Safety Schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm currently putting together my list of which colleges I'm going to be applying to, and I was wondering what colleges I should consider as safeties. The problem is that I really want to go to liberal art schools, which I know are incredibly selective, so I don't know if there are many colleges I can consider as safeties. </p>

<p>Right now, I'm looking at schools like Swarthmore, Haverford, Amherst, etc. and I want to find a safety school that has the same type of atmosphere as these schools. I also plan to major in English, if that helps.</p>

<p>My "stats" are:</p>

<p>2220 SAT score
710 on bio and us history SAT II
3.85 GPA - which might change after I take my finals :)
Will have taken 6 APs by the time I graduate
managing editor of school newspaper
an editor of school's literary magazine
Volunteer at hospital and interned with graduate students on their research project
member of French Honor Society</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>There are LACs that would be safeties for you. Have you looked at the list of Colleges that Change Lives? Some of those are LACs that would be safeties with your stats.</p>

<p>When you say that you need safeties, do you also need “financial safeties” ? Or have your parents agreed to pay wherever you go? If not, then you’ll have to carefully select safeties since most safeties do NOT give much need based aid…however, some might give merit scholarships.</p>

3

<p>Assuming that you are looking for admission safety, check out Kenyon and Depauw. Depauw is often overlooked, but has great Journalism and English departments, and, of course, Kenyon has amazing Creative Writing program.</p>

4

<p>Thanks MizzBee! I did actually look at Kenyon, but my counselor told me that that should be a reach for me because many people from my school don’t get in. </p>

<p>And mom2collegekids, by safeties I mean colleges where I will definitely get in. I’m not really looking for financial safeties, but I would like to know that there are colleges that will most definitely take me.</p>

5

<p>Is your GPA unweighted?</p>

<p>What State are you from?</p>

6

<p>Oh sorry, yeah 3.85 is my unweighted GPA.
I’m from California but I REALLYYYYY want to go to a school on the East Coast. Or at least not a school in California.</p>

7

<p>Trinity in CT.
Skidmore in NY.
Colby in Maine.</p>

<p>I’m somehow assuming you are male. If not there are some good women’s colleges out there as well.</p>

8

<p>Ahh, well you assumed wrong; I am female.
I did look at Colby though, so thanks!</p>

9

<p>Haha my bad as it were. Then I would check out such schools as Smith, Wellesley and Mt. Holyoke.</p>

10

<p>The term safety means you are so qualified, the school should not reject you but interestingly enough, private schools do make a point by rejecting you if they feel you will never show up.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, your safety school is usually your State school which has to admit you based on your rank and SAT scores etc without making a big deal about the great holistic process. Fortunately for you, California has some of the best public colleges in the country. So you need to find one or two schools in California that will automatically admit you based on rank/GPA/SAT scores etc. Then you find other schools that interest you including all those being mentioned here. For English majors, LACs or Ivies might be really good if you can get in.</p>

11

<p>I would put your safeties as being UC Davis and UC Irvine, but they are not liberal arts colleges.</p>

12

<p>Holy Cross-very good LAC with nice campus 1 hour from Boston. Holy Cross is easier to get into compared to Swarthmore and Amherst.</p>

13

<p>Hendrix College</p>

14

<p>St. Mary’s College of Maryland would be a good safety. It’s a public LAC (not a private Catholic girls’ school) on the Chesapeake in Maryland. Pretty campus, good reputation, and an attractive price.</p>

15

<p>Lots of good ideas here, but no mention of your financial restrictions. If you don’t know just exactly how much your parents can contribute toward your education, you need to find that out now. If what they have available is less than $50,000 per year, you also need to get an estimate of your federal EFC (FAFSA EFC), and a guesstimate for the CSS Profile. There are good calculators for these two at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at [EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp) Most places will expect your family to pay more than their federal EFC.</p>

<p>You have excellent stats, so many places will be happy to admit you. Just be certain to include some that you know for a fact you can afford. Here are some ideas: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>As Mom2CK said, a safety is also a school you can afford. If your family can afford $50K/year then great. But don’t just overlook this vital point.</p>

17

<p>Union, Muhlenberg and Skidmore are a good list of safeties for you. I would not consider Kenyon a safety but perhaps Kalamazoo, Earlham and College of Wooster. I would think that Depauw and Swartmore are nothing alike.</p>

<p>As a general rule the eastern LAC’s seem to be a bit more selective than comparable midwestern LAC’s.</p>

18

<p>for someone looking at the top 10 liberal arts colleges, good safeties include conn college, colby,occidental college, claremont mckenna, macalaster, bucknell</p>

19

<p>Any idea on how I can calculate EFC if I’m an American citizen living aboard?</p>

20

<p>eiliant - Did your parents file a tax return in US?</p>