While reading the “threads of disappointment” discussion, I was struck again of the need for college applicants to identify those often elusive safeties that they genuinely would be happy to attend.
I thought it might be helpful for future college applicants if we were to start a thread to recommend safeties that our kids considered, applied to, or attended. For this discussion, I’m thinking primarily of “safeties” for high stats, “average excellent” kids as defined by the most excellent @lindagaf. My arbitrary definition would be schools with a higher than 50% acceptance rate with 50% ACT/SAT scores of roughly 27/1200. Just to be clear, I don’t have a personal stake in defining “what is a safety?” a topic that has been debated endlessly here. If those benchmarks don’t fit you or your kid, feel free to apply your own.
To start things off, we really liked Western Washington in Bellingham, WA. Average GPA of 3.45, mid 50% test scores of roughly 26/1180, and acceptance rate higher than 80%. This is a mid-sized school located between the mountains and the sea between Seattle and Vancouver. Bellingham has a population of about 80-100,000, offers a pleasant downtown, and a great farmer’s market. There are trailheads within a close distance of campus and the school also maintains a lakefront property where students can rent boats and swim in nice weather. The university supports a variety of majors (business and education are popular choices) and also has some depth in performing arts. Engineering offerings are somewhat limited, however, with only a few programs ABET certified. There is an Honors Program and an alternative interdisciplinary college called Fairhaven for those that like to think outside the box. Most students are in-state and about 25% are students of color. When visiting campus, students seemed friendly and down to earth. Our D17 applied as did some of her friends.
There is merit money for OOS students, the most generous (and competitive) awards coming from the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE). If not part of WUE, merit of up to 8K per year is possible.
Current room/board/tuition fees for in state is about 20K; WUE rate is about 23K; and OOS (before merit discounting) is 35K
One of my DD’s “average excellent” high school pals was really happy at Salisbury University (just finished a PhD at U of Tenn) and and another loved St Mary’s College of MD (now a second year PhD candidate at UM-CP). I also know a couple “average excellent” students in Grand Forks who chose their mom’s home cooking and commuting to U of ND over other options.
Truly, if students are willing to look at what is in their own home state, I think that “average excellent” students can find a safety they are able to love.
My daughter really loved Clarkson. 68% acceptance rate. Average SAT/ACT 1240/27.
They are very generous with merit money and have an honors college that gives additional money.
They are excellent for engineering and their career placement outcomes are fabulous.
It’s definitely in a rural setting but the my daughter really loved the career readiness focus, the vibe of both students and profs, the facilities were great, and there was a partnership with SUNY Potsdam for courses not taught at Clarkson.
Earlham seems to serve the average excellent student really well without being super selective. It is unusually diverse for a LAC, has great med school placement, and really seems to honor all sorts of kids. It consistently ranks very high in teaching quality. It’s in Richmomd, IN. This one regularly seems to get some impressive kids from our school, in part because of their generous merit. Folks were so friendly and kind that this was a hard one to turn down!
I’d add Pitt. I’m not sure you can call it a likely but since it has Rolling Admissions and you can apply early and know if you are in before deadlines of other schools it’s better than a likely in a way. My D really liked it and Pittsburgh is a great city. The Honor College students have stats that measure with any school so plenty of peers.
Two colleges that Naviance shows as safeties for the “average excellent” at D19’s school, and whose stats are in line with the OP’s definition, are U of Oregon and U Colorado-Boulder, both of which are popular with students around here. Closer to home, a number of the Cal States fall into that category.
NCF for the LAC kid. It’s like the (poorer, public, tinier) Reed of FL. But they have grants that you can get to spend on whatever research or travel and research you like.
UT-Dallas for the STEM and business kids (also some artsy sorts who want to make video games, etc.). Some of its honors colleges offer a ton of perks. They have small seminar classes in their honor college called Reading Courses that are modeled on Oxbridge/UK tutorials. Not as big as typical flagships. IMO, it will be seen as the UCSD of TX in a decade or two.
Both of these offer a full-ride (or close to it) to NMS. Even if you aren’t, NCF offers some OOS scholarship to all OOS students and you just need to get some small scholarship to get in-state tuition at UTD.
University of Rhode Island / national oceanography leader, marine and enviro sciences, pharmacy program funded by cvs ceo and great nursing school.
Roger Williams University #1 men’s sailing team and right on Narragansett bay
Salve Regina. Great d3 sports. Located in Newport ri in the mansion district. Right on Atlantic Ocean and the famous cliff walk.
‘Mass Maritime Academy. Top 20 ranking for economic outcomes and value. On beautiful cape cod, Massachusetts.
Western New England University. In the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.
Stonehill College. Idyllic Catholic small lac in Easton Mass
Quinipiac University. Connecticut. Physicians assistant program. Strong prelaw and a stand alone law school.
Bryant University. One of the three b’s - thr New England smaller business focused unis Along with babson and Bentley. Top in accounting and cpa track and strong in other business majors. Full slate of non business majors. Beautiful facilities and parklike campus. D1 sports now. And lacrosse program headed by former duke lacrosse head coach.
A lot of great schools that you can name without referring to cost, but most will have to consider cost. It might be better to look at universities/colleges by state (public) or region (private). Living in Oregon it may not be practicable to look at Quinipiac.
NCF is a great school! I’ll also add Sarah Lawrence, which has a fairly high acceptance rate, and Suny Purchase, which offers an excellent public liberal arts program.
Californian here. We have a lot of options for CSUs as backups in case the UCs don’t work out, but for kids who want a smaller school in-state one place to look is Cal Lutheran. For kids who want slightly out of state another place to look is University of Nevada at Reno - I’ve had several friends’ kids go there and really like it. It’s close enough to the Bay Area to drive home for a weekend but far enough to get some separation, plus you are close to skiing.
^ yes re UNR. Interestingly, it’s not popular at D19’s school but is apparently quite popular at the school in the neighboring town (same school district, 15 minutes away, very similar student demographics and stats). Curious how that happens.
I would not say that Pitt is a safety, at least for average excellent PA students. My DD17 was admitted early fall (3.9+/4.7w GPA and 34 ACT) but peers this year with close stats (1350+ SAT) were asked to provide mid-year grades and many were offered another campus or denied. It was shocking how the admissions landscape has changed.
I would say University of Scranton, Susquehanna, Loyola, Syracuse, Ithaca, University of Buffalo, University of Delaware, Miami University of Ohio, West Virginia, University of Denver, College of Charleston, Ohio Wesleyan, JMU, Auburn, Alabama - all could be safeties for the average excellent student and all different sizes/feel.
For those who want Oxbridge-style tutorials but can’t get in to Williams or either of Oxbridge, Sarah Lawrence and NCF have been mentioned and offers them (Sarah Lawrence also has a study-abroad relationship with an Oxford college that allows strong SLC students to study there for 1 year). So too do William Jewell’s Oxbridge Honors program (which also endeavors to send everyone to Oxford for one year) and Ohio Honors Tutorial College.
However Sarah Lawrence’s academic offerings are strongly skewed toward arts, literature, writing, history, and psychology, with many other typical subjects of study having very limited offerings, so investigate carefully. Also, financial aid does not seem to be that good, according to its net price calculator.