<p>Preparing my applications, I've realized I should have one or two more safeties on my list. Any suggestions are very much appreciated!</p>
<p>Criteria:
-Easy access to an urban setting (or very large town; should have good selection of stores, clubs, restuarants, etc)
-Some semblance of a traditional campus - I want to play ultimate on a green!
-An intellectually curious student body
-A sunny climate is preferred butnot necessary (more concerned about long days than temperature)
-Everything above can be discounted if the school is the "right fit"</p>
<p>Current List of Schools:
-Brown (ED)
-Vanderbilt
-CMC
-Wesleyan
-Pomona
-UCLA
-UNC Chapel Hill
-U Virginia
-U Wisc (safety)</p>
<p>Brief Profile:
-2340 SAT superscore (800 CR/740 M/800 W)
-3.75 UW GPA (top 10%)
-790 SAT II Literature (got 690 in US History and Math II, need to retake)
-White male</p>
<p>Hook: Music
I play drums in a locally acclaimed fusion/experimental band that has opened for several nationally touring acts, and I play bass in and produce a pop/rock outfit that is about to release its debut album (we've been working on it for half a year!). I get work producing other acts and playing drums in pit orchestras, etc. By application time, 40+ hours community service teaching elementary school kids music.</p>
<p>I’m not sure yet. I’m fascinated by evolutionary psychology in a research or application sense, but the school doesn’t necessarily need to have that as a major. I’m more interested in getting a well-rounding liberal arts education; if all else fails I’ll major in English. In that sense, flexibility in courses/building a major would be a plus.</p>
<p>Teh - Great stats … congratulations! You should breeze into several schools on your list. But if an urban safety with the stated criteria is what you want, Tulane works. A quarter of the students come from the Northeast. You’d probably qualify for merit money also.</p>
<p>You should DEFINITELY be looking at Rice U - not a safety for anyone - but you’d have a good shot at it, and meets all your criteria and is a great place, big green gorgeous campus and facilities, top academics, great financial aid and lower COA than peer schools, in a hopping part of Houston (which is a very cosmopolitan place) right by the lightrail, with really nice Ultimate fields and very welcoming Ultimate team. Just saying… :)</p>
<p>I think you would like Macalester College in St. Paul. If you like winter sports, maybe Colorado College (the city of Colorado Springs probably would not appeal to you too too much, but Denver’s fairly close).</p>
<p>Both are urban LACs with liberal, intellectually curious student bodies, I’d say. Colorado College is supposed to have a good music scene; you can apply EA and get an answer by late December or so. It seems to attract intellectual hippie jocks who maybe can’t hack the east coast prestige thing.</p>
<p>Both of them would appeal to many kids who like Wesleyan, but are a skosh less selective. </p>
<p>Would an “alternative” place like Hampshire have any appeal? Amherst, Mass is not urban but might be just as good for your purposes, with the 5-college consortium there. </p>
<p>There again, do you really need to apply to 10 or 12 schools?</p>
<p>Rice and Macalester were both on my longer list, but I think both of those are probably more like matches, rather than safeties.</p>
<p>BU is a cool school, but it just doesn’t have enough campus for my taste–same thing with NYU.</p>
<p>huskem55–Good point about PC, my school seems to send a lot of kids there; I’ll probably put in an application.</p>
<p>Since I’m not intimately familiar with a lot of the names being thrown around (although I’ll research them), I guess I’ll add two more guidelines and maybe others can chime in about specific schools:</p>
<p>I don’t want to be staying in, plowing through Kant on a Friday night, so it would be cool to go to a school with a “work hard, party hard mentality.”
Also, diversity is a big plus, although not essential. I will have spent four years going to a preppy, overwhelmingly white high school and I think it’s time for a change.</p>
<p>I will second University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, though not as a safety. I notice you list University of Wisconsin-Madison as a safety, I assume you must live within that state. Meaning tuition at University of Minnesota- Twin Cities will be near equal for in-state students.</p>
<p>Isn’t Vanderbilt a rather preppy, conservative place? Maybe it has changed. The stereotypes in my mind make Vanderbilt (and possibly UVa) out to be rather different from Brown or Wesleyan. Not that there isn’t a certain mix almost anywhere you look.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s hard to say Macalester could be a safety for very many people. Colorado College may be slightly less selective than Mac, and fits the “work hard play hard” criterion well (hard to beat the Colorado Rockies as a playground). It’s not so great for the diversity criterion. That’s one area where my own kid preferred Wesleyan (but not the town of Middletown).</p>
<p>^You should probably break it to your D that the Ivies are probably the least “overwhelmingly white” schools you’ll find in America outside of the ‘historically black schools’ and Asia-dominated UCs…</p>
good choice. It definitely fits all of the criteria.</p>