<p>Hello all:
I need some help finding a viable safety school that I would actually like to go to. I want to double major in History and Political Science, get a DPhil (PhD) in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Oxford University, teach Political Science at the college level, and enter politics as a legislator. I want small class sizes, excellent political science & history departments, great professors and a student body that truly loves learning.
I am considering the following safety schools and have the following concerns about them:
~Earlham College: I love its liberal arts focus, its Quaker heritage, and its large number of students that go on to get PhDs. However, I’ve heard bad things about the town of Richmond, Indiana, and the food at the college.
~Sewanee: The University of the South: I love everything about Sewanee’s academics, outdoors, and professors, as well as their high production of Rhodes and Marshall scholars. However, I am worried about fitting in with the student body as a liberal, gay Northerner who doesn’t really want to drink to excess or join a frat. From what I’ve heard, the more “conservative” things about Sewanee are its archaic traditions, which I love, but I am still worried about fitting in.
~Hampshire College: I love its liberal atmosphere, its lack of traditional grades, and I would love the opportunity to design my own major and take classes through the Five-College Consortium. I am worried about its lack of name recognition (for grad school and fellowships) and fear that it might be too “out there.”
~Whitman College: I don’t know much about Whitman other than that it is a well respected liberal arts school with good graduate school placement and that its students really like it.
~University of Wisconsin at Madison: My flagship state school, which is huge and has pretty dismal advising, a startlingly low 4 year graduation rate, and huge lecture classes. Greek life and drinking are also huge. I really don’t even want to apply here, but it’s cheap and my father wants me to apply at least.
Oh, and as for stats, I have a cumulative GPA of 3.95 with an upward trend, a 2270 on the SAT that I am super surprised about (Perfect score of 800 in Critical Reading, 750 in math, and 720 in writing), 32 on the ACT (36 English, 30 Math, 36 Reading, 27 Science), 5’s on AP Lang & Comp and European History Exams, a 740 on the SAT II Literature test, and an 800 on the SAT II US History test. I am taking AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Literature, AP Environmental Science, Spanish 1, and Intro to African History (at UW Madison). I have decent extracurriculars, really compelling essays, and several great recommendations. I went to a private school from 6th through 10th grade and then switched to our local large, struggling public high school, where only about 30% go to 4-year colleges mostly to one of our state schools.
I would really appreciate any opinions on these schools and any suggestions on which one(s) would be best for me as well as other suggestions for safety schools that I am not currently looking at. Also, my family of 6 is solidly lower middle class (~$100,000 a year), but we have college savings and can afford a net price of $25000 a year. But don’t consider the money as much as what safety school would best fit me.
Thanks for reading this lengthy post.</p>
<p>Oh, and my reach/match schools are Yale, Dartmouth, UChicago, Boston College, Georgetown, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Vassar, Brown, Bowdoin, Macalester, Grinnell, and Carleton.
I am pretty sure of getting into Grinnell, Macalester, Vassar, and Boston College, so do I even really need a safety?</p>
<p>Yes, you need a safety. And you should look for some that offer merit aid, because it sounds like you could have a gap in what your family can afford and what colleges might expect you to pay.</p>
<p>Your list of safeties looks great, BTW.</p>
<p>What about New College of Florida? This year, it cost about $25k for out-of-state students, before any additional need-based aid. They have a poor 5-year graduation rate, on account of their demanding thesis requirement and the erroneous presumption that the lack of letter grades means a lack of rigor. That should not be a problem for you. They have an impressive track record for graduate school admissions, and you can create your own curriculum. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, you need a safety but you won’t need it. 
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<p>I would keep looking for a safety you really like. Maybe Goucher…Dickinson and Skidmore might work but I don’t know if you will get the money you need… I do disagree with you on the topic of money – a safety must be both an academic and a financial safety.</p>
<p>Anyone know much about Sewanee? Or Hampshire or Whitman?
