<p>I'm making my college list right now, and I'm still doing the narrowing down. I have about 15 schools left on my list, and 4 of the remaining schools are safety schools. The problem is, everyone keeps saying that you should like your safety schools enough that you wouldn't mind going to them. Well, I don't really like any of my safety schools. I'm kind of in the mentality that I really want to get into my #1 school, and #2 or #3 would still be great. After that I have a bunch of schools that are really good schools, and that I would like to go to, but they're not my top choices. I would still be happy to go there though. Then I have my safety schools, and I really think I would be sad going to any of them. What should I do?</p>
<p>Also, this is my list of schools in order of preference.</p>
<p>First Choice
-Rice
Top Choices
-WUSTL
-Tufts
Good Choices (No order since I haven't seen most of them)
-Emory
-Duke
-UChicago
-Johns Hopkins
-Northwestern
-Carnegie Mellon
-Georgetown
-Upenn
Safety Schools
-Tulane
-UMiami
-URochester
-Brandeis</p>
<p>I'm not saying these are bad schools, just all of them have some big thing about them that I'm trying to avoid. For example, URochester is way in upstate New York, and I'm trying not to go too much further north than where I already live. The only exceptions I made were for schools I fell in love with.</p>
<p>Any advice on how to prepare myself in case I'm forced to choose one of them, or how to make myself like them more?</p>
<p>Your safety schools are quite selective themselves, and practice holistic admissions. They do not admit based solely on GPA and standardized test scores - so unless you have a hook, I don’t think you can really consider them safeties. Even if you have a 4.0 unweighted, 5s on 10 APs, and a 2400 SAT, you can’t be sure they’ll admit you, because some schools practice yield management and don’t admit students they believe are unlikely to attend.</p>
<p>A safety school is one you can afford - those you’ve listed as safeties are costly. They have good finaid and some merit aid, as well - but will your family be able to pay its EFC? If there’s a gap in meeting your need, will you be able to afford it?</p>
<p>Is there a good instate public school that admits primarily by the numbers? I’m not saying that you won’t get into every school on your list - but you need a true safety, because everyone does. As to how to love your safety - look hard for it. It’s easy to fall in love with Rice. If you open your eyes to what safety schools can offer you, you’ll move closer to loving them too.</p>
<p>Well, honestly, money isn’t a problem, and I wouldn’t get financial aid even if I applied.</p>
<p>For the safety schools I’ve listed, all of them have EA, so I’d apply EA to all of them. If I ended up getting into none of them I would apply somewhere else RD; however, I think that’s unlikely. Looking at Naviance, no one with my stats has ever been denied at any of these schools, so I think it’s pretty likely that I’ll pull off one of them. I just want to make sure I like them.</p>
<p>One of my biggest problems is, looking at Naviance, it seems that almost everyone with my stats got into the following schools on my list:
-Emory
-URochester
-UMiami
-Brandeis
-Tulane
-Tufts (kind of, there’s one very distinct line on the graph where it goes from all rejections to all acceptances-weird, and I’m right about the line)</p>
<p>I feel like I’m in the mentality that I’ll get into one of my top choices, or at least one of my schools in the “good” section. Is this a good or a bad mentality to have?</p>
<p>I don’t think Miami, Brandeis, and Rochester are good safety schools. I’m not sure what your stats look like, but even that aside, all four of those schools are particularly expensive and don’t have any guaranteed scholarships from what I know. Where are you in-state to? Why don’t you have any public universities on your list?</p>
<p>You need to look more broadly at schools that share characteristics with the ones you really love. What is it about Rice, Wash U and Tufts that appeal to you? Then find some lower-tier schools with the same characteristics. You really should also at least apply to the state flagship school in your state, unless your family is independently wealthy.</p>
<p>Why did you pick those schools as safeties in the first place? Examining those reasons can help you get comfortable with the idea of going there.</p>
<p>Instead of trying to figure out how to convince yourself to like Rochester, why don’t you keep looking? Without knowing scores, finances etc . . . we can’t tell you what’s really “safe” for you but there are hundreds of schools to choose from. </p>
<p>Can you give us more details about what’s important to you?</p>
<p>As I said above, money isn’t really an issue. Some of the things I liked about those schools was the good academics, proximity to a nice city, small or lack of a presence of frats, not a large focus on athletics, LGBT friendly, nice campus that’s distinct from the surrounding area, warmer climate, and on top of all that I just really like the students at all of those schools.</p>
<p>Also, I’ll be applying to my safeties EA, so I’ll have a second chance to apply to schools if none of them accept me. I have a really good college counsellor and said that he thought that I could probably get into some of them.</p>
