Senior Looking For Safeties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a rising senior and am having some difficulty identifying safety schools that I would be interested in. Here are my basic stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.90/4.70
SAT: 2310 (800CR/750M/760W)
I have yet to take SAT IIs, and will do so this fall.
I won't know my rank until the school year starts.
I'm a full IB student and every core class I've taken is either IB or pre-IB honors. In my sophomore and junior years, I got As in all my classes.
In addition, I scored a 226 on the PSAT. I live in California, so I'll likely be a national merit semifinalist.
I'm interested in colleges that:
- are learning, "life of the mind"-ish focused, rather than solely pre-professional focused.
- are small to mid-sized.
- have a vibrant intellectual community.
- Have good financial aid (my family has an income of around 100K, so financial aid could be a make-or-break factor.) Merit aid is good too.
- are liberal, with student activism and such.
I don't mind if it's out of state or not. I like LACs. I'm also female, so I'm looking at some women's colleges too. I have no idea what I'm going to major in, so a college that's strong all-around would be preferable.
Here is my very tentative college list (it will likely be narrowed down or expanded):
Reaches:
UChicago (this is my first choice)
Swarthmore
Pomona
UC Berkeley</p>

<p>Matches:
Wellesley
Carleton
Grinnell
Smith
Oberlin</p>

<p>Safeties:
UC Davis? This is the tentative and ambiguous part. In the naviance scattergram there aren't any rejections within 200 points of my SAT score. I probably need to consider some privates with good merit aid/national merit aid. </p>

<p>I'm fairly bad at assessing my chances, so some reach/matches may be mis-categorized.
Thank you for your help!</p>

2

<p>You think that you’re a reach at UC-Berkeley?</p>

<p>It’s a great school, but according to Collegeview.com, the average SAT score there is a 2007. </p>

<p>I think you can classify Cal as a match.</p>

3

<p>It’s going to be difficult to find safety schools that meet your criteria. I can’t think of any that do. But for safeties I used UNR, University of Puget Sound, Willamette, Lewis & Clark. You also might like Reed (it’s like a mini UChicago), Vassar, and Wesleyan. Oh and Pitzer!</p>

4

<p>More other UCs?</p>

<p>Perhaps lower cost LACs like Truman State and University of Minnesota - Morris?</p>

5

<p>*- Have good financial aid (my family has an income of around 100K, so financial aid could be a make-or-break factor.) Merit aid is good too. *</p>

<p>Since you’re instate for Cal, definitely apply there. Cal has that FA promise that the other UCs don’t have. However, since acceptance at Cal has become unpredictable, it is probably a reach. </p>

<p>The other UCs may not give you any free grants because you don’t qualify for B&G or Cal Grants. However, some may offer you large merit, so perhaps someone can suggest which UCs those are.</p>

<p>Maybe a Cal Poly would also offer large merit. …anyone know?</p>

<p>Santa Clara would likely offer you about $28k per year (based on your stats and what my cousin’s son was offered this last app cycle). </p>

<p>Yes, you will make NMSF in ANY state with that PSAT. So, apply to a couple of schools that give large merit for NMF status.</p>

<p>You do need to talk to your parents about how much they’ll pay each year. With an income of around $100k, your EFC may be around $25k per year. If that’s too high, then many schools won’t be affordable for you.</p>

6

<p>^ Good post. Check out the NMF scholarship thread in the FA forum.</p>

7

<p>Since you are open to women’s colleges and already have Smith on your list, check out the Mount Holyoke College Twenty First Century Scholars program. MHC welcomes 35 scholars per year with $25k merit grants as well as other nice perks. Your scores are competitive for this cohort. The college fits your other criteria well. Tuition has recently been frozen so you will know where you stand year to year. </p>

<p>If you are interested in staying west coast, I would also second looking at Lewis & Clark.</p>

<p>Good Luck in your search.</p>

8

<p>Statistically I would think Kenyon would be pretty safe (though I don’t know about the FA). Also USC is know to be fairly generous to NMSFs and NMFs. Look at their financial aid page for details.</p>

9

<p>What about Reed?</p>

10

<p>Reed is a safety for no one; GPA + test scores + rank together are only 20% of admission criteria.</p>

11

<p>[Reed</a> College 2010-11 Common Data Set SecC](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/cds/cds1011/cdssecc201011.html]Reed”>Reed College 2010-11 Common Data Set SecC - Institutional Research - Reed College)
Post #10, according to the Reed common data set, course of rigor, academic GPA, application essay, standardized test scores are all in the very important and important category. Everything else is merely in the considered category so how can you know for sure it only counts 20% of admission criteria?</p>

12

<p>Have a look at [Every</a> application is rated according to five criteria](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2008/features/many_apply/5.html]Every”>Reed Magazine: Many Apply. Few are Chosen. (5/5)).</p>

13

<p>What about Barnard or Columbia? At Barnard, you woiuld be able to cross register at Columbia, which also has a “life of the mind” type of kids, and they also have the “core”, like Chicago.</p>

<p>For a safety/ low match in Calif, think about USC. As a NMSF you would receive a 1/2 Tuition scholarship if accepted, [ which you very likely would be] And if you apply before the Dec 1 scholarship deadline, you could be considered for one of their 150 Full tuition scholarships. Those are as hard to win as an acceptance to HYP, but hey, free tuition at a top 25 U is a pretty sweet deal. And USC has a very generous FA program as well.
DS had stats like yours, was accepted at many of the same colleges as on your list,including Chicago, but went to USC on a full tuition scholarship and found plenty of equally bright “life of the mind” type kids there. He is now at Caltech doing his PhD.</p>

14

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<p>The Cal Polys are heavily preprofessionally oriented schools (emphasizing majors like engineering, business, architecture, and agriculture), which may not match the OP’s wants. They are, however, relatively inexpensive even at in-state list price (and out-of-state list price isn’t bad either).</p>

15

<p>Whitman College gives merit aid, has a very vibrant community, is in a great town, and has rigorous academics.</p>

16

<p>Post #14, UC Davis is not what OP is looking either. It’s not anymore intellectual than Cal Polys. Having said that, I caution anyone to use LAC as a safety. Lots of tracking for interest and that can be complicated.</p>

17

<p>I would not consider Carleton a match. I know many students who have been accepted to U Chicago, Swarthmore, and Pomona who did not get accepted to Carleton.</p>

18

<p>UC Davis has a much higher percentage of students in liberal arts majors, as opposed to obviously pre-professional majors at Cal Poly. From the common data sets:</p>

<p>Top majors at UC Davis:
19.2% Social sciences
18.7% Biological/life sciences
10.5% Psychology
8.6% Agriculture
7.3% Engineering
4.5% Communication/journalism
4.3% Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics
4.3% Visual and performing arts</p>

<p>Top majors at Cal Poly:
25% Engineering
14% Agriculture
13% Business/marketing
7% Architecture
5% Parks and recreation
4% Biological/life sciences
4% Social sciences</p>

<p>While (e.g.) engineering majors can be very intellectual, that may not be what the OP is looking for, so Cal Poly SLO may not be a very good fit on that basis, since the OP did not want a “solely pre-professional focused” school.</p>