<p>How are we defining safety schools? Admission only? Is affordability/FA/Merit being considered?</p>
<p>UCB…does your theoretical student have full funding from the family?</p>
<p>We also sought out colleges that didn’t have a lot of pre-professional students (or even offer such majors as business and education). The intellectual vibe on campus has a lot to do with what students are interested in, in my opinion.</p>
<p>For my question, I had safety in terms of admissions safety in mind. </p>
<p>I think there is a number of really smart, interested, passionate students out there who just don’t want to cookie-cut themselves into something an admissions rep might look for or just have different priorities than passing in every single paper/scoring high on standardized exams.
Those students would most likely thrive in an environment that is intellectual and open-minded and also poses various challenges to the student, but not cut-throat. </p>
<p>Even I that student now chooses to apply to some very selective, intellectual colleges, he or she will also be looking for some “good chance of admission” schools. That’s kind of what I was thinking of :)</p>
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<p>For the purpose of this thread, the assumption is that the schools in question are affordable and that cost and financial aid are not the make or break factors. Of course, for real life students in other threads asking for suggestions for small schools, suggesting safeties requires consideration of cost and financial aid.</p>
<p>Excellent thread! Son’s first choice is Reed but needs safeties of similar size and intellectual environment. Already had Puget Sound on the list but there many others here to consider. I, too, like the CTCL book. We are open to suggestions of very Reedie-ish alternatives to Reed!</p>
<p>Reed-ish alternatives to me are Oberlin and Bard, perhaps Colorado College, maybe Beloit. Perhaps Hampshire (although the whole barn thing doesn’t appeal to me) and there are many cross admits to Lewis & Clark.</p>
<p>Reed is a hard one to match up for me. At least from what I see, there’s not really much overlap between kids who go to Reed and kids who go to Oberlin. (My daughter was a little interested in both. She ultimately applied to Oberlin as her LAC escape-valve if April came and she somehow decided she wanted an LAC in the country, not a big, bad, urban research university. Reed would have suited her much more, but logistics of getting to and from Portland from our house made it a lot less attractive, so she didn’t apply there. But she was really way more a Reed person than an Oberlin person.) Bard does get some Reed-like kids, as does Beloit. Colorado College is a good pair, but I think if anything it is more difficult to get into than Reed. And same in spades for Swarthmore and Haverford, which are really probably the closest matches. Hampshire – no way.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo, I think, has some Reed-like vibe. And someone interested in Reed who was also humanities-oriented might also be interested in St. Johns College (in Annapolis or Santa Fe) – the last great Great Books program. All of those are probably easier for admissions than Reed.</p>
<p>Another good match might be University of Rochester – it’s bigger, but not really that big, it has similar intellectual rigor values, and is fairly science-y (one of Reed’s strengths IMO). It has about the same admission percentages, but somewhat lower SAT scores, especially verbal, and because it is bigger it has room to take some risks with applicants that Reed may not. Is Rochester as nice as Portland? Uh, no. But it doesn’t have to be your first choice.</p>
<p>I was going to say Kalamazoo in addition to Beloit, but Kalamazoo gets so little play on these boards…as earlier mentioned it would be a good “safety” for the original poster, too. It was a hotspot in the 70s and so cutting edge with the K plan and the entire junior class abroad, mandatory career service (internships) sophomore year and the senior thesis. Many of those elements still exist and it does attract a certain type of student although many colleges have emulated the K plan in some form or another and the original “K Plan” was modified a few years back.</p>
<p>If you are full pay you are in the driver’s seat at many good schools just below the elite level.</p>
