<p>I'm looking to go into economics. I am a middle class caucasian male, #1 in my class of 650, with a 36 ACT, 2250 SAT, 5's on all of the AP tests I have taken, 800 on SAT Math II, 740 on Literature, and 790 on US History. My extracurriculars are far above average but by no means exceptional (Highlights: I am an Eagle Scout and captain of my school debate team. I have played the piano and cello for 11 years and it is much more than a hobby to me. I have won many scholarships and competitions and have traveled to France and Ireland to perform with my local youth symphony.) I want an economics program that has a quantitative focus, and it would be nice to find schools that have a combined major in Economics and Mathematics or Statistics (such as Yale and Carnegie Mellon, or the MMSS program at Northwestern). My current college list is below; I live in Michigan and I was told that I should apply to one or two more safety schools.</p>
<p>1) You are guaranteed admission. You know this because the institution posts the GPA and exam scores that will guarantee admission right on its website, or it is open admission like a community college. If your high school has years of records that clearly indicate that no student with your profile who applied to that college/university was ever rejected, it would count as a very-nearly-guaranteed admission. </p>
<p>2) You can pay for it without any aid other than federal (FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed state aid (I don’t know if MI offers this, so talk with your guidance counselor and find out) and/or guaranteed merit-based aid offered by the college/university itself.</p>
<p>3) Your major is offered.</p>
<p>4) You will be happy to attend if all else goes wrong in the admission process.</p>
<p>While it is nice to have more than one safety on your list, if Michigan State meets these four criteria and you would be happy to go there, then you don’t need to find any more safeties. If you kind of like Michigan State, but you’d like to be able to choose between several options next April, then look around for a few more. Your GPA and exam scores are very good. I’d suggest that you spend some time in the financial aid forum and read through the threads on guaranteed merit-based scholarships. You should find some potential safeties in those threads.</p>
<p>GK, is there any reason Michigan is not on your list? Michigan’s Economics department is one of the finest in the nation.</p>
<p>I would definitely add Chicago, MIT, Michigan and Princeton to your list, and delete CMU, Cornell and Cal (as a middle-income student, it is unlikely you will find the school affordable).</p>
<p>As for safeties, I think MSU is a great choice, but Minnesota-Twin Cities and Wisconsin-Madison are also excellent and likely to give you generous scholarships.</p>
<p>There seems to be too big of a gap between your match and safety school. I second adding UMichigan and maybe one more the level of say UWisconsin/UWashington/Tulane.</p>
<p>CMU, Cornell and Cal are matches for the OP’s stats, whereas MIT, Chicago and Princeton would be all reaches. I think it is unwise to delete the former to add the latter. The OP could however delete one of his reaches like Brown, which is not so great in quantitative economics, and replace it with MIT or Chicago. As additional (academic) safeties, I second the University of Minnesota mentioned above and Michigan.</p>
<p>When looking for safety schools you first need to determine your financial situation since a safety school MUST be affordable.</p>
<p>Obviously, with your stats many schools will accept you, but since safety schools rarely give good aid, you may need to consider cost and merit opportunities. </p>
<p>How much will your family pay?</p>
<p>when money is an issue, when you pick a safety, it should not be at a school where merit/grant awards are iffy or unknown. Hoping to get X amount is not a strategy for safeties. You have to KNOW FOR SURE that a safety is affordable.</p>
<p>Cal will not likely be affordable unless your parents are willing to pay a good bit. </p>
<p>If you need money and you apply to schools that don’t post assured scholarships, then don’t count those as safeties.</p>
<p>If you don’t know how much your parents will pay, ask them. Don’t guess or assume. Parents often cannot pay as much as their children think/hope they can.</p>
<p>However, if your parents will gladly pay $55k+ per year wherever you go, then you’ll have a lot of options. :)</p>
<p>Bruno, Cal (OOS) and Cornell CAS are roughly as selective as Chicago. Althoughh I agree in balancing matches and safeties, I think the OP has sufficient choices once he addds Michigan. Cal is great, but it offers very limited financial assistance to OOS students. Cornell is in fact a reach. The only viable match I removed was CMU, replacing it with Michigan, which is a better financial option and just as good academically. So, I removed a financially non-viable option (Cal), replaced one reach (Cornell) with another (Chicago) and added two more reaches (MIT and Princeton).</p>