<p>I'm an out of state applicant extremely sick of living in Florida, especially Miami. I want to gain a fresh perspective on life, live around a more diverse group of people, and live near the greatest city on this earth! I am applying to Columbia, NYU, UMDNJ, and so on. Please inform me of some decent safety schools near NYC for an out of state applicant like me. My scores, essays, GPA, and recommendations should turn out to be pretty good...but I am not too sure about my extracirriculars.</p>
<p>check out fordham although its difficult to say whether it would be safety without your stats. St. John's in NY is good too.</p>
<p>Drew University in Madison, NJ. Less than an hour by train from NYC, and the train station is within walking distance of campus. Small excellent LAC that underenrolled this year. If your stats are good enough to get into NYU and Columbia, Drew might give you a full ride. Male applicants are especially in demand. My S, a male from California, was told he could get a full scholarship.</p>
<p>UMDNJ is the medical school--that isn't what you mean, is it? for private schools being out of state isn't a negative issue, and being from Florida might help a little for some of the schools that don't get many out-of-region applicants. In addition to Drew you might look at Sarah Lawrence.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. In response to Drew School...is it ranked in the top 50 or 100 undergrad schools? Kinshasa, did your son pick Drew? Could NYU or Rutgers ever be considered as safeties? And in response to aca0260 some of my stats are as follows...
New SAT: 2340
AP's: Recieved 4's in 4 subjects, 3's in 2 subjects, and a 1 in Calculus BC! (3 in AB though)
SAT II's: Math IC, Biology, US History this October...shooting for 700's or 800 if possible
GPA: 3.87, Weighted: 5.45
Class rank:3
Good recommendations, I should have no problem writing great essays if I take the time and effort (which I will do considering how bad I want to attend college near or in NYC)
EC: I have 2 leadership positions, members of 3 groups (no leadership), tennis team member, volunteer work at clinic, and few awards (positive referral from 9th grade biology teacher for highest class GPA, AP Scholar with honors award...hopefully I'll receive more awards)
Asian Indian in Miami</p>
<p>I plan to apply ED Columbia, NYU, UMDNJ, etc. By the way, I hope the safety schools mentioned in previous posts and any others that you guys mention do not have high tuitions like $30,000 +. If my parents pay that much, I am sure they would mind less paying $40,000 for Columbia than some lower ranked school. Please inform me when any of you have the time.Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>NYU cannot be considered a safety. But in your case it may be considered a match.</p>
<p>Pace University -Manhattan.
Marymount-Manhattan
Wagner-Staten Island (excellent school)
I second St. John's in Queens--a ggod school-definitely a safety -BUT full scholarships can be had for top GPAS and SAT scores.</p>
<p>Rutgers would definitely be a safety if you were in state. I don't think their out of state applicants are too competitive, though, so I'd say it's still a safety.</p>
<p>If you're going into engineering, try Stevens Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>You have, as you know, strong academic credentials. I think you are more likely to find some strong matches and safeties in the Boston area (such as BU, Tufts, Brandeis--not safeties necessarily but matches with excellent reputations) and may be shortchanging yourself by focusing solely on NYC. A number of the NYC area schools mentioned so far, though perfectly fine schools, may not offer you as much challenge (or prestige) as you wish. It is easy to find out schools' ranking by going to the local library and getting last year's (or soon this year's) USNWR or some of the popular college reference books Princeton review, Fiske, etc.). And I have to say again that UMDNJ is a med school, not an undergraduate institution so it is unlikely that you can apply to it at this time. Perhaps you mean NJIT?</p>
<p>I don't know Drew's ranking. Thomas Keane, one-time governor of NJ and a chairman of the 9/11 Commission, was its president for many years. We visited Drew last summer and S had an interview with an admissions officer, who told him if he raised his SAT 100 points he could get a full ride. He retook the ACT and raised his score the equivalent of that. Drew sent him a special early application, no fee, and sent him a letter of admission in December. This was NON-BINDING.
S applied ED to Boston University and will attend BU. His GPA was very high but standardized test scores a bit lower than would be expected from his GPA. He did get merit money from BU.</p>
<p>Check out the CUNY system. It's underrated.</p>
<p>I do not believe that cunys have housing.</p>
<p>NYU is a safety, find me a person in this world who didnt get into the college at NYU with a 2300+ top 3 rank. What a joke. No offense to my cousin - awesome kid - but he got in with a 1250 SAT and only a decent class rank. You will get in on your academic index alone, regardless of ECs and essays.</p>
<p>College admissions work in two ways: EC/ Hook and then Academic Index. Your academic index places you as competitive for HYPS (but likely waitlisted) and very strong for the rest of the Ivies/ Northwestern/ etc. Everywhere else you are in 100%. Columbia is a strong bet - but make sure you apply ED to increase your chances.</p>
<p>My only advice is to not get too hung up on NYC. You will learn alot more from attending a top school just from your classmates - top schools tend to gather the most creative, unique, diverse, interesting people around - than from the city. That, in fact, for me was the reason to a top school over any other. NYC is great, but college only comes once. I think you would be much happier at Harvard, Yale, Brown - than at a lesser school near New York. So I would only apply to Columbia and NYU in New York and look to the other top schools. All will teach you much more than the Miami environment. </p>
<p>Anyway, my bet is you are in at Columbia ED, so you wont have to worry about such things. If you wanna be close to NYC regardless, Vassar, Wesleyan, and Yale are all within an hour and a half from the city.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I think it is important to note something that comes up on the parents forum all the time: the OP does have strong academic credentials but not unique ones and they do not at all translate to certain admission to most of the schools that slipper 1234 lists so confidently. All anyone has to do is read part of the andi/andison thread to realize how important it is to have solid matches and safeties. In this case the safeties might be someone else's matches, and looking at schools in or near big cities other than NY is probably a good choice.</p>
<p>The only CUNY currently offering housing, to my knowledge, is Hunter on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. CUNY Honors students are given first shot.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac University, Manhattanville College and SUNY Purchase are safeties for you. My niece got a nice financial package from Quinnipiac University with 1200 (old one) SAT. Manhattanville is a highly ranked small LAC in Purchase. If cost is a factor, SUNY Purchase is a good option if you are interested on Performing Arts specially.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac University is in New Haven???</p>
<p>Technically, Quinnipiac University is in Hamden, which is near New Haven. You are right. Quinnipiac is far from NYC. However, I saw other posters suggested Drew University. I think Quinnipiac University students can take the Metro North to NYC in New Haven in about 1 1/2 hour too.</p>
<p>Mattmom,</p>
<p>Strong Academic credentials ARE enough to get into some schools 100%, and NYU is one of those schools.</p>
<p>If you are interested in the sciences and pre-med you should check out SUNY Stony Brook (out on Long Island). Commutable to NYC via Long Island Railroad- though it probably is 1 1/2 hours into Manhattan. Tuition for OOS kids is around $10,000. Stony Brook is a very respectible school with a good reputation. Many NY kids want to go further away than Long Island so it is not as "popular" with many local kids. It may be a bit of a commuter school so you do need to check it out more carefully but it is something to consider especially if you are interested in science.</p>