Struggling to find safeties -- advice please!

It’s hard for me to gauge your daughter because my high school only weights APs but the top ten percent helps. Has she tried the ACT? She should. Have you considered Colby, Skidmore, Bucknell, Union? If she can get her boards up, Wesleyan? Lafayette? Franklin and Marshall?

The latter schools should be fine with her score. I just meant Wesleyan. The SAT prep translates to the aCT.

Okay, I just read that u wanted safeties. Oops.

My daughter is quite similar. We are basically requiring merit aid for her. She wants 1500-5000 kids. So far likes Eckerd and Lawrence. Considering Geneseo, UNCA, Truman State, Grinnell (probably too pricey), Gustavus, Augustana, Otterbein. Maybe Whittier? May look at some bigger honors places too, but did not like Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, so not sure about this.

Not offering a real sequitur to the OP question, but pointing out that a judicious use of the ED card at the all-female schools is often a working proxy to finding a safety. Check the admissiin rates in the early rounds at Smith, MHC, et al.

By December the issue of a safety might be moot. It is hard to find good safeties when the local public schools are not appealing. One option is to look at rolling admission schools and build it from there.

I’m a big fan of EA/rolling admissions safeties. It sounds like both Bard and Ursinus could fit the bill and also fit in with what she is looking for. A friend’s son recently graduated from the MA Wheaton and had a good experience there. I think it’s a better fit than Marist.

Yes, EA/rolling admission schools that are affordable can be great safeties if the student is admitted to them.

However, if none produces an admission before other application or scholarship deadlines pass, then the student still needs to find a safety.

This thread is SO helpful for us as well. My DD has high marks all around as a desirable student, including being a potential Div 2 or 3 soccer recruit, with one glaring exception: her reading SAT/ACT scores are low. She’s working to get them up but it’s a real challenge. Her math score last time was 640 and the gap between the math and reading scores just gets bigger every time.

She wants a small school in a rural/suburban environment, within a four-hour drive of our home in NJ, and she absolutely wants to play soccer at the NCAA level (though division is not important). It’s hard to find the right combination of elements that add up to a “safety” for her and is anywhere she’d want to go. (For example, Centenary and New Jersey City U have both tried to recruit her, but those are nonstarters.) She is undecided academically so even TCNJ is unlikely to work–as I understsand it students have to declare a concentration if not an actual major when applying.

H&WS is one definite for the list since she’s a legacy, but I’m not certain we’ll be able to make that work financially. So I’d love to hear options for affordable schools in the region where she’d be challenged (she’s honors/AP with a weighted GPA of 4.3, plus great ECs and the soccer thing). Pennsylvania seems to have a lot of options but I don’t know much about those schools.

We’ve visited Bucknell and that would be #1 so far but it’s a reach both from the soccer POV (it’s Div 1) and financially. We’ve also got Rider, Rowan, and Rutgers on the list but each of those has a significant negative element. We’re going to Kutztown next weekend, and now I’ll be checking out Muhlenberg and Susquehanna because of this thread.

Thanks!!

I mentioned Ursinus, but really ANY early action or rolling admissions school would work as a safety if you get in.

Also, while Massachusetts public liberal arts colleges are pretty far below this student’s capabilities, NY’s are not.

SUNY New Paltz has 6,642 might not be too big nor too far below this student. They have unrestricted early action and they aren’t much more expensive than UMASS even for out of state.

Boston College also has EA. So does Dickenson.

University of Vermont has 11,000 undergraduates, an honors college, a beautiful campus, and early action.

ST OLAF! An ivy league education in the mid-west…I am from MA and my daughter put St. O as a safety and ended up going there.

I would check out Oberlin - which on first glance seems to be a perfect fit. It only accepts about a third of the applicants, but I know it gives a lot of credit for any science research the student may have participated in, ESPECIALLY if a recommendation letter from the person she worked with on the internship is willing to write a letter.

