga Tech as a safety (and you hear back from them quite early, even though it isnt an early decision application). He also considered Worcester Polytech (for its computer and entrepreneur programs- the segway was developed there) and Bucknell as safetys. He did decide that as a physics major it was best to select a school with an engineering program as well, so, as much as he loved them, out went Williams and Amherst as schools to apply to. Hope this helps-- and he LOVES Rice.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>My S liked Marties suggestion of looking at past Putnam participants<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Which is one reason I suggested Harvey Mudd. As I recall they've done well in Putnam in recent years.</p>
<p>Daughter is loving Rice, too, though it is not a safety school for many! It is NOT a conservative place - as one of the college guides seems to suggest - and the kids have some wild and crazy parties and fun.</p>
<p>as far as Putnam competition goes:
here's harvard's site about the putnam and it shows the past results:
<a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/putnam/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.harvard.edu/putnam/index.html</a>
You will notice that in the 4 competitions since 2000, the schools in the top 5 are:
Duke/Harvard: 4 times
MIT: 3
Caltech/UC Berkeley/Stanford: 2
Harvey Mudd/Princeton/U Toronto: 1</p>
<p>So Harvey Mudd is pretty good in that respect, being in quite elite company really.</p>
<p>(actual Putnam homepage:<a href="http://math.scu.edu/putnam%5B/url%5D">http://math.scu.edu/putnam</a>)</p>