Striking Out On Safties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Daughter is good at finding reaches, but we are having trouble with safties. We really want the safties to be places where she wouldn't be disappointed. We are in a big public HS in Maryland. </p>

<p>Daughter swore me to secrecy on her SAT and GPA, but I think it would be OK to say that I would be shocked if she were rejected by Villanova, Boston College or University of Maryland. It is likely that she is the strongest underrepresented minority candidate at her high school, for what it is worth.</p>

<p>So far, we have visited and liked:</p>

<p>Georgetown
Duke
Wesleyan
UNC</p>

<p>She also visited Davidson, Amherst, Elon but thought they were too rural. Thought Emory was too . . . too blah. Didn't like Boston University's lack of a campus. She does not want a big state school if at all possible, but she is finding tiny liberal arts colleges are a problem because many are located in tiny towns. She is worried about any place where she will wind up bored due to lack of social scene (although she is something of a homebody anyway, so go figure).</p>

<p>She is finding she doesn't want a Greek scene, likes pretty campuses, doesn't like commuter schools, is wary of schools short on racial diversity, is interested in studying psychology. She wants East Coast but could perhaps be coaxed to the midwest. She doesn't wish to suffer terribly in the winter. She thought BC was too Catholic, although she is -- you guessed it -- Catholic.</p>

<p>You can see why we are having trouble, no?</p>

<p>We have a trip planned to hit Penn, Dickinson, Lehigh, Villanova and Bucknell. After that, we are going to have to start getting on airplanes, so you can probably imagine why I'm getting nervous that we haven't found any safties that excite her.</p>

<p>Can anyone advise on other safities we might consider, especially if they have strong psychology programs?</p>

2

<p>lol. I assume you mean "safeties"? ;) Hope your daughter spellchecked her essays.... j/k j/k.</p>

<p>Try having her apply to one or two in-state public schools and universities. That way, if she doesn't get to go where she really really wants to go and she hasn't made allowance for any "exciting" safeties, she can still go to college in the fall, get her freshmen credits out of the way, and then try transferring.</p>

3

<p>Fordham might be a nice safety. even though it is catholic like BC and probably has the same amount of influence (one that i barely notice). its not too big, has a nice campus, and is not too far from Manhattan.</p>

<p>Big safety could be Manhattan College. St. Joe's near Philly might be good because its sortve near Villanova and would definetly be a safety. not sure about the religious influence there. Fairfield University in CT, Syracuse University, William and Mary (maybe?), American University, George Washington, Holy Cross, or Lafayette</p>

<p>im listing mostly schools in/near cities even though im not sure if it sounds like she really wants that.</p>

4

<p>What about Clark College in Worcester?</p>

<p>I think Clark has all of your requirements.</p>

<p>1) SAT midranges from mid 5's to mid 6's on each section, so it's probably less selective than Villanova, which has a midrange of low 6's to low 7's.</p>

<p>2) Clark has about 2300 students, so it's a large-ish LAC. Wesleyan, by comparison, has about 2800.</p>

<p>3) Worcester is pretty big and is about an hour from Boston (best college town in the world). I don't know how many college student oriented activities are directly in Worcester, though. That's something worth checking out.</p>

<p>4) No fraternities, according to College Board.</p>

<p>5) Looks pretty to me:
Clark</a> University Campus on Flickr - Photo Sharing!</p>

<p>6) Famous for its psych program.</p>

<p>The only place I see Clark not satisfying the requirements is through the racial diversity request. I think that can be explained by Clark's relative obscurity to college-bound seniors and its location in the Northeast. Clark's a great school, but it's probably not worth the cost for under-represented minorities who have in-state options or private, closer-to-home options. I think this trend is underscored by the fact that a lot of small and charming NE schools that are much more selective than Clark also don't attract as many ethnic minority students.</p>

5

<p>Not sure if it would be a safety or not but Skidmore might be worth a look.</p>

6

<p>honestly i think its hard to clarify a safety without the gpa/sats...</p>

7

<p>Not a safety, but she sounds like a prime candidate for Rice!</p>

<p>Also not a safety, but she might love Macalester near Minneapolis. </p>

<p>Both of those schools are smallish LACs, but right next to large cities, allowing her to escape the isolation usually associated with small LACs. (although Rice is in Texas, and Macalester in Minnesota... didn't read your OP too closely).</p>

<p>Does she like University of Maryland - College park for a safety? Or St. Mary's College of Maryland?</p>

<p>Skidmore is a wonderful suggestion. Lehigh and Bucknell are very Greek, so if she doesn't like that...
I would consider Villanova to have more of a Greek influence than BC. I think she'll find Dickinson too isolated. </p>

<p>Another option would be to look closely into the honors colleges at public LACs. I know PennState and UPitt have great ones in PA. PennState's honors college is very well known, and honors colleges often provide the close attention of a small LAC, while all the social and class benefits of a public school.</p>

<p>Perhaps I'm wrong on this, but would UNC be considered a safety for the alternative campuses? I know Chapel Hill is very competitive, but aren't there others?</p>

<p>ETA: I would add Cornell to her reach list as well (although considering the people I know who were accepted this year, it may be more of a high match). </p>

