Suggestions for safety schools

College Search & Selection
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<p>My stats: 2300+ on SAT, near 800 on three subject tests, equivalent of 4.0 GPA (international student), rigorous course load</p>

<p>ECs: A few years volunteering (charity shop + animal sanctuary), part time supermarket job, self taught Japanese and Ancient Greek, Air Cadets for 4 years, 2 week engineering internship, running maths club at school for year 7s, maths/science olympiad awards at regional level
I'm planning on applying to Cornell, UPenn, Columbia, Stanford, and MIT.</p>

<p>Does anybody have any suggestions for good safety choices I'd have a relatively strong chance at getting into?
Thanks a bunch guys and girls! :)</p>

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<p>Do you need aid?</p>

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<p>I’d add Washington University (St. Louis) and/or Vanderbilt to the list. They are both known for favoring high test scores, but probably can’t be considered true safeties. Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) might be a safety for you. Tulane would also be a safety. They might not meet full financial need, but you would probably qualify for decent merit awards at either.</p>

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<p>university of pittsburgh</p>

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<p><<<
I am an international student and am going for an engineering major.</p>

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<p>We need to know how much your family will spend. Most safety schools do not give money to int’ls. Some will give merit awards, but not free rides.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Tulane, Vanderbilt, and Pittsburgh seem like pretty good options.
Sorry about forgetting to include any info about money - financial aid/merit scholarships are definitely a must have. My family could probably afford to contribute at most around $15,000USD a year, and as a rough guide the Harvard net price calculator put the final cost at just under 10,000USD.</p>

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<p><<<<
financial aid/merit scholarships are definitely a must have.
<<<</p>

<p>Then take off Pitt…it doesn’t give aid to int’ls. Check Tulane’s website…it may not give much/any aid to int’ls either…probably not enough to get costs down to $15k. </p>

<p>The $15k budget will make it very hard to find safeties for an int’l. That is about the cost of room, board, books, etc. So you would need free tuition at least. </p>

<p>What is your major?</p>

<p>edited to add…Tulane only gives up to $20k per year to int’ls. So that won’t work. Total cost is over $55k per year. </p>

<p>@LeMeme‌ </p>

<p>HYPS gives SUPER aid, so you can’t use that as a guideline for other schools AT ALL. Even schools that meet need for int’ls would expect you to pay A LOT more than $10k per year. </p>

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<p>Drexel is right next to Penn, we are using it as a safety for my son who will major in engineering. Remember that if money is necessary, you probably would qualify for the Honors College at a bunch of schools, and some honors programs include free tuition like NJIT.</p>

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<p>@rhandco What is your net cost at Drexel? And does it give LOTS of money to int’ls? This student needs at least full tuition covered.</p>

<p>For a school to be a safety for this student, she has to know FOR SURE that all costs are covered…with a net cost of $15k per year.</p>

<p>So far, no schools mentioned come close to fitting that need.</p>

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<p>Drexel NPC calculator was not favorable for us, but it is a safety as in a decent school with lower requirements.</p>

<p>I checked the NJIT website, and they require at least permanent resident status for honors college scholarships, so that would not work out.</p>

<p>It’s unclear to me if her family is low income, because if they are, that would affect which schools would give a lot of aid. </p>

<p>Here is a link to scholarships for Drexel:
<a href=“Grants and Scholarships | Drexel Central”>http://drexel.edu/drexelcentral/finaid/grants/how-to-apply-grants-scholarships/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>some are specifically for international students.</p>

<p>One thing I would suggest is make sure her country of origin doesn’t give aid to their students going to college abroad. Some countries do.</p>

<p>BU might be an option:
<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/costs-aid-scholarships/scholarships/trustee/program/”>http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/costs-aid-scholarships/scholarships/trustee/program/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>but honestly, beyond the few I knew of, just do a search on full tuition merit scholarship international and she should find some colleges that she should start doing scholarship apps for.</p>

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<p>Thanks again.
Vanderbilt has a few decent sounding merit scholarship programs, so it seems like a good choice. I’ll have a look at Drexel too. From what I’ve heard, BU wouldn’t be the best choice of college for an engineering major… so I’m not so sure about that one.
Also regarding costs, I kind of made a slight error with a couple of sums; that $15000 should be more like $20,000. And annoyingly student loans/grants here in the UK can’t be transferred to other countries.
We wouldn’t be classed as low income (around 90,000 p/a) , but my older sister will also be at university for the same time period as I and my parents don’t have much in savings.
Oh, and my major will probably be Chem Eng, Mech Eng, or Civil Eng, and maybe an additional major in something else, probable either a language or Economics.</p>

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<p>Drexel has merit aid but won’t cover full tuition. BU is also quite sting with internationals.
Northeastern awards internationals merit aid that may bring costs down to 20k but they don’t meet need for internationals so it’d be solely merit.
WashU likes high test scores, you may have a shot there.
Look into Swarthmore? HarveyMudd? (if girl: Smith? Bryn Mawr for partnership with Penn?)
Aren’t Pitt honors scholarships open to all applicants who meet their stats requirements (which OP does)?</p>