<p>Hey! I am a junior with a 3.7 unweighted gpa, a 29 ACT (but that will hopefully go up in September) and am in the IB program. While I am not full diploma, I take every IB class except a science. I am interested in majoring in political science and being in a larger city is a must for me. I already have all of the Washington DC schools on my list as well as a few other reach schools but I lack a good number of safety schools. Can anyone recommend a few good schools that are in a city for me?</p>
<p>What can your family afford? A safety school needs to consider finances.</p>
<p>We could afford, at the most, about $20,000 a year but for a safety I would hope for either a scholarship or a lower tuition around $10,000 a year</p>
<p>There are safeties, and then there are safeties.</p>
<p>An Academic Safety is a place that you know will admit you. You know this either because it is open admission (like a community college), publishes the GPA and test scores that guarantee admission right on the website (some public Universities do this for in-state applicants), or because your high school has a long history of sending students with your profile to that particular institution.</p>
<p>A Financial Safety is one that you can afford with no help other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, or with that plus merit-based aid that you are guaranteed based on your profile.</p>
<p>A Rock-Solid Safety meets both of these criteria, and in addition offers your major(s) and is a place that you are willing to attend if all else goes wrong in the application process.</p>
<p>Other than a community college or a public U that you can commute to from home, there isn’t anything in the $10,000 range anymore. Depending on the state you live in, $20,000 may cover the cost of a “sleep-away” public U in your home state. There are a few lower-tier public Us that don’t charge different rates for OOS students that would also come in at around $20,000. Bemidji State U in Minnesota is one. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any private colleges/universities where the Cost of Attendance (COA) is under $35,000. Most are upwards of $40,000. This means that in order to keep your costs to no more than $20,000, you are going to have to look for places that will offer you significant merit-based and/or need-based aid.</p>
<p>Do you have any idea what your FAFSA EFC is likely to be, and do you have a guesstimate for what your family might be expected to pay for an institution that requires the CSS Profile? If you don’t, you need to run the calculators at [EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_status.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_status.jsp) to find out. It is very important that you remember that most places will not meet your full need. Even if your FAFSA EFC is $20,000, it is not likely that that would be all that your family would be expected to pay.</p>
<p>There are a lot of threads on this topic in the Financial Aid Forum. Start with this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a> If you can’t find anything there that might work for you, two older threads that describe unbeatable scholarship locating research techniques are <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html</a> and <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html</a> </p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
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<p>Blackburn College in Illinois is about half that.</p>
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<p>Add USMA, USNA, USAFA to this list. But they are only suitable for those intending to become military officers.</p>
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<p>Cooper Union: [Budget</a> Guide The Cooper Union](<a href=“http://cooper.edu/student-services/office-of-financial-aid/budget-guide/]Budget”>http://cooper.edu/student-services/office-of-financial-aid/budget-guide/)</p>
<p>Cooper Union, with an acceptance rate of 9%, is not going to be of much help to OP.
Specialize in engineering, right?</p>
<p>*We could afford, at the most, about $20,000 a year but for a safety I would hope for either a scholarship or a lower tuition around $10,000 a year *</p>
<p>Well, if you’re looking to only spend $10k per year at a safety school…</p>
<p>1) you probably need to get your stats up…take BOTH the ACT and SAT for the best chances at the best scores.</p>
<p>2) you would need at least a full tuition scholarship for the remaining costs to be about $10k for room, board and books. </p>
<p>Right now…with a 29 ACT, there aren’t many schools (that you would probably like) that would give you a full tuition scholarship. Frankly, I can’t think of any.</p>
<p>Blackburn and the other work colleges are interesting options, and while they (along with Cooper Union) would certainly be financially safe, so would Harvard. Each of the work colleges is very selective in its own particular way [Welcome</a> to the Work Colleges Consortium! | <a href=“http://workcolleges.org%5B/url%5D”>http://workcolleges.org](<a href=“http://www.workcolleges.org/]Welcome”>http://www.workcolleges.org/)</a> and I don’t think that Cooper Union can be considered an academic safety for anyone.</p>
<p>George Mason, Wagner, Manhattan, Goucher, Towson St. are all schools my D was accepted at with moderately lower stats than you have.</p>
<p>Safety Schools: UCSD, UTexas, and NYU. Good Luck!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Sorry but those recommendations are not safeties…nor would they be affordable. I think the post may have been a joke.</p>