I’m a current junior and I’m looking for safety schools I might like. My dream schools are Yale and Brown; I like the idea of a fully open curriculum or a general education. (Core curriculums don’t interest me.)
Here are some notes on me:
I want to study comparative literature, French, English, anthropology or history; humanities are very important to me.
I’d like to go to a school of at least 5000 students. I’m not a partier and I’m not into sports games. I don’t mind if they’re on campus, but I don’t want them to be the only things to do on campus.
I’d like to stay in California (home state) or along the East Coast if possible. I’d prefer to be in a college town, suburbs, or a rural area close to a large city. I’m not a fan of New York City.
I’d love to study abroad.
Here’s a list of the schools I’m already looking at: Brown, Yale, UC-Berkeley, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Harvard, Stanford.
It appears you mean you would prefer either schools with notably flexible curricula (as at, e.g., Brown, Amherst, Hamilton and Smith) or schools with some distribution requirements (as at many colleges). Colleges with required core curricula (e.g., Columbia) tend to be fairly uncommon.
If you like schools with large enrollments, why Middlebury and Wesleyan?
I don’t really know you, so I can not list the safety schools just yet. The safety schools should be the schools so that if you get in, you are still happy to go. My son never selected the safety schools just because the acceptance rates were low, they have to be the schools that you can picture yourself fit in. Your personality needs to fit the school.
I think you will have to check out many virtual college tours.
University of Rochester ticks a lot of boxes. It’s located in a city, though, but it does have a defined campus and there is a lot of green space/nature around. While it’s a top research university it is strong in the humanities. If you have the stats for Brown and Yale, Roch would be considered a match. Wheaton in MA has an openish curriculum, would be a safety but smaller than what you’re looking for.
I think this is going to cause some confusion. The phrase “general education” is commonly used in conjunction with general education requirements which would be the opposite of a fully open curriculum. What you mean, if I understand you correctly, is that you would prefer an education that covers lots of different subjects freely chosen by yourself. if I’m reading too much into this, I apologize in advance.
My opinion of safety school is 99.9% guarantee admission and affordable. So most cases, in-state public schools should be in the safety school list by default.
Check out Miami of OH, it checks all your boxes and has had some big alumni in the literary world like Rita Dove.
You may want to share some stats on here because no one knows how to truly recommend safety schools to you without any personal info.
I’m looking at Middlebury specifically because of their great approach to foreign language; I could be fluent in four or five by the end because they encourage language immersion. Wesleyan is sort of my only safety at this point; I know a lot of people who have loved it, even if they wanted to go to a bigger school.
With around a 20% acceptance rate, Wesleyan is likely a reach for you…best case it’s a high match…it is a safety for no one, no matter how high one’s stats. Again, we need stats and budget to help you categorize schools and identify safeties.
I can’t figure out how to edit this, but people have been asking for my stats. I go to one of the top private high schools in the country; I have a 3.96 UW GPA (my school doesn’t weight GPA or give class rank); I will have taken 13 honors/AP/college level courses (4 AP classes and 2 self-study APs.) I have not officially taken the ACT, but I got a 32 on a practice administered by my tutor (I will probably get a 34-35 with math study. I get 36 on each English section.)
I have three extracurriculars I devote a lot of time to and that I am passionate about: I’m assistant festival planner for a literary festival that sees 20,000 visitors per year, an employee at a bookstore, and (highly likely to be) editor-in-chief of a school magazine (where I am already head design editor and head Italian editor.) I know I can get great recommendations.
I would change it if I knew how! Seems the website isn’t letting me edit my original question. What I meant to say is “a school with general requirements in different fields;” something like what HYP does.
Congratulations on your achievements, your GPA and rigor will put you in the mix at many schools. With that said, any school with a 20% or lower acceptance rate is a reach for nearly all applicants.
Being at a top private school, your HS GC should be able to give you the best recommendations for highly likely/safety schools. I assume you also have Naviance or Scoir to help. There have been a few good recommendations so far. I am curious why Wesleyan and Middlebury are of interest, even thought they have fewer students than 5K?
For a true safety UVM would fit many of your parameters.
Wesleyan and Middlebury tie by “selectivity rank” in U.S. News (at 19th in the NLAC category). However you regard one with respect to admissions, you should regard the other similarly.
Without available concentrations in classics or religious studies, UVM might represent a relatively weak choice for a student who appears interested in the full range of humanities, however.
The OP also emphasized that “humanities are very important to me.” She might not be fully familiar with their range and interrelationships at this time. As an opinion, if the OP can identify colleges with good classics departments, she also will have identified colleges good for the study of humanities in general.
Did the OP ask for schools with merit aid? I don’t think that’s one of their parameters.
I am not sure how @Flautist2021 thinks Emory is a safety for anyone considering its 18.5% acceptance rate. However it’s potentially a great recommendation – the right size, beautiful, in/near a city, not into sports etc.
Emory has an 18% acceptance rate so another reach, as are Bates, Bowdoin and Colby. OP wants >5K, and is looking for safeties. Only way those schools could possibly be a match is if OP’s private school has a close relationship with one of those colleges, which OP’s GC would know best.
Emory is probably a reach for OP, and yes, some schools do practice yield management. OP’s HS GC will be able to help them to navigate these issues and build a good list…that’s partially what people pay for at elite private HSs…good college counseling.