<p>Daughter wants to go to MIT/CalTech... expects to have grades which should be good enough to get in, but you never can tell these days. Anyone suggest some safety schools? She's geared toward math/science but needs a place where she can take some philosophy and literature courses too. Geography not that important - slight preference for small to mid sized schools</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon, perhaps? They're known for science but have strong programs in the arts/humanities, too.</p>
<p>How about Carnegie-Mellon? A top-notch research university of roughly 10,000 students, it is best-known for its science/technology offerings (and theater!) but it also has strong liberal arts classes too.</p>
<p>CMU is very selective. Without her stats, I don't know if it would be a safety or a match for your daughter. Being a female with interest in math/science will definitely help.</p>
<p>highopes, great minds think alike!</p>
<p>^ Definitely, worriedmom! ;)</p>
<p>It's hard to tell without stats, I agree - but assuming the OP's daughter has the stats to be a reasonable candidate for MIT, she should get into CMU fairly easily.</p>
<p>butchokoy -- I don't think any of those could be consider safeties or even matches for anyone! They're good additional reaches, but definitely should not be used as anyone's back-ups.</p>
<p>CarnegieMelon seems like a good match - thanks for the suggestions. Any others?</p>
<p>What state mom?
Is engineering a possibility? (University of Chicago for example does not have a department of engineering)</p>
<p>Seiken, We're in NY, but geography is not an important factor - less engineering; more physics or math</p>
<p>Maybe Case Western in OH?</p>
<p>Maybe Purdue or Georgia Tech.
Just to let you know, Cal-tech has 0 humanities courses as far as I know and is MUCH more selective then MIT since they admit only 200 students.</p>
<p>Try UIUC,Minnesota and SUNY Stony Brook, all top ranked physics programs.</p>
<p>try JHU too.</p>
<p>Caltech has humanities courses.</p>
<p>The</a> Humanities at Caltech</p>
<p>One of the humanities alums is well-known in CA: Sandra Tsing Loh, humorist radio commentator and author (Mother on Fire is the latest). In a commencement speech at Caltech a few years ago, she described disappointing her parents by switching her major to the humanities, which, she added dryly, "to a Chinese father, is like pole dancing." </p>
<p>She's terrific. </p>
<p>Another suggestion for the OP might be U of Rochester.</p>
<p>Caltech has "humanities" classes, but I've been told that most of them still contain pretty heavy amounts of science. It would be like taking a class on the history of nuclear power, and instead of just learning that Fermi did the first controlled tests on U Chicago's faculty racquetball courts, you'd learn the scientific principles (both theoretical and practical) and do the calculations for how to properly run a controlled fission chain reaction. They're not like humanities classes you'd find at a non-tech school.</p>
<p>^^^^^^</p>
<p>I agree, Cal-Tech is all science really
MIt was like this and then they open Sloan and made humanities and then owned the business field up.</p>
<p>Smith College is very strong in the sciences and math, and also in philosophy and literature, humanities, etc, as well--a superb education. Smith also has a wonderful, and uniquely taught, engineering program, though it sounds like engineering is not a top priority for your daughter. In case she might be interested at some point, you can find more information on Smith's engineering program at: Smith</a> College: Picker Engineering Program </p>
<p>Smith has an open curriculum, and students have many opportunities to get to know faculty well, and to do research projects with faculty or independently.</p>
<p>In addition, Smith is part of a 5-college consortium (with Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke and Univ Mass). You can take classes at any, and there is a free shuttle bus to get to classes at the other campuses.</p>
<p>In that case,</p>
<p>Matches and Reaches (I dont know where she will fit, so Ill list them the same)
University of Chicago
Harvey Mudd College*
Cornell
UC Berkeley
UIUC</p>
<p>More safety like-
UCSD
UW Madison
RPI</p>
<p>*If your daughter is looking for Caltech/MIT-like schools then Harvey Mudd is certainly worth visiting. I would say we are more Caltech-like than MIT even (or more MIT-like than Caltech).
- For both physics and math we share the top, and we have no graduate students to steal attention from the professors (with still great amounts of research).
-We are typically admission friendly to girls, which should help, and students that attend can take humanities courses at Pomona and Claremont McKenna, which I am sure your daughter would love.<br>
- We fit the bill of both small and mid-sized. Mudd itself is slightly smaller than Caltech at 700 students but is part of a college consortium that total about 4000 undergraduates. </p>
<p>So ya, please do visit =)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Alternative /safety schools for MIT:</p>
<p>Princeton
Cornell
Columbia
UPenn
UMichigan
Northwestern
Duke
CMU
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It is ludicrous for any of these schools to be considered "safety" schools.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I actually go to Caltech.</p>
<p>Caltech certainly offers humanities courses. And yes, some of them are "history of science" courses like previously described, but most of them are normal humanities courses. If you actually read the course catalog, you will see that we offer an array of normal history, english, philosophy, and social science courses. In fact, my former roommate is double majoring in english, and has taken several literature courses so far (and no, they don't have anything to do with science). </p>
<p>To answer the question: some safeties for a Caltech/MIT qualified applicant would be Purdue, Wisconsin, Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech., RPI, UIUC, VA Tech, your flagship state school, etc. Ideally, someone who is so qualified should be able to get into Cornell, Northwestern, and CMU. As for alternatives, perhaps Stanford, Princeton, Harvey Mudd. Aside from Mudd, I really don't know anything about LAC's. Luckily, most colleges have halfway decent math and physics programs, so it's hard to not find somewhere you like.</p>
<p>Since she considers MIT and CalTech, this link shows some schools good at undergrad prep for a career in scientific research:</p>
<p>REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY</p>
<p>Hopefully there are some where she feels the fit would be good.</p>
<p>I agree with Pizzagirl; as safeties, that list is total nonsense; alternative, yes.</p>