<p>Hi. I'm new here and have a million questions but I'll start with the one that is perplexing me the most. My daughter is a senior at an independent Quaker school. Her GPA is 3.4 and here current SATs are 590M, 560R and 620W. She is taking them again next month and will hopefully pull her scores up. She wants to attend a medium size urban school and has found several match schools that she likes however, we're really stuck on finding some good safety schools. Right now her list is UMass Amherst, Northeasten, Pitt, Penn State, Drexel (first choice), Temple and Boston University. (I realize some of these are reaches). Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Well, Amherst and Penn State are not urban, and Penn State is definitely not medium size…</p>
<p>Consider George Washington, American, Providence College, Hartford, Fordham</p>
<p>What does she want to study?</p>
<p>Thanks Chardo. Yeah, I know Amherst and Penn State aren’t urban but I managed to convince her to broaden her search a bit and at least take a look. She wasn’t crazy about GW and knows a few people who didn’t like going to American so she won’t even consider it. She’s leaning toward the sciences, perhaps applied psychology (that’s why Bryant’s on the list).</p>
<p>I read that Providence is a big drinking school and that’s not here scene at least not right now. Do you know if that’s true? Do you really think Fordham would be a safety?</p>
<p>Pitt and Temple have rolling admissions. (The sooner you apply, the more likely you are to get in and the faster they’ll respond.) With her GPA, scores, and presumably in-state status, she’s very likely to get into at least Temple – thus eliminating the need for other safeties. Apply ASAP!</p>
<p>Her score are a little low, but Clark may be worth consideration.</p>
<p>I don’t think Fordham would be a safety, but Hartford would be. Clark is a great school, but, as warbler acknowledges not a safety; also most would call it a small (rather than mid-sized) uni and Worcester isn’t really “urban.” Great advice re: Temple.</p>
<p>DePaul or Loyola - both in Chicago?</p>
<p>If you haven’t yet, fire up the college board’s college search function and you can quickly get a set of schools.</p>
<p>Some suggestions:
Syracuse - avg grade of incoming frosh 3.6
Quinnipiac - avg grade 3.4 and an up and coming school)
U Delaware 3.5
Ithaca College
UVM in Burlington, VT
Depaul avg grade 3.3 </p>
<p>Does she want to be a star where she goes or one of the crowd?</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>Fordham data:
SAT:<br>
Reading Middle 50%:570 - 670<br>
Math Middle 50%:560 - 660
Writing Middle 50%:560 - 660
Average HS GPA:3.7</p>
<p>PM me for how to get this kind of info quickly</p>
<p>Thanks all. The tip on early application to Pitt and Temple is a good one. If she takes the SAT again in October, she’ll have her scores by the end of the month and she’ll have her first quarter grades. Do you think that’s waiting too long?</p>
<p>Clark and Quinnipiac are on MY list (I’m hoping a visit will put them on hers) but I don’t consider them safety schools with her stats. I’ll look at Hartford, DePaul and Loyola, though. I do think she’d consider Chicago.</p>
<p>If by “safety school” you mean by stats kid is in top 25% you are right</p>
<p>If by safety school you mean “highly likely to get into” that’s probably a different answer</p>
<p>Hopefully you have some additional help (Naviance, perhaps?) to suss out safety schools</p>
<p>because some the schools you think are not safeties have lower scores than schools that you are considering as safeties</p>
<p>No offense intended; just that it’d be good to get clear about what criteria you’re using to denote a safety school"</p>
<p>and all you need is one :-)</p>
<hr>
<p>Loyola Chicago has ~same SATs and higher average grades than Clark
Reading Middle 50%:540 - 650
Math Middle 50%:530 - 650
Average HS GPA:3.7</p>
<p>Here’s Depaul:
Reading Middle 50%:520 - 640
Math Middle 50%:520 - 620
Avg HS GPA:3.36</p>
<p>hmmm . . Fairfield in CT?</p>
<p>same “in the middle by stats” as with Quinnipiac, less so with Clark</p>
<p>Fairfield stats:
Reading Middle 50%:520 - 610
Math Middle 50%:530 - 630
Average HS GPA:3.4</p>
<p>Quinnipiac stats:
Reading Middle 50%:540 - 610
Math Middle 50%:560 - 630
Average HS GPA:3.4</p>
<p>Clark stats:
Reading Middle 50%:550 - 650
Math Middle 50%:530 - 640
Average HS GPA:3.46</p>
<p>I would actually go with more than one safety. An acceptable safety to a student today may not be by May next year. Having two reduces that risk.</p>
<p>Oops. Don’t know how I did that. </p>
<p>I agree, Erin’s Dad. Are there any you can recommend?</p>
<p>Ok. Ignore the first line of my last post. I must be seeing things.</p>
<p>You seem to be looking mostly east coast but Seattle University sounds like it could be a good bet for your daughter, if she’d be at all interested in the west coast</p>
<p>St. John’s perhaps? Not exactly urban but it’s pretty close…</p>
<p>How about Regis in Denver?</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies but I think I just wasted everyone’s time. I just found out that her GPA is really 2.95. Don’t know why she thought it was so much higher! I guess my job just got harder. I’ll have to search the threads again with my new data.</p>
<p>Data dump:</p>
<p>George Mason in Virginia</p>
<p>Loyola Chicago</p>
<p>University of San Francisco</p>
<p>Duquesne in Pittburgh</p>
<p>Temple</p>
<p>Marquette</p>
<p>Fairleigh Dickinson</p>
<p>UVM</p>
<p>Simmons in Boston – but too small with ~2,000 students?</p>
<p>Canisius in Buffalo?</p>
<p>Xavier or U Cincinnati</p>
<p>University of Dayton </p>
<p>SUNY Albany</p>
<p>UNC – Asheville</p>
<p>If her academic arc is on the rise and she’s geographically desirable that may give a boost . . .</p>
<p>Although my D chose Iowa, she visited De Paul and we were both very impressed – glad to see it is on your list. Good luck!</p>
<p>I never mentioned Bryant because it is not midsize and not urban. Not sure how they are for applied psych, as that didn’t exist when I was there (it was business-only Bryant College back then).</p>
<p>I don’t think Providence is any more of a drinking school than any other. You will find significant drinking at almost every college, from Ivies on down. It’s just a fact of life. Put thousands of kids together, with freedom and downtime, and there will be drinking. Bryant was not a “big drinking” school when I went, but we got hammered often.</p>
<p>Yes – I think OCT SAT is too long – Apply now with current stats to Temple!
Drexel is also rolling admin.</p>
<p>What state do you reside?</p>
<p>If PA, may want to look at West Chester as a safety. Close to Philly. Good Night life.</p>