Suggest some safeties for me?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, never done this before. I appreciate all of the feedback :)
I'm a junior, and I have a good idea of places to visit to consider as reach and match schools, and I just wanted to get some ideas for safeties to visit in this coming year. I've done lots of the SuperMatch searches, but I'd love some real-people input as well.</p>

<p>My Priorities:
-Intellectual student body. This is probably the most important thing for me.
-Small to mid-size school. I've mostly looked at LACs, but that's not my only goal. I am also open to suggestions of honors colleges within larger universities. Basically anything with a smaller, comfortable atmosphere.
-Not overwhelming party scene. I don't mind if much of the school does it, as long as there's no pressure.
-Similarly, I'd prefer a limited Greek life presence. Or at the very least, possible to avoid.
-Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, or Midwest. I'm not interested in the West Coast; I'm a bit of a homebody.
-A BIG BIG PLUS but not a requirement is a linguistics department. It interests me so much and I can't say for sure it's what I want to major in, but I would love for it to be an option. This issue is, very few non-selective LACs offer linguistics. My other potential interests are math, sociology, and computer science.</p>

<p>That about sums it up! Now, about me:
4.02/4.2 UW GPA. (A 4.2 is given for an A+.) School doesn't do weighted or rank, but top 5%.
I haven't taken the SAT, but my PSAT score was 236.
My EC's are where it gets a bit funky. I attend a public arts school, so I spend three and a half hours a day engaged in acting classes and activities, which is a huge commitment. For this reason it's hard to have tons of other EC's, but my guidance counselor should explain this in her rec. Through my school I do tons of community performances. I also tutor regularly in my Hebrew school, work summers at a theater summer camp, and currently have an internship at a non-profit that aims to encourage the completion of high school education in Ecuador. I have a few notable awards, but nothing stellar.
Essays and recs are always so hard to judge, especially in advance, but I assume they will turn out very favorably.
Maryland is my home state.
I will not need to apply for financial aid, so I guess I'm asking about academic safeties only.</p>

<p>If it helps, other schools on my list so far are:
Swarthmore
Haverford
U of Rochester
Brandeis
Carnegie Mellon (College of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Brown
Hamilton
Macalester
Wesleyan (legacy)</p>

<p>Thank you all so very much!</p>

2

<p>Nice list. I think you will definitely get into several of those universities. You might research some more off this list of colleges with linguistics majors – look for those that have high admission rates such as University of Montana and University of New Hampshire: <a href=“http://linguistlist.org/teach/programs/browse-prog2.cfm?CountryID=245”>http://linguistlist.org/teach/programs/browse-prog2.cfm?CountryID=245&lt;/a&gt; The latter degree program includes courses from the computer science department. You might also look for universities with a degree in “computational linguistics,” or plan for a master’s in this topic. If you are adventurous, you might also consider the computational linguistics degree program at the University of Tuebingen in Germany. <a href=“http://www.bachelorsportal.eu/studies/20826/international-studies-in-computational-linguistics.html”>http://www.bachelorsportal.eu/studies/20826/international-studies-in-computational-linguistics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Thank you so much! Computational linguistics is definitely on my radar. :)</p>

4

<p>If you like Haverford and Swarthmore and you are female, take a close look at Bryn Mawr. Strong academic climate, part of a consortium with the other 2 schools plus UPenn, and one of the most beautiful college campuses.</p>

<p>It’s definitely not a safety but, given the description of what you are looking for, consider Carleton College.</p>

<p>Take a look at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI for a safety. Given you great stats, I would think U of Rochester would be a safety for you. I also think Macalaster and Brandeis would be low matches for you and I would be very surprised if you didn’t get in to those two.</p>

5

<p>Put UMD-CP on the list because you’ll get in, and it has great language programs and a linguistics department. They’v invested a ton of federal money in languages, computation, and neuroscience, and many of their researchers are connected to the DoD, NSA, other spooky agencies where language, cognition, and computation are valued. Yeah, I know, all the kids from your high school that you hate will go there, but it makes no difference because A) you’ll never see them and B) you’re all going to change and forget about high school in the next couple years. My son went to UMD from a MD h.s. and seldom saw and rarely spoke to those friends and “enemies” again.</p>

<p>You have a good list, but I’d add WashU for their philosophy-neuroscience-psychology program, which is heavily invested in computation and linguistics. And Georgetown for its linguistics and cognition research. Hey, you’re a homebody, right?</p>

6

<p>UMD-CP - great safety, of course, especially with the linguistics.</p>

<p>Since we are talking about safeties, the best safeties are the public universities and colleges in your home state. University of Maryland Baltimore County has a modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication major that may appeal to you; you can focus on applied linguistics in this major.</p>

<p>Towson does not have a linguistics major, but it does have speech-language pathology and also communication studies, which may interest you. (It also, of course, has math, computer science, and sociology.)</p>

<p>St. Mary’s College of Maryland may also appeal to you - it’s a small public liberal arts college with less than 2,000 students that is widely recognized as being an excellent public school. St. Mary’s has the three traditional majors you mentioned but not linguistics.</p>

<p>If you want some other safeties with linguistics majors, Hampshire College might appeal to you. Other suggestions are Hofstra (in Long Island, NY); Syracuse, and Gallaudet U in DC (a specialized school that caters to the deaf, btw; much of the focus of their linguistics department is on the linguistics of ASL).</p>

<p>I also normally don’t suggest OOS publics, but SUNYs are relatively low cost for OOS students and Stony Brook University, SUNY-New Paltz, and Binghamton University both have linguistics too. New Paltz is a small-to-medium suburban campus, and I have a couple of friends who went there and loved it. (Several CUNYs have it too - Lehman and Queens for sure - but while tuition is quite cheap, the living expenses in NYC are high.) UGA has a linguistics major, and with your stats you would be eligible for their Foundation Fellows scholarship, which is a full four-year scholarship. Temple also has a linguistics major and they might offer merit scholarships to OOS students.</p>

7

<p>Thank you all so much! I’ve added a few more to my list, and it feels much better knowing that I have a couple of real safeties. I appreciate your time!</p>