Safety Schools

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone,

I’m a rising senior and a bit confused as to what would be a considered a reach/target/safety for me so I was wondering if you could help me figure this out and give me a few schools that would fall into each category.

I know that I don’t really want to be in an urban area too and I’m looking to go to school in the northeast (with just a few exceptions). Schools that I’ve visited so far and have liked are Notre Dame, Dartmouth, and Boston College but I’m not sure if these are targets, safeties, or reaches. I’m planning on majoring in a science field. I’m also not a very big greek life person, so I would prefer a school that doesn’t have a lot of greek life. However, if the school does have a lot of greek life, that’s something that I’d be willing to sacrifice if I absolutely loved every other aspect of the college/university.

GPA: 4.00/4.00. I’m not sure if this is weighted or unweighted, as it does not actually say on our transcript.
I got a 2180 on the old SAT (1410/1600).
I took the ACT Saturday and usually scored 33-34 on practice tests. However, I thought the test was a bit challenging. If I do not get a 34, I will retake in the fall if necessary until I get this score.

I’ll give you my courses and final grades along with ECs.

9th:
English 9- B+
Geometry Honors- A
World History- A-
Physics 9 Honors- A-
Spanish II- A
Religion- A-

10th:
English 10 Honors- A-
Algebra II and Trig Honors- A-
AP Euro- A
Chemistry Honors- A
Spanish III- A
Religion- A

11th:
English 11 Honors- A
Pre-Calculus Honors- A
AP US History- A
Biology Honors- A
Spanish IV- A
Religion- A

12th (subject to change):
AP Calculus BC
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
Senior Philosophy/Religion/English Class
American Politics and Government Honors

ECs:

Cross Country 9, 10, 11 - Captain 2 years
Golf 9, 10, 11, 12 - Captain 2 years
Debate Team 10, 11, 12 - Head for 2 years
Mentor to Middle Schoolers 9, 10
Choir 9, 10, 11, 12
Volunteer at local clothing bank - 9, 10, 11, 12
I’ve played guitar since 6th grade
Newspaper - 10, 11, 12 Editor for 2 years (Editor-in-Chief as senior)
Community Service Club 9, 10, 11, 12
Spanish Club 9, 10, 11, 12
I am a retreat leader next year (only seniors can do this)
I’m also very involved with breast cancer. A friend and I started a group for our town to support the cause and I joined the club at school and have done community service for the cause too.

If you guys could give me any kind of feedback or advice I would really appreciate it.

2

Which state do you live in?

3

@yikesyikesyikes New York.
Also, I found out today that I received a 750 on the US History Subject Test and I’m planning on getting a 770 on Math 2 that I took in June.

4

We need to know your state, what you want to study, and other stuff you are looking for in a school.

If you transcript actually shows those “-/+”, many colleges will NOT see your unweighted gpa as a 4.0. This is a pretty standard scale:

For EACH class, convert from letter grade to GPA scale, and then find the average (weighted by credit hours)

A+ = 4.0
A = 4.0
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3.0
B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.3
C = 2.0
C- = 1.7
D+ = 1.3
D = 1.0
D- = 0.7
E/F= 0.0

5

@yikesyikesyikes I already said new york and that I plan on majoring in a science, but I’m not quite sure what specifically. Using your scale, I have a 3.9. Also, I’m really just interested in seeing safeties, targets, and reaches based on my stats.

6

Here’s a good starting point for determining safety/match/reach schools

from http://appsademia.■■■■■■■■■■/post/125436985006/how-can-you-determine-whether-a-school-is-a-match

Based on this, Boston College would be considered a match. Notre Dame and Dartmouth would be considered reaches. Usually your local state school would be considered a safety.

If you haven’t already, I would use the SuperMatch function on this website to start building a list of schools. You input things like prefered location, selectivity, greek life, majors, etc. and it gives you a list of schools based on your criteria. http://collegeconfidential.com/college_search

7

@junior2017

Sorry for missing your first response.

I would say Boston College is a low match, Notre Dame a Low Reach, and Dartmouth a Reach.

Out of the 3,000 or so colleges in the United States, most would be safeties for you. Your state schools in NY would probably be safeties. The Ivies, UChicago, Stanford, CalTech, MIT, Georgetown, Duke, Northwestern, Williams, Amherst, Pomona,and Swarthmore would probably be reaches/high reaches. The public school powerhouses of UC Berkeley, UMich, UVA, UCLA, and UNC Chapel Hill would probably range from low to high reaches. Other top LACs, but not as selective as the ones mentioned before would probably be low reaches/reaches (with exceptions like Harvey Mudd for Computer Science).

Other “popular” schools:

NYU - depends heavily on the program of study: Stern would be a reach, Tisch would be a reach, CAS would be a low match, NYU Tandon (I think it used to be called Poly) would be a safety.

GW - low match

USC - low reach

For Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, and Indiana, it would depend heavily on the program.

Penn State, Rutgers, and UConn would probably all be safeties (with a few exceptions, like 7-year BA-BS/MD programs and Rutgers 6-year PharmD)

I hope that helps!

8

What is your budget? Finances should also figure into classifying schools as reaches, matches, safeties.

9

Assuming the usual practice of dropping +/- from high school grades, your unweighted GPA cannot be 4.0 because of the B in one course in 9th grade. Still, it will be very high, like 3.94, or 3.93 if religion is not counted.

10

A safety school must also be affordable (either through merit aid or family income).

11

@yikesyikesyikes Can you confirm the comment about the Gpa with a source?

12

We can NOT tell you safety schools until you tell us how much your parents will pay.

Safety schools rarely give great need based aid.

What good would it do for us to name Admission-safeties for you, if you those are your only acceptances and NONE are affordable.

Ask your parents how much they’ll pay…then let us know.

13

I would not call BC a low match for anyone. I’d say high match, since OP is a bit above their average but it’s too selective overall to be below that.

Mom2ck makes a very good point about safety affordability.

It looks like small to medium research Us have been your main focus. Are you interested in a Jesuit school, since BC and ND are on there? Take a look at Fordham and Villanova (low match and match) and Georgetown (reach). Apply to 2-3 safeties - some schools (e.g. Fordham, if you can definitely afford it) would probably accept you, but could reject you to maintain high yield and low acceptance rate, hence the need for multiple safeties.

14

@ManaManaWegi

Every high school has a different ways of reporting grades and every college may have a way of recalculating GPA or not doing so (ex: https://www.michigandaily.com/content/u-no-longer-recalculate-gpa-admissions-process). Some schools which seem to definitely not look at the +/- factor for GPA are the UC schools. Since +/- often can affect class rank, it also affects the application in that way.

The GPA scale I provided is a pretty generic one, give or take 0.1 here and there.

15

Also, I agree with many of the above posters that you should consider finances.

And @usualhopeful I agree - I do not know why I put BC as a “low latch”, perhaps a “match” or “high match”.

16

@yikesyikesyikes Do you know were I can find information on this?
Will a school specify if they recalc gpa?
If a school doesn’t mention recalcing gpa, is it a reasonable assumption to make that they do not ( meaning they consider high school reported gpa and/or transcript in context)?

17

All colleges recalculate GPA, unless they are looking for warm tuition paying bodies.

18

@ManaManaWegi You need to make your own thread.

19

This is an article from 2003, but it shows that colleges have recalculated before, and may still do so.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105899458688282900

20

Dartmouth is within the top dozen or so schools in terms of fraternity activity, so be aware of this as you continue your research.

For schools in similar settings, but with less/no Greek life, consider Middlebury, Hamilton, Bowdoin and Williams. The sciences at these schools can be excellent. Within this group you may find a match, high match and reach.