<p>I am a junior and have been looking quite a bit recently at colleges, but I have no idea where to be focusing my search as far as selectivity goes. There are two main high schools in my area: one is failing and the other is consistantly selected within the top 10 high schools yearly by both Newsweek and US News/World Report. I chose the more selective high school. I will have completed writing a full thesis by the time I am applying to colleges and will have completed about 100 hours of community service. I am in the National Honors and Spanish Honors Society. I live in the south, and am gay and the founder of my school's GSA (not fun or easy where I live). I have taken all honors courses and will have taken 7-8 AP classes by the time I graduate (AP European History, AP Psychology, AP Language and Composition, AP Calculus AB, AP Physics B, AP Literature, AP Government, AP Economics, but my weighted GPA I expect will only be around a 4.4. I have no idea what my unweighted is, but I think it's about a 3.5ish. I don't know what my SAT scores are, but I'll be able to tell you in about 2 days when they come out. </p>
<p>What types of colleges do you consider to be my safeties? good bets? reaches?</p>
<p>I live in SC (although I don’t plan on staying here) and I’m not exactly sure what I want in a college besides it being in a liberal, urban area, and giving me the best possible chances at good graduate school placement.</p>
<p>I’ll think of some good matches for you, but I’d take a look at george Washington University. It’s a private liberal arts college with a pretty diverse student population, very active politically (on both sides of the spectrum). It’s in DC so it’s kind of close to SC. And it’s in DC, so you have plenty of opportunity for job placement/internship, and they have a great record of grad school placement.</p>
<p>You need to identify one True Safety. This school:</p>
<p>1) Has to admit you based on your statistics (note the use of “has to” rather than “is likely to”). Check the websites of your in-state public universities for the GPA and test scores that guarantee an automatic acceptance. Some public universities and almost all community colleges are “open admission”.</p>
<p>2) You can pay for without any aid other than federally determined financial aid.</p>
<p>3) Offers the major(s) you are interested in, or in the case of a community college, offers the first two years of a guaranteed transfer program in at least one of those majors.</p>
<p>4) You would be willing to attend if this time next year it is your only affordable option.</p>
<p>Find your True Safety, and build your college list from the ground up. Please don’t be the one who writes “How can I pay for X?” on the Financial Aid forum, or the one who writes “I didn’t get in anywhere even at my safety” on this forum next year.</p>