We’re really struggling to find safeties for my daughter (currently a junior) to apply to.
In a (large) nutshell:
GPA 3.6 UW, 4.1 W. Top 10% of a class of 500.
APs: US History, Psych, Eng Lit, Eng Lang, BC Calc, Biology
SAT 2000 but hopes to raise it next time
So, can anyone make any suggestions please? We need:
Something in the northeastern US (we’re in MA)
Fewer than about 6000 undergrads
She’s very introverted and would HATE a large state school, so that rules out a lot. She’d be miserable at UMass, UVM, UNH, and UConn…the usual safeties for her peers. She also would be miserable in an environment where she’s not challenged every day. She is planning on being a doctor and is very driven.
Does such a college exist? We visited Clark today and she loathed it with every fiber of her being. To get an idea of her personality, so far her top choices seem to be Bard, Smith, and Bryn Mawr. She’d love Johns Hopkins, as she did an incredible internship there (her lab work may even be published before application time but we’re not holding our breaths) but she doesn’t have the stats for that to be realistic even with a great recommendation from a faculty member there.
Are their financial aid or merit aid parameters to consider?
Check out Washington College in Chesterstown, MD (on the Chesapeake Bay). Excellent small LAC and should be a safety with her stats. Must show interest though- considered very important to interview!
Also Goucher (Maryland) and Drew (New Jersey). My daughter was admitted to these with similar stats to your daughter’s, although several (6) years ago.
Sorry I should have put these all on one thread… Hampshire of course since it is next to Smith; Mount Holyoke as well since excellent in sciences; also consider Skidmore if she likes Bard. Not exactly all safeties but doable.
Thanks – Rosered, I googled Marist, and they have a 34% acceptance rate. Not a safety for her, I’m afraid. NY is fine for the right school.
I’d never heard of Washington College but I’m going to look into it. A preliminary google looks interesting! We do have some financial considerations (especially as she has a twin who’ll be going to school at the same time) and would like a bunch of merit aid if she’s at a safety. We can make the trip to MD if necessary.
Wheaton’s not far from us and we know a bit about it – it’s respectable but unfortunately has a religious focus which we absolutely do not want.
Sorry I should have put these all on one thread… Hampshire of course since it is next to Smith; Mount Holyoke as well since excellent in sciences; also consider Skidmore if she likes Bard. Not exactly all safeties but doable.
As it stands now she’s almost definitely applying to Smith and Mount Holyoke, but I feel as if they must be closer to reaches. Her guidance counselor calls them targets but really? That makes me nervous.
Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Wheaton College in Illinois? That one definitely has a religious focus . As far as I know Wheaton College in Norton, MA is not religiously affiliated (but perhaps I am wrong).
I have heard great things about Washington College and they do give merit aid
It’s just my opinion, but I don’t think Smith (or that type of school) is right for an introvert. The personalities we met when there were very strong and I think a shy or introverted person would be overwhelmed. I say this because if your daughter felt comfortable there, she might like other schools that you are dismissing as too big (UMass honors program or UVM). Are you totally ruling out all religious schools or just Wheaton?
MA has some Catholic schools that do EA. The NE has many of them. Also Endicott in MA. Also MA College of Liberal Arts. The whole idea of a safety is a school that she can attend, if all else goes wrong. On top of that safety can be some likelies. Depending on what she decides to do on an early basis, an accept at an EA or rolling school can become a safety.
The problem with true safeties is that most good students put their noses up to them. They cannot imagine going to a school without the the Rs of Rating, Reputation, Recognition. They also cannot imagine things going wrong. Yet it happens every year. Often, one puts a safety on the list and hope one doesn’t have to use it. Hopefully, a likely school can be found that appeals to a student. Hofstra, Fordham, Hartwick, Wagner, Manhattanville, Wells, Simmons, Geneseo, York, There are any number of schools that are likely for her.
About religion: she’d look at something with vague religious undertones like BC or Brandeis but not something that has it in your face, as in religious mottos on the website. She’s very firmly an atheist.
She’s an introvert, but very self-confident and with a strong personality, if that makes sense. Not shy, she just doesn’t like parties or group events at all. She’s always very much the leader when there are group projects at school.
If you can believe it, one of the things she didn’t like about Clark was that they were “too friendly.” Hard for others to understand, but when she’s in the right environment she makes a few good friends and thrives. That’s why this is so hard! I’m not really struggling with her sister, who’s probably going to have UMass, etc as her safeties.
Cptofthehouse, I think you hit the nail on the head – a lot of the problem is that she’s concerned with what others will think if she ends up at a safety. I suspect she’ll apply to a LOT of her target schools to minimize the likelihood of needing a safety. She also is thinking about getting into med school, and is pretty sure she’ll need the three Rs to do it.
Her twin is a very different person – slightly lower grades and scores and a completely different personality. Right now she’s hoping for schools like Villanova and Ithaca, and will keep UMass and UNH as safeties. She loves the idea of the social aspect of college. As you can imagine, college tours with these two are going to be interesting!
Maybe I have the Wheaton wrong but that’s what she’s told me she’s heard from friends. She has a good friend who’s only considering christian colleges, so maybe she got them confused? I’ll have to look into it more. We haven’t discussed it much since I mentioned the name and she shuddered and said something inappropriate.
It’s too bad that she’s not willing to travel a little further. My son had similar stats, but the admissions scenario is a little tougher for girls than boys, and he had a lot of “leadership” ECs that your introverted daughter might not. His safeties were Guilford (Quaker college in NC) and Eckerd (FL). He received early acceptances from both of them, with generous merit scholarships. I think they both get plenty of students into medical school. He is at New College of FL, which would be a solid match for your daughter. They do very well in med school admissions. I’ve heard good things about Belmont, in Nashville, too. These are all in regions with booming health care and biomedical markets, so internship opportunities abound.
Seems like she is one of the “hard to find safety” cases.
Being an academic outlier at the high end of a small school may not be too pleasant for some students, especially when there are too few (in absolute numbers, not percentages) similar academic outliers to make for a peer group or induce the school to offer higher rigor or honors courses for such students.
That tends to point to larger schools as more suitable safeties, since they are more likely to have enough academic outliers to be worth having higher rigor or honors courses, and/or an honors program to help them find each other as a peer group. But if she really dislikes larger schools, that can eliminate them as suitable safeties.
What about SUNY Binghamton or Geneseo? Both have good medical school placement success rates. And lots of OOS students from New England consider them. Stonybrook would also be a possibility.
Would she be interested in any of the women’s colleges?
What about Vassar?
I was going to suggest Ithaca…but she may not be interested if her twin is applying there.
Would she consider schools in PA? Lehigh, Villanova, Lafayette?
If she is going to look at Wheaton in MA, she should also check out Stonehill.
If she is looking at Hopkins…would she also look at American?
