<p>Hi, everyone,</p>
<p>By the end of this year, a lot of class of 2008 high school students will have applied to Caltech. As you look at Caltech's rather daunting admission statistics, what "safety" colleges are you planning to apply to, to be sure you get in somewhere if you don't get into Caltech? What's a good fit, with good admission probability, for a student for whom Caltech looks like a good fit?</p>
<p>Depends how qualified you are. In addition to Caltech, I applied to MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Princeton (those two because of parents), Olin, Harvey Mudd, and RPI. I considered Harvey Mudd and RPI as my safeties.</p>
<p>Hi, mathwiz, did you think UC Berkeley was not in the safety category because you were an out-of-state applicant? (That's the way I think about Berkeley.)</p>
<p>Georgia Tech, Emory, and Washu (sorta) were my safeties.</p>
<p>If you're an engineering major: University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology</p>
<p>USC, UCLA, and Cal Poly</p>
<p>As a CA resident, DS considered UC San Diego his safety - but UC Berkeley was not a safety even for a CA resident. Just a reminder to folks applying for next year to also make sure they have a financial safety. My son's original list included Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, RPI, Harvey Mudd, UCB & UCSD. We mistakenly thought RPI would be a safety that we'd be able to afford, he was an RPI medalist but even with that RPI would have been unaffordable for us. Thank goodness he got in to Caltech & MIT both of which had great finaid packages! & in the end decided on Caltech :)</p>
<p>I was an out of state applicant for Berkeley and was not accepted. The same thing happened to one of my friends here. My safeties were UIUC, Rutgers, and Drexel.</p>
<p>My safeties were University of Colorado (Boulder), Colorado School of Mines, and Northwestern (legacy). I'm (perhaps obviously) from Colorado. Also, Harvey Mudd and Chicago were both borderline safety/low-matches.</p>
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Also, Harvey Mudd and Chicago were both borderline safety/low-matches.
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<p>What were your stats? I find this hard to believe. If you considered Mudd and Chicago safety/low-match then what was Caltech? A match? Now that doesn't make any sense...</p>
<p>I had UF and Georgia Tech as my safeties. Carnegie Mellon and JHU were my matches, and Caltech, MIT, Stanford, and Princeton were my reaches.</p>
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As much fun as it would be to pull out my high school CV, I think I'll pass. Suffice to say that I was awarded a (reasonably hefty) merit scholarship at Mudd, so I don't think there was too much chance of rejection.</p>
<p>I definitely think Caltech is a 'match' for some people, though I would not have necessarily characterized myself in that category.</p>
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As much fun as it would be to pull out my high school CV, I think I'll pass. Suffice to say that I was awarded a (reasonably hefty) merit scholarship at Mudd, so I don't think there was too much chance of rejection.</p>
<p>I definitely think Caltech is a 'match' for some people, though I would not have necessarily characterized myself in that category.
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<p>Is this the merit scholarship that half the students are on (where you just qualify by having proper SAT and GPA)? Because a lot of people who had the SAT score to get it but still got rejected. If it's a different one then that's pretty impressive.</p>
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Yeah, I think you're right - I didn't realize it was so widespread and only based on test scores/GPA; that's really doesn't say much in itself, then. </p>
<p>Since I don't feel like divulging my non-statistical merits, I guess, then, you can either choose to trust my evaluation or be cynical about my assessment as HMC as a safety/low-match. Either way is really fine with me and is sort of tangential to the point of this thread.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges with "rolling" admission are about to begin accepting applications. Some will notify you very soon if you are admitted. Have you chosen your safety college?</p>
<p>Good luck to the class of 2008 applicants.</p>
<p>i'm applying to caltech, stanford, mit, berkeley, cornell and UT is my safety. but that's because i'm from texas. but UT at Austin is a pretty good school.</p>
<p>Applying to Caltech, Stanford, MIT (next year). GT safety. GA resident.</p>
<p>Two safeties: In-state flagship, OOS flagship. Six are match/targets, one is a reach for everyone. YMMV. DS has more than done his homework in researching the schools; he says would be happy at any one of the eight on his list. He is considering one more reach. He won't be able to visit it any time soon, though. It fits his academic criteria, but personal fit is a question.</p>
<p>I got in Early, so I really didn't think much about safeties, but I guess my state schools counted.</p>
<p>The great thing about Tech schools is you can apply to Caltech/MIT/GT all early at the same time.</p>
<p>My alma mater, our state's flagship university, does "on the spot" admission evenings at this time of year. That helps for lining up one safety and building the remainder of the list out of reaches.</p>