Solid Safety Schools for an Ivy League Applicant

Both Fordham and Tulane accepted my son within a week or two of app submission for EA, but this was two years ago. He demonstrated interest with both, and was offered a very attractive merit award by Tulane. Tulane’s awards seem to be based on test scores instead of GPA.

I don’t think Michigan offers rolling now. They used to, four or five years ago, but now I think they offer a more typical EA. I may be wrong, as I have not followed Michigan closely. They also seem to be protecting yield a bit in a way we had not seen from our CT full-pay applicant pool.

I would think, but this is mostly conjecture, that NYU would not be much of a stretch for a full-pay applicant.

With those stats, the OP would be get a full tuition or in-state scholarship at a variety of solid state schools like Ohio State, Michigan State, and Pittsburgh. If the school has an honors college, they would feel at home there academically.

@texaspg Fordham and Tulane have non-binding EA options I believe.

@tk21769 I love your #9 response. It really pinpoints why Ivy League, young padawan.

Oh, and besides Canada, if you have a bunch of 5’s or even 4’s on AP tests, a bunch of well-regarded unis in the UK may be safeties.

@happy1 - It is a standard open EA right? It would mean that if OP wants to do an SCEA, he won’t be eligible. If he was applying to all open EAs on the other hand, he could certainly hope to be admitted.

They seem pretty clear on when they expect to announce results of early action.

http://www.fordham.edu/info/20531/apply/2528/dates_and_deadlines

Without knowing what interests you, it’s hard to build a list and target your reach schools, matches or safeties.

Let’s be realistic and figure you get shut out by the bumper sticker schools. Many with your “stats” don’t get into any schools with <10% admission rates.

What other schools would excite you to attend?
Is there a school with automatic merit scholarship that you like?

@texaspg Fordham has standard non-binding EA. You are correct in saying that if the OP applies SCEA he/she cannot apply to Fordham EA. However, if the OP ultimately chooses to apply to an ED school (which some Ivy and equivalent schools are) then the option to also apply to non-binding EA schools is generally available.

I’m just trying to throw out ideas and will trust the OP to look at each school’s website and understand what combinations of schools and EA/ED/SCEA programs can and cannot be applied to concurrently. I do stand by my comment that it is a good idea to try and get an acceptance in by December if at all possible (be it through a rolling or EA school – whatever is allowable based on the parameters of which, if any, SCEA/ED school is applied to).

@happy1 I understand you are trying to help OP. I was curious if Fordham did have a rolling admission. It would be good if OP applied to one or two with rolling admissions for backup as we both seem to be supporting.

Ultimately, OP needs a school they are willing to attend if nothing pans out from 1-40 that they are focusing on. I am also curious if the parents have signed off on a 75k/year tab for NYU if admitted.

@texaspg I think we agree. Please refer to my first post on this thread “I always recommend that people find a safety that is rolling or non-binding EA” Hopefully it goes without saying that if the OP cannot apply EA due to a SCEA constraint than options with rolling admission plans would be more appropriate.

Not sure how you’d feel about these universities, but you’d be an autoadmit at most of them so you wouldn’t need to worry about a thing with admissions: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

I see UT Dallas missing from the above link. They would usually have full tuition for OPs stats and a lot more in cash to cover room and board.

I would look at it the other way around. If your reaches are schools with acceptance rates <10%, you are LIKELY to get rejected from all of them. Build your list around matches, because that’s where you are likely to get accepted. Safeties are important as well. And seriously consider ED if finances are not a consideration.