@happy1 Yes, I know a financial safety is important. I just wanted to hear about safeties that I would like and then I could run the net price calculators. Do you know of any colleges that might fit my interest yet be cheap or give me merit money?</p>
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<p>That level of income unlikely to be lower middle class.</p>
<p>Have you run net price calculators on all of your schools already on your list? Is the cost within your family’s reach? No point in wasting time on apps for schools you can’t afford. </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: Yes, but I am from a family of 6 with 3 in private schools and significant medical expenses (~$12000).
So maybe “middle middle class”.</p>
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solidly lower middle class (~$100,000 a year), but we have college savings and can afford a net price of $25000 a year</p>
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<p>That is almost upper middle class. </p>
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The town of Richmond is not bad, and the college is in a safe area. It is just that Richmond is a relatively small town with not much to do. Earlham might be worth the sacrifices however. It is almost certainly the school on your list where you would have the most serious philosophical dialogue on campus. Earlham is not a school for shallow people, nor for those who believe college is mainly preparation for a career. If you really like what you know about Earlham, then you should visit. It is the most unique college on your list.</p>
<p>Whitman is a great choice too, and the city of Walla Walla is everything that Richmond is not – slightly bigger but still smallish, but exceptionally sophisticated. It is as if a small part of Seattle had been moved to the middle of wine country. Absolutely my favorite college town, bar none. Still, personally, I would choose Earlham over Whitman.</p>
<p>Cicero, no offense but if you are have issues with Richmond, Indiana, you should also reconsider the locations of Williams and Vassar, and possibly others.</p>
<p>Seems like a 10 minute net price calculator run for each college is easy to do up front, so that you can eliminate unaffordable schools from your safety school list before spending a lot more time researching them.</p>
<p>UNC-Asheville for a couple of reasons. It’s a public LAC, so you can apply EA with being restricted by any SCEA/REA schools, which I assume you’ll pick, since there are several on your list. It’s relatively cheap, and you’d probably win a merit award based on your strong SAT and grades. And it’s a pretty gay-friendly place. </p>
<p>Best to get that safety locked in before Jan. 1, so there’s no sweating it - not that you’ll be locked out of all of those schools, that’s just not going to happen.</p>
<p>@sally305: I don’t necessarily hate small towns (I’m applying to <em>Grinnell</em> after all!), but I was worried that Richmond was sort of a gloomy, old industrial town.
@ucbalumnus: Yes, I’ve done the net price calculators for the colleges I’ve listed, so I was asking for opinions on those schools and also asking if anyone knew of any other safeties I didn’t. </p>
<p>No, I get that and it very well might be. Grinnell, IA, is a cute town and so are some of the others where schools on your list are located. Poughkeepsie (Vassar) is not very nice and Pittsfield (the nearest town of any size to Williams/Williamstown) is exactly what you describe–a gloomy, old industrial town. Very depressing.</p>
<p>Not to digress too much but I’d also add that some of the NE has much gloomier weather than the midwest. Grinnell has 30 more sunny days a year than Poughkeepsie, and less rainfall AND less snow. On average it’s about 8 degrees colder in January. People freak about midwestern winters but for me, having lived in both the midwest and northeast, I’d take more sun (along with the cold) any day.</p>
<p>We visited Sewanee but did not go on a tour. It’s in the middle of nowhere. There is absolutely nothing in the vicinity. Its ten miles from a McDonalds, a Waffle House and a gas station. Its in a beautiful location but you have to be okay with its location which is far from civilization.</p>
<p>I was in Richmond last year (I live about two hours from there) and it seems more like a farming community to me, not a fading industrial town. It is okay, not terrible, but nothing special. In one review I read, an Earlham student said that she felt like living off campus was a disadvantage because so much happened on campus. So, it seems like campus life is excellent enough that Richmond is not that much of a factor… unless you want go off campus a lot.</p>
<p>I agree that Sewanee might not be a good fit for Cicero1. Apparently the drinking culture is huge, for one thing. The liberal vs conservative thing is probably not a big issue, though. These are Episcopalians, after all, who have gay bishops and otherwise known for being quite liberal. My sense is that the mixture of liberals and conservatives is very healthy at Sewanee.</p>