<p>Do you have any of those great college books where when you're on the page for one college, it lists colleges that are similar? I think princeton review might do that, although I loved college ******* for its accuracy. I would definitely encourage you to shell out the $40 to buy a few of these, and look through. Finding schools by word of mouth (especially on CC) may not be the best way to go. </p>

<p>Also, I found the best way to go on safeties is to find one with rolling admissions and to send in your application in late august/early september. I did that to UPitt and it took MUCH of the stress off of my applications because I was already into a wonderful honors program by the time I started my reach applications.</p>

8

<p>Thanks, everyone!!!</p>

<p>Safeties. OK, it's "safeties." I'm still trying to get the lingo down. :)</p>

<p>Univ. of MD is great, but since she's from MD, she would consider UMD to be akin to a huge, throbbing failure. This is her big chance to spread her wings, see. She'd be willing to have those wings clipped for Georgetown; not so much for UMD. What can you do?</p>

<p>The idea of an honors college at a big state college is brilliant! Is there a big state college with a good psych program?</p>

<p>I'll pull the books out and have a look at the remaining suggestions.</p>

9

<p>Given that she is Catholic and liked Georgetown, I would have her also look at Fordham and Holy Cross. They are also Jesuit universities, probably more matches than safeties. Holy Cross may raise diversity issues, but is very near Clark, which I second as an option for your daughter. St. Mary's College of Maryland might be a good safety if she isn't too concerned about being close to her parents.</p>

<p>Given what you have said I would not visit Villanova or Bucknell. Villanova is one of the more strongly Catholic of the better Catholic schools, and Bucknell has a postage stamp college town. Bucknell is competitive enough that I would not consider it a safety, given what you are looking at, more a match. I might suggest replacing Bucknell with Lafayette, Haverford, or Bryn Mawr (all more matches than safeties), and Villanova with Gettysburg (which I think is a genuine safety). While Gettysburg has a strong Greek scene it under better control than some of the more remote schools.</p>

<p>Can anyone advise on other safities we might consider, especially if they have strong psychology programs?</p>

10

<p>I second the Holy Cross suggestion. SAT wise it's on par with UMD, so if she get's in there she'll probably get into UMD (I won't get into how their admission system is BS, but that's another point).</p>

11

<p>Former and current women's colleges don't have frats so you might want to look at those. Vassar (not a safety) and Conn College (not near a city though) come to mind and there are the all female choices.</p>

<p>I would second Skidmore and Fairfield U.</p>

12

<p>If D thought Davidson was too rural she will probably have the same feeling about Dickinson and Bucknell - I would add Lafayette if you are looking at Lehigh (maybe a little too Greek for her though), and Ursinus if you are looking at Villanova...</p>

13

<p>Check out the University of Miami, it fits all her criteria. Depending on her stats she may be a candidate for some nice merit money.</p>

14

<p>Loyola of Maryland. Definitely check it out. </p>

<p>It lacks some diversity. But, other than that, I think it meets all your D's criteria. </p>

<p>Yes, it's Catholic (Jesuit). But, it's not overpowering. </p>

<p>Also, it has a PsyD program for grad school. Those aren't as common as PhDs. (She realizes a grad degree is necessary if one aspires to work in the field of Psych, right?)</p>

15

<p>How about Goucher - maybe too close to home - and Drew in N.J - also Sarah Lawrence - they have an excellent psych program as does Goucher I believe and all are near major cities.</p>

16

<p>Wake Forest or William & Mary are good size for her but definitely not safeties</p>

17

<p>What about BC didn't she like? They're known for being one of the less Catholic Jesuits.</p>

18

<p>"Daughter is good at finding reaches, but we are having trouble with safties."</p>

<p>Sounds like every high school student everywhere ;)</p>

19

<p>A William & Mary grad and dad here - W&M may be a good fit for your D, but it isn't really a safety for anyone (especially OOS females). Ditto for Wake Forest. </p>

<p>We live in Newark, Delaware, and can recommend the University of Delaware. As with your D and Maryland, my S (at W&M) and my D (rising HS senior) consider it too close and too familiar, although my D did admit after our official tour that it wouldn't be bad going there. It helped greatly that our tour guide was a local girl who went out-of-state to college (James Madison in Virginia) and transferred to UD after one year.</p>

<p>James Madison is another possibility. Also, you might look at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) - it is the public honors college in NJ, with a reputation that is growing, and is anxious to increase its OOS enrollment (currently below 10%). Along with Elon, it is at the top of my D's list.</p>

<p>Throwing out some others, in Pennsylvania - York College, Muhlenberg, Juniata, along with Gettysburg, Ursinus, and St. Joe's, which were mentioned in earlier posts. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

20

<p>Villanova does have a pretty big greek scene, I think.</p>

<p>Dickinson definitely very rural- not a lot to do at all around the campus.</p>

<p>I second Gettysburg and Goucher. Goucher was going to be my "LAC safety." Also almost applied to Gettysburg- they meet 100% of need, if that's a concern at all.</p>

<p>If she does like small LACs- Swarthmore (reach), Haverford (reach), and Bryn Mawr (match maybe?) are in the same area as Villanova/UPenn. </p>

<p>And did she look at American U at all? Smaller university, and it's free to apply (or at least it was this past year).</p>

<p>It's definitely a good thing that you made this thread- please please please find good safeties. Soooo important.</p>