<p>'Dat true barrons.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great replies. While I don’t mean to hijack this thread for our own comparison, this input is extremely helpful. Momofthree, what’s the “barn thing” at Hampshire? I’m an Oberlin fan but isn’t it as hard if not harder to get into than Reed? We are from the West Coast so Portland is easier for us to get to than Oberlin, and definitely more appealing. JHS, where did your daughter choose to go? S doesn’t like Colorado’s block system, so that’s out. Will only go West Coast or Northeast so Beloit, Kalamazoo, etc. are out, but useful for the purpose of this thread. Rochester doesn’t meet his criterion for <2000 undergrads. Other Northeast schools he likes are Haverford (reach), Connecticut College (too preppy?), Lafayette, maybe Muhlenberg. Agree about Lewis and Clark, and kicking myself for not visiting there and Willamette when we were in Portland. Luckily for S, Puget Sound meets all the safety criteria, but I’m just not sure it’s nerdy enough 
. And barrons, we have the very good fortune of being in the driver’s seat, as you say. </p>
<p>I hope other people will use this thread to find specific suggestions for safeties comparable to their dream schools.</p>
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<p>There’s no “barn thing” at Hampshire. Yes, there is a barn and they hold orientation sessions there as well as campus events. But it is a cool, fancy barn with windows along one side that offer great views of the surrounding Berkshires. Nirvana played there. Most of the campus is “Brutalist” architecture.</p>
<p>Slurpee, I am curious about why your child would consider going to the east coast but not anywhere in the middle of the country? Not judging, just trying to understand. There are, in my opinion, many more schools in the midwest and south that fit the vibe you seem to be looking for. The midwest LACs are generally pretty laid back, intellectual and not at all preppy. I don’t know of any that have a dominant (or even existent) fraternity scene, either.</p>
<p>Momoftheeboys,
Though these schools don’t meet all of your son’s geographic criteria, here are some suggestions:</p>
<p>New College of Florida
Macalaster (probably just slightly less competitive than Reed though)
Whitman (slightly more intellectual than UPS, whose students btw seem to be very engaged based on the conversations I had with some of them when I visited)
College of Wooster
L&C (students see themselves as a bit more normal, and less intellectual, than their Reed counterparts)
University of Redlands (Johnson’s Program)</p>
<p>sally305: For many kids from either coast (and their parents) anything in the middle is a tough sell. He wants out of Southern Calif, but he is closed minded about the parts of the country he will consider. For the purposes of this discussion – safeties – I think geography shouldn’t be an issue, regardless of the student’s flimsy reasons for his preferences.</p>
<p>A safety isn’t really a safety if your student can’t imagine him/herself there, so if he really won’t consider a Midwest school, then it’s not a safety. Some on cc say the safety is the most important school on the list.</p>
<p>^I understand. We have all dealt with closed-mindedness in our kids over college decisions. My son refused to consider colleges in Ohio as well as any with colonial architecture. Of course, anything that can help narrow down the vast range of choices is a good thing, even if they are drawing a line in the sand over seemingly superficial factors.</p>
<p>There are plenty of colleges in the midwest where if you stood in the middle of the quad and took a picture you’d have no idea if you were in Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin or Michigan. I get this image that kids think the entire midwest is flat and full of cornfields. When I lived in New York many thought Lake Michigan was, well, an inland lake that you could see across and not a place where you can surf. Kids have “funny notions” about the country.</p>
<p>They do. There are provincial people even in the most “enlightened” places. But if a kid is not open-minded already, trying to get him or her to become that way in the already-stressful period of college searching is not likely to accomplish much.</p>
<p>For a family who is full-pay, many of the LACs on this list will woo your child with merit scholarships. Don’t be surprised if Reed at full tuition starts to look less palatable than the well-chosen safety school at a significant discount.</p>
<p>One of my kids goes to Connecticut College. It is a need-blind, full-need school that is SAT-optional–although my kid has a friend with perfect SATs. There are no merit scholarships. About half the students require aid. It is academically rigorous, with small classes, profs dedicated to teaching, and a great alumni network. One nice perk is a $3,000 stipend to do an internship. This means the student can say to a potential intern site, don’t worry about paying me, I’m good. It also means you don’t have to worry about living expenses at an unpaid internship.</p>