<p>@CuriousJane: Yea, I’m interested in Math, which almost all colleges have.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t want to sound ungrateful for all of your help, but I trust my college admissions officer, and I don’t think that I’m going to add any colleges to my list unless I don’t get in anywhere early. I’m really just looking for advice on what to do to make these schools more appealing to me.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters- if you dont like them, keep looking. Find at least one safety that you like, and dont worry about prestige, it really is about what makes you happy. What about Fordham? City school. No frats. Not a top math program, but the profs all come from great math schools. Not good for comp sci, but worth considering for math. </p>
<p>I am not sure how to help someone like something they don’t like. If you’re asking how to get excited about attending a school you don’t know much about, then I’d suggest you learn more about the schools and find things you do like. I’ll say that I went to a school that’s on your list (Northwestern) even though I didn’t like my visit there at all. When I got there I created an experience that was totally different from what I saw on my visit. For example, on my visit I stayed with a girl who was in a sorority and very focused on partying in the frats. During my 4 years as a student, I never set foot in a frat again. I chose classes, jobs, and EC’s that matched my interests, and chose to live in a Residential College with a specific academic theme. I ended up really enjoying my school.</p>
<p>So, perhaps learning more about the schools will help you figure out how to make a good experience there.</p>
<p>I agree with other posters, if you are not happy with your safety schools, keep looking. Especially when your top choices are hyper-competitive. A school is not a true safety unless you can be happy going there. There are so many other schools out there, especially since you are willing to be flexible geographically. Maybe GW, Wake Forest, Lehigh, Bucknell…just a few ideas, but definitely keep looking.</p>
Rochester is considered “Western New York”. Watertown is waaaayyy upstate.
Have you been to U of R? Or Tulane or your other safeties? I think the best way to potentially feel the love is to spend some time there. If money is not an issue, perhaps some trips are in order? </p>
<p>How did you come up with these as your safeties, anyways? Why these and not others that might also fit your criteria?</p>
<p>Just remember this - college is awesome no matter what. I ended up having to go to my financial safety, and I hated the idea of it. This past year ended up being the best year of my life. Where you go does not matter, it’s what you make of it.</p>
<p>If your family will be full-pay, and is ready, willing, and able to shell out 50k each year, there are lots of colleges and universities with decent math departments all over the country that would be very happy to admit you. Your counselor has given you recommendations from a very small set of the total possible options. Since you don’t like the ones your counselor considers safe for you, throw them out, run some of the college-matching search engines, and come up with a list of safeties that you do like. Surely at least one of your home state public Us could work.</p>
<p>It sounds like you aren’t looking for advice on how to find more safeties. It sounds like what you are really asking is how to reconcile yourself to the disappointment of not getting into one of your preferred schools. Is that right?</p>
<p>I think the answer is to find things to love about each safety. You may not love the whole school, but you don’t have to. Every school - even your perfect fit - will have things you don’t like about it and every safety should have at least a few things you really like. Pick a safety with a great location. Spend time exploring programs at the safeties that you would like to try. Check out the ECs that you might consider joining. Look at the calendar for events and activities on campus that you might want to participate in. Check out the study abroad options. If math is your love, look up the bios of the math faculty to see what their particular interests are and see if any of them intrigue you. When people say ‘love your safety’ it doesn’t mean you have to love every single thing - just a few things that will help you look forward to attending.</p>
<p>And destinyhelp is right - you may get to your safety and discover that you love it. And if not, you can always transfer a year later.</p>
<p>You say you trust your college admissions officer, but have you told him/her why you don’t like the safeties and why you like your reaches? It is possible that whatever he/she has used to factor these is not taking into consideration your preferences. </p>
<p>At the very least, spend some of your time visiting a couple of your safety schools. While applying EA is still a good strategy, if you have bad luck during the EA cycle, it will be hard to show your love at any safety school that you may need during teh RD cycle. As many posts will tell you, what you consider a safety is a dream school to someone else and no school wants to be taken for granted. In particular, Tulane seemed to reject a lot of quality candidates in RD and deferred quite a few top candidates in EA. </p>
<p>Looking at your list, it is hard for me to see a pattern. Normally I can see a list of similar schools but the academic and social environment seem quite varied.</p>