It may not be a safety, per se, but it might be worth a look. (One statistic: NO fraternities or sororities; another: very highly ranked) Oberlin is well-known for smart, creative students.

@Pheebers I apologize for not reading the entire thread. These options may have already been mentioned.

My D had a similar list -and a similar personality- so this may be relevant. (She applied to Smith, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Skidmore, Bard and Hampshire.) We also had an incredibly difficult time coming up with safeties. Like your D, she “loathed” many of the schools we had hoped would be safeties. The admissions process was really scary, actually, because her “safety” would have been taking a gap year. I don’t recommend this strategy at all!

My D is also an introvert but not shy or quiet. Her main criteria for schools was that she feel like she was in a real intellectual environment, and that the other students were very invested in being there and passionate about something. At the true safeties we visited, she did not get that feeling. She could not stand seeing students who she perceived were just going through the motions or were there because it was expected of them or they wanted to party for 4 years.

Hampshire was the closest she had to a safety. I am sure you are aware that if your D went there she could take courses at Smith (as well as MHC, Amherst, UMass.)

I would encourage your D to apply to Bard under the Immediate Decision Plan (IDP). It’s non-binding and you find out within a week of the event in the fall. The acceptance rate is much higher than regular decision. My D had similar stats (slightly lower GPA, slightly higher SAT) and she was accepted. It was nice to have that acceptance in her pocket in November, although she ended up going to her first choice, MHC.

Good luck!

Lake Forest College in Illinois could be an academic and financial safety. They award a lot of merit scholarships and have a very high med school acceptance rate. They do EA and are a Test Optional school.

What about Susquehanna University?

I was going to mention Muhlenberg until I read your comment that your D thought the students at Clark were too friendly. Still worth a look. They do well with med school admissions.

Lots of Colleges That Change Lives schools were mentioned, along with a suggestion to get the book. Better yet, look at their website and see if their road show will be near you. Even if you don’t end up liking any of the schools, their entire mindset about how to do the search is worth hearing. Go by yourself if your D can’t make it.

Honors college at Pitt is another possibility. Rolling admissions, so one can have an acceptance in hand by October, maybe even September.

Wonderful comments everyone, thank you! We’ve been researching a lot and I think we’ll come up with a mix. The SUNYs will probably be worth checking out, and she found several small schools in the DC area that she’s interested in. I agree that the EA rolling admission thing could be a real stress-reliever…

She’s starting to express a real interest in Bard, so we’ll be taking a drive out there. I doubt it’s a safety though…
Staceyneil, they’re definitely similar. She really wants to be surrounded by smart people who want to be there. We’re checking out Bryn Mawr on Monday, MHC next Friday and Smith next Saturday, and I think she’s really going to like them.

I did not realize Villanova & BC are still religious. Thanks for setting me straight! Neither of my girls will want that. They’re going to check out Brandeis (not a safety, but they’re legacies – does that count for something?)

Alumni relation is considered at Brandeis. http://www.brandeis.edu/opir/docs/cds1314.pdf Section C7

Does Brandeis have EA, as opposed to ED? If so, it might be something to consider, since legacy tends to be a stronger tip in early rounds. Some places actually have the policy that it only counts then.

OP, my D, with similar stats (also somewhat shy, and interested in sciences), was admitted this year to Union, Wooster, Wells, HWS, Sewanee, Alfred, Denison, and Ithaca. Just recognize that none of these LACs could be considered a true safety unless she visited campus and demonstrated interest.

Villanova and BC both seemed VERY religious to us - . Although, once you are at a school I think that you take as much or as little of it in as you want.

Our D is the opposite - very extroverted - and two of her safeties were Clark and Goucher - definitely check Goucher - we toured both last week and the students at Goucher were more introverted. Exceptions abound of course.

Don’t use acceptance rates as a measure of safety - look at each school’s Common Data Set. See what percentage of their accepted students fell in each SAT Range or GPA Range. For example Whitman has a very high acceptance rate (I believe near 60% for 2014) - but it is definitely not a safety as far as mid test ranges or GPA.