Suggest/help me pick my "safety" schools?

<p>I've already picked out my "reach" and "target" schools. The only ones that I'm questioning are the safety schools that I picked.</p>

<p>The traits I look for in a safety school are:
-Liberal/Democratic School
-Gay Friendly
-Located relatively close to a large liberal city
-Moderately easy to get in (50%+)
-Preferably private, but public is okay as long as financial aid is good
-Great financial aid
-Partying/drinking/drugs don't dominate every aspect of life
-Quality education (bad professors exist, so I'm not exactly looking for perfection)
-Not too religious. Religious schools are okay, as long as they aren't.. well.. ridiculous bible thumping drones. </p>

<p>I'm only looking for one more safety school, and currently I keep swapping around between these "safety" school:
Ithaca College
Seattle University
University of San Francisco
University of Puget Sound</p>

<p>If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Any comments about the safety schools I'm considering would be great too, because I feel like I know so little about them.</p>

<p>Prospective major?</p>

<p>Anyways, you picked some pretty good places, with maybe Beloit and Kalamazoo as nice additions.</p>

<p>Hampshire College, my man, Hampshire College. It’s perfect for everything you’ve listed.</p>

<p>University of Vermont is very similar to Ithaca in many of your criteria.</p>

<p>To get a good idea of safeties for you we need more info about you:
Grades? Scores? Your home state (for any public college FA)?</p>

<p>Sorry about leaving out some information. I would mostly prefer to major in Biochemistry or Biomedical Sciences, but if that’s not available I wouldn’t mind Biology, Environmental Science (or Studies), Environmental Engineering, or anything related to life sciences. I’m also thinking of minoring in Music (been playing piano for such a long time). </p>

<p>I live in Nevada, the notorious state of terrible public education. Thankfully, I go to a pretty prestigious magnet high school (Las Vegas Academy, probably not well known unless you look it up), so it shouldn’t affect admissions, hopefully. UNLV is indeed on my safeties though, as I’ve heard that where you get your undergraduate degree isn’t as important as if it were your graduate degree.</p>

<p>Scores/Grades/Etc
Rank 23 out of 360
GPA: (unweighted) 3.83, (weighted) 4.53 (out of 4.8 max)
ACT: 29 (Not that great, but I’m not aiming high with my target schools anyways)
SATIIs: Biology M-720, US History-700</p>

<p>Thanks for all the answers so far! </p>

<p>I have heard of Beloit, however, Beloit being in Wisconsin makes me uncertain. If you could give me more insight on the surroundings, that would be great! </p>

<p>Before anyone criticizes me for giving so much significance on setting rather than the education, it’s just that being in Vegas (city of no culture, intelligence, etc) for so long has taught me to AVOID having to settle down in a city that is similar. Okay, Vegas isn’t as bad as it seems but sometimes the bad outweigh the good that I become disillusioned. Regardless, if I’m going to go in debt, I’m going to do it in a city that I will love.</p>

<p>University of Vermont seems like a great choice and I think I would love it, but because it’s public I’m very hesitant about it when it comes to financial aid. Will they simply give me less aid because I’m out of state? My parents (not divorced) make around the high 60k’s/low 70k’s.</p>

<p>Also one last note, I know that there will be someone out there that will tell me something along the lines of, “Just about everyone wants to get out of state because they hate where they were raised. Stay in Nevada because the education is pretty much the same but cheaper. You can’t have everything anyways, so deal.” I think of college as an experience and I truly do not want to experience it in this abyss. I’d rather pay through the nose to live life a new way, rather than play it safe and upon my death bed realize I never did anything. Of course, this is rather idealistic, but regardless, this is the path that I currently think I’d rather choose. </p>

<p>So, thank you for everyone’s help so far. I hope you know that you could possibly be changing the outcome of someone entire life! :)</p>

<p>Maybe Goucher (Baltimore suburbs) and Eugene Lang (NYC).</p>

<p>Sites that might help you are collegeboard.com, princetonreview.com, essayforum.com, students review.com - these are four sites where you can register for SAT (collegeboard), get some practice tests and get help with essays (essayforum) and find universities you want to attend (students and princetonreview).</p>

<p>OP, you correctly intuit that you won’t get good FA at most OOS public schools (like U Vermont). However, being from Nevada you can participate in the Western Undergrad Exchange program which offers reduced rates to students from participating states.
[WICHE</a> - Student Exchange Programs](<a href=“http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all]WICHE”>http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all)</p>