My dream schools are Stanford, MIT, and Johns Hopkins, but I don’t know where to apply to as safety schools.
I have a 35C ACT, a 2220 SAT (will take the new one), 800 Physics SAT II, 770 Math II, 760 Bio M, 760 Chem, and a 97.something unweighted average.
Could you guys list some schools that would be safeties for me?
Thanks!
Probably 95+% of the colleges and universities would be admission safeties. Perhaps a significantly smaller percentage would be safeties if you have significant cost constraints (which you have not mentioned, so no one else can know if you do). Obviously, your academic interests (which you have not mentioned) will eliminate those which do not offer them.
Please read http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider-p1.html and post some more information so that others can help you better.
@ucbalumnus I have no cost restraints and hope to study biomedical engineering or simply biology and to go to medical school after earning my undergraduate degree
What is your state of residence?
What do you mean by “you have no cost constraints?” Your family is very wealthy and will have no problem paying a quarter million dollars over 4 years? Or, you are low-income and expect to apply to full-need schools?
And most importantly, do your parents agree that there are “no cost constraints”?
If your goal is medical school, then you need to be sure that you will have virtually no debt after undergrad.
Lehigh? Purdue? Case Western?
What is your flagship state university? That’s an obvious one to apply to.
It looks like OP is from New York based on prior posts. OP, there are lots of schools in NYS that would be safeties for you - pretty much any university in the SUNY and CUNY system would be good safeties. Stony Brook and Binghamton both have biomedical engineering programs.
If cost is truly not a constraint then there are tons of other places, including some great public state flagships in other states. What kinds of things are you looking for in a college? Big, small, rural, urban, cold or warm weather, big sports, small classes…?
@juillet Yeah Binghamton is the only real safety school I’ve picked out so far. As for what I look for in a college, I’d like something in and urban area with big sports, but the sports aren’t all that important.
Binghamton & Stony Brook are obvious choices if you are a NYS resident.
Also consider: U Rochester, Boston University, U Michigan, Case Western, RPI, Northeastern
What about safety schools in PA?
UPitt and Penn State might be good ones to look at. They both have an established honors college program, which is always nice.
Not in PA, but I’d look into URochester as well – my cousin studied biomedical engineering there and was very happy. In PA perhaps Lehigh and Villanova.
This might sound dumb but what’s an honors college program?
It varies by school, but it is usually the offering of a set of perks to the top-end entering students at the school. Such perks may include priority access to smaller honors courses and seminars, priority registration in general, honors dorms, etc… The intent is to attract students who (while in high school) have the kind of elitist feeling that the big not-as-selective school does not have enough top-end students like themselves, or that such top-end students may be hard to find among the masses.
Here is a web site about honors programs at public universities: http://publicuniversityhonors.com/
^ Did someone hack the account of @ucbalumnus? Normally, I feel confident that his proffered expert opinion on a subject is supported by at least a Google search.
@UWfromCA I think @acbalumnus was just being sassy…re: Honor Programs although he may have made a few on point comments. Thought I would let you know the son chose UW Direct Admit to Aero over Dartmouth in the end. He seems happy with the choice but to ucb’s point he may be saved by help from UW’s Honor’s Program…He found out today at his A & O registration session that his advanced math class Math 126 is “closed” and he is only able to register for an online version at the moment; also his Physics 142 is also closed with no online option but he contacted the Honors professor and she has ordered him admission to her Honors class. We are hoping that UW adds sections of Math 126 as many freshman are coming in with advanced credits and their paucity of sections may hurt progress and pace. We had to do an August registration due to family health emergency with son’s grandmother and a long planned wedding trip. So HONORS Program professors may be our saviors.
@UWfromCA I misstated the number of the PHYSICS class-- it is Physics 121 (not 142 got confused with Chemistry course number. So the fact is son has been invited to Honors Physics 121 while non-honors Physics is closed as full already with a full third of the freshmen still to register…oy vey!