<p>And why :)/<em>randomtext</em>/</p>
<p>SF State (californian :))
SF because if I don’t get into the colleges that have the academics I want, at least I can get my GED done in a city where I will never be bored.</p>
<p>Indiana University and San Diego State University</p>
<p>IU because it offers the perfect college experience. (Big 10 sports, fun college town, amazing social life, top10 business program, good greek life, happy and laid-back people.</p>
<p>SDSU because it is very cheap for instaters, and San Diego is by far the best city in the world. Weather, beaches, party school, and season tickets to the San Diego Chargers.</p>
<p>Bump/<em>randomtext</em>/</p>
<p>I like Holy Cross. Holy Cross is like a small Georgetown but significantly easier to get into. In fact it was founded by the Georgetown Jesuits in 1843. It is the only Jesuit school in the country that is strictly undergraduate which means professors are all PhDs (no grad students teaching). There was an article recently in the Boston Globe about Harvard students complaining about having little to no access to professors and only being able to interact with graduate assistants. With small class sizes and no grad students at HC, you have lots of access to your professors. HC is less than a hour from Boston, Providence, and Cape Cod and a few hours to Vermont/NH so you are near a lot of great activities. Unlike a lot of schools which are in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Good thread. Wherever else people are applying, they should be sure to line up a sure-bet safety college. This is the time of year to apply to such a college for class of 2008 high school students.</p>
<p>UMichigan</p>
<p>Cause I’m in state!</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, we also think our in-state flagship university is a suitable safety college for our oldest son. He likes it. I have previously defined a “safety” college as one that </p>
<p>1) is pretty much certain to admit an applicant, based on its known behavior in acting on admission applications,</p>
<p>2) has a strong program in an area the applicant is interested in,</p>
<p>3) is affordable based on its known behavior in acting on financial aid applications,</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>4) is likeable to the applicant. </p>
<p>Make sure all those points, especially points 1 and 3, fit any college you are adding to your application list as a “safety” college. </p>
<p>Good luck in this year’s application season.</p>
<p>UWisconsin</p>
<p>Cause I’m in state!</p>
<p>George Washington University :)</p>
<p>Knox.</p>
<p>1) Accepts like 90% of EA applicants.</p>
<p>2) Their strongest program is writing, which is what I want.</p>
<p>3) Huge merit scholarships for academics, National Hispanic, art, writing, theatre design.</p>
<p>4) Friendly, happy place. Diverse. Small. Middle of nowhere. One of the Colleges That Change Lives.</p>
<p>University of Dayton</p>
<p>russiasaurus, what do you mean by it changes lives?</p>
<p>Penn state</p>
<p>Decent OOS price</p>
<p>Great Rankings</p>
<p>Great social life</p>
<p>Close but far from home (3 1/2 - 4 hours).</p>
<p>Wells. Small, strong liberal arts program, unbelieveably friendly and close-knit student body, beautiful location, and gives a hell of a lot of money for my GPA and SAT scores. It’s cheap to begin with, so bring a nice midyear report and you’re close to a free ride. </p>
<p>FellowCCViewer- russiasaurus is referring to a list compiled by one of the national college organizing programs that ranked certain schools as ‘Colleges That Change Lives’. I don’t know if the list is available online, but it’s worth a search.</p>
<p>Indiana University-Bloomington</p>
<p>i second Penn state</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the Colleges That Change Lives consortium: </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ctcl.com/[/url]”>http://www.ctcl.com/</a> </p>
<p>An odd thing about this club is that if a college becomes too selective, it is taken off the list. The author of a book on colleges tried to find colleges that were pretty good but not outrageously hard to get into. I think they are all smallish liberal arts colleges–no state universities on the list, as I recall. Now Colleges That Change Lives has become something of a joint marketing brand name for the colleges on the list. They do a lot of recruiting traveling together.</p>
<p>Thanks tokenadult. I agree that it’s probably little more than a marketing ploy, as can be expected when more than three colleges flock together and do not call themselves a consortium. I’d really like to know the criteria for this list. They claim that a CTCL is small, diverse, and allows students to be active, but come on. Doesn’t every small school in the nation claim that (or aspire to claim that)?</p>
<p>Actually, I’m interesed that Reed is on that list- to my knowledge it has an exceptional academic rating (scaled 99 according to the Princeton Review) and is not exactly easy to get into. 45% acceptance rate makes it the lowest acceptance rate on the CTCL list.</p>
<p>Reed and St. Olaf are both in danger of no longer being recognized as colleges that change lives if they become more selective than they already are. Does that really make them less life-changing?</p>