After hours spent researching and poking every hole in the Internet, I can’t seem to find a good safety that meets all my wants. The schools I’m applying to already are University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Chicago, and University of Southern California. But I want to add another safety because I don’t really want to go to MSU. My safety wants are:
- have early ACTION program
- preferably in New England/Northeast
- give decent amount of merit aid (or has OOS cost of less than $40,000/year)
- decent STEM program (I am planning to major in biology, so I don't need a super heavy engineering school, so something like an LAC with good natural sciences)
I got a 1550 on my SAT (one take), have a 3.88UW/4.35W, and have a good amount of quality extracurriculars if that helps for scholarships.
Thanks!
For us with similar stats the safeties were in-state public schools, public schools in nearby states, and schools in Canada. The Canadian schools admit largely based on stats which for you are quite strong.
I just checked the OOS cost at a couple of public schools near you (such as OSU), and did not find anything under $40,000. However, I did not check very many schools. Have you run the NPC for OSU and if so does it mention the likelihood of a merit scholarship? If you can get a merit presidential scholarship at UVM it would not be all that far away from the $40,000 number, although it might be over by a small amount. UVM’s NPC did correctly predict merit aid for us when I ran it about 5 years ago.
The well known schools in Ontario are likely to also be over US$40,000 per year. The less well known (but still very good) universities in eastern Canada would be well under this cost, and a safety with your stats. Let me know if you want specific suggestions. McGill in the past had been under US$40,000 for international students, but I think that this is likely to change.
University of British Columbia will be around $35,000 and with your stats you are likely to get in.
With your stats, you might get enough merit at Miami of Ohio to get COA <$40K, and they have early action
What is your State of residence?
My D basically used the University of Denver as a safety. (It’s not in the northeast, but then neither is USC, where she also happened to apply.)
It has Early Action and an Honors college to apply to, so you’d likely know by December you were in with probably a $26K total scholarship, which takes the direct cost you pay down to about $38K. If your expected family contribution was below that amount, you could also get some merit aid, but I’m assuming it’s not, or you’d have lots of options below $40K at schools that meet need.
Don’t know about their sciences, though they do offer a Biology B.A. and also a Biology B.S., which is apparently more rigorous.
For my daughter (lower stats) who was originally looking into bio, these EA schools all came in around 30K: UMaine (match your instate tuition), Allegheny, and Susquehanna.
My lad used Pittsburgh as a safety (rolling admissions - decent merit for high achievers including OOS). It ended up being his second choice school at the end. (He went to U Rochester instead.)
I’ve seen plenty of higher stat students think of Pitt as a safety and end up there because they liked it. It is urban, so that turns some off/on. My lad preferred U Rochester as they are urban, but with a more defined campus bubble.