<p>If you take/took the SAT, you can ask the National Merit Foundation to consider that score instead of the PSAT (take off the last 0) if your school states that you were sick or missed it for a valid reason.</p>
<p>Case Western is a good safety.</p>
<p>If you take/took the SAT, you can ask the National Merit Foundation to consider that score instead of the PSAT (take off the last 0) if your school states that you were sick or missed it for a valid reason.</p>
<p>Yes, but I think it’s too late for that. I think the deadline for the school to make that request has long past…as well as the SAT to qualify.</p>
<p>good to know that your parents will pay for Umich or MSU. 
Now, you need to have them run some net price calculators at some of the desired schools to see what those schools will expect.</p>
<p>As for safeties, if your parents will pay $25k-30k, then if the school costs $55k+, you need to be certain that the school will give you about $20k in merit (about half tuition or so).</p>
<p>One note about Northeastern–the days when it was less selective than BU are long over. Last year their admit rate was 35% and 60% of their freshmen had ACTs 30 and up. The similar numbers for BU were 49% and 32%. If BU isn’t a safety for the OP, Northeastern definitely isn’t.</p>
<p>UMD maybe a good choice for your two majors but it would not be a safety because you may not get merit aid. 32 act is one of those grey areas.</p>
<p>======================================
Gourman Report 10th Ed. </p>
<h1>Top Journalism and Mass Communications Programs </h1>
<ol>
<li>University of Missouri-Columbia </li>
<li>Northwestern University </li>
<li>Syracuse University</li>
<li>University of Minnesota </li>
<li>University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign </li>
<li>University of North Carolina Chapel Hill </li>
<li>University of Wisconsin-Madison </li>
<li>The Ohio State University - Columbus </li>
<li>Michigan State University - E. Lansing</li>
<li>University of Southern California</li>
</ol>
<p>===============================
US News Best in Undergraduate Business</p>
<h1>(2012) Top Programs</h1>
<ol>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Massachusetts Inst. of Tech</li>
<li>Univ. of California - Berkeley</li>
<li>University of Michigan </li>
<li>Universit of Virginia</li>
<li>New York University</li>
<li>U. of N.C.-Chapel Hill</li>
<li>Univ. of Texas - Austin</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon Univ.</li>
<li>Univ. of Southern California</li>
<li>Emory University</li>
<li>Indiana University</li>
<li>The Ohio State University </li>
<li>U. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign</li>
<li>University of Minnesota</li>
<li>University of Notre dame</li>
<li>University of Wisconsin - Madison</li>
<li>Washington Univ. in St. Louis</li>
<li>Georgetown University</li>
<li>Penn State University </li>
<li>U. of Maryland - College Park</li>
<li>University of Washington</li>
</ol>
<p>You didn’t mention Washington D.C. as a possible location, but if you haven’t ruled it out, look into George Washington Univ. - School of Media and Public Affairs
[About</a> Us - School of Media and Public Affairs - The George Washington University](<a href=“http://smpa.gwu.edu/about/]About”>About | School of Media & Public Affairs | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | The George Washington University)
It is really close to the White House and other government buildings, so you would be close to the political action ;-)</p>
<p>A previous poster was correct about the relative positions of B.U. versus Northeastern in Boston. Even 15 years ago, B.U. was a lot more selective than Northeastern, but Northeastern is doing a great job of raising their profile (due to a change in leadership) and has now become harder to get into than B.U. That comes as a surprise to most folks in the Boston area. So neither are safeties, but they are good targets for you and since you are coming from the midwest that might give you a slight bump. Both give merit aid.</p>
<p>Seconding University of Missouri for journalism. Adding University of Iowa for communications and journalism.</p>