Safety Schools. Help!

College Search & Lists
1

<p>So, there are a ton of schools that fit my criteria, but none are safety schools for me. I don’t know if it is because they don’t exist, or if I don’t know where to look.</p>

<p>Schools I am looking at: Columbia, Stanford, Cornell, Northwestern, UPenn, Gerogia Tech, University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>My Stats:
3.83 GPA UW where an A- is a 94. 98 average grade.
2270 SAT
All AP and Honors Classes
ranked 4/100 (unweighted rank)
Grade: Junior
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Female
ECs: A medium amount, lots of leadership.
Here are my full stats.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1102501-chance-columbia-upenn-cornell-cmu-umich-northwestern-georgia-tech-rpi.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1102501-chance-columbia-upenn-cornell-cmu-umich-northwestern-georgia-tech-rpi.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Schools: I am looking at going into Engineering, so first and foremost, I want a good engineering program. I am looking at systems engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering or operations research, so something with those majors would be good. The thing is, I don’t want a school that is only good at engineering/math. I want a school that has a good program in that, but is also diverse. So I want a school that has excellent humanities programs on top of their engineering programs. I also want a school that has flexibility within degrees. I am considering doing a major/minor or a double major with something in economics, so that flexibility is important</p>

<p>Size: I am not too picky. I would prefer over 1,000 students per class, but not over 7,000.</p>

<p>Location: I want to stay in the U.S., but other than that not too picky. I would like to be in or near a city, and in some place that isn’t insanely warm and humid… (within an hour or two counts as near)</p>

<p>Other Factors:
Co-ed
Highly involved student body</p>

<p>If you could give me some suggestions that would be amazing! If you need any more info or criteria just let me know!</p>

2

<p>Big ten schools. Purdue, UIUC, Penn State.</p>

3

<p>Case Western, RPI</p>

4

<p>Since safety schools often don’t give much financial aid, what is your situation? Will your parents pay full-price for any school? </p>

<p>If not, then you’ll need to CAREFULLY choose safety schools that will give you large amounts of merit money.</p>

<p>Schools like Penn State won’t work if you need financial help, because they don’t give much merit.</p>

<p>If you don’t know how much your parents will spend each year, ask them. You need to know a budget.</p>

<p>Which state are you in?</p>

<p>Are you a likely NMSF? What did you get on your PSAT?</p>

5

<p>“I want to stay in the US”</p>

<p>Does this mean that you classify as an International Applicant and you don’t want to return to your home country for college, or does this mean you are a US applicant who doesn’t want to be referred to universities outside the US?</p>

<p>How much can your family afford to pay for your education? Unless you have a college fund upwards of $250,000 stashed away in a safe place, you need to identify some financial safeties. These are institutions that your family can pay for without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid if you are a US applicant. If you are an International applicant, you won’t qualify for that kind of aid, so a financial safety is one that your family can afford without any aid at all.</p>

<p>Every state has one or more public university with ABET accredited engineering programs. Check out what your state offers at [ABET</a> | Accrediting College Programs in Applied Science, Computing, Engineering and Technology](<a href=“http://www.abet.org/]ABET”>http://www.abet.org/) Chances are that your most economical option will be an in-state public university. If you can’t afford four full years there, find out which community colleges near you have formal articulation agreements with the state universities for engineering. You could commute from home for two years then be guaranteed transfer into the second two years. Again, this works best for US applicants. Some states consider International applicants who have lived in that state for a certain number of years to be in-state residents for tuition and fees.</p>

<p>There are several useful threads in the Financial Aid Forum that list colleges and universities that offer guaranteed scholarships for specific GPA and SAT scores. Read through this one first <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>In the next couple of weeks, there will be a lot of threads here that start with something like “I didn’t get in anywhere I can afford”. Don’t put yourself in that position. Make sure that at least one of your Academic Safeties is also a Financial Safety, a place where you can study the major(s) you are interested in, and that you will be happy to attend if all else goes wrong.</p>

6

<p>University of Rochester, Bucknell, Lafayette.</p>

7

<p>Not a safety, but definitely Harvey Mudd should be on this list. It’s part of the Claremont consortium (including Pomona and Claremont McKenna). Located in Claremont (a suburb of LA), it has personal attention you expect from a LAC, and a great reputation in engineering, as well as the resources of a 6,000 student university, which is what 5 contiguous campuses would offer you. Great weather year round too.</p>

8

<p>Maybe some of the UC’s? You may be able to get into the top ones like LA and Berkeley, but how about some others like Davis and Irvine?</p>

9

<p>mom2collegekids: I am fine financially. My parents aren’t super wealthy but they have put all of their savings into college funds for my brothers. Money is not an issue. </p>

<p>@happymom: I am a US citizen, not an international applicant</p>

<p>@M’s mom: I actually visited Harvey Mudd this winter. Despite everything that is good about it, I didn’t love it. I am still considering it, but I feel that the people you come in contact with daily are not academically diverse enough.</p>

<p>I live in Maine, so my in-state colleges don’t really have a lot to offer me academically and they are much too rural for my taste. Because of a competition I was in, I already have a guaranteed 40,000 scholarship to the school if I choose to go.</p>

<p>To everyone, thanks for the recommendations! I’ll check them out.</p>

10

<p>Fordham, St Louis U, Villanova…</p>

<p>If distance isn’t an issue…Gonzaga, Santa Clara, Cal Poly SLO, USan Diego.</p>

11

<p>You’ll get into GaTech, which is an excellent engineering school, and not too large. But it does not have a breadth of humanities majors. About 9500 undergrads.</p>

<p>You should get into Michigan, although they have been deferring and then even waitlisting highly qualified OOS applicants. It seems like they don’t think these applicants will ultimately enroll, so they don’t actually give them an admit slot. If you want a school of under 7000 total, then Michigan is way out. The other classic B10 ENGR schools, UIUC and Purdue, would also exceed 7000 many times over. UM and UIUC have a breadth of majors, Purdue does not.</p>

<p>Even with your stats, you cannot count on admission to any of the rest of the schools you list, although you certainly should apply. NW is just about a match. CMU is a match, but some programs there are much more competitive than others.</p>

<p>The suggestion of Case Western is valid: 4000 undergrads, full list of majors, will offer a lot of merit aid, a safety for you.</p>

<p>Another school I would suggest under your criteria is Johns Hopkins. Not a safety, but a good match.</p>

12

<p>You are looking for safeties:</p>

<p>University at Buffalo.</p>

<p>[UB</a> Engineering - University at Buffalo](<a href=“http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/]UB”>http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/)</p>

<p>Alfred University (not in a city, but a little over an hour from Rochester)</p>

<p>[Inamori</a> School of Engineering - Alfred University](<a href=“http://engineering.alfred.edu/]Inamori”>http://engineering.alfred.edu/)</p>

13

<p>Hey I’m from Maine too! Congratulations on that scholarship.
Definitely take a look at RPI and Purdue (Purdue gives about 10K in merit scholarships to students like you). Schools like Penn State do give some scholarships to their honors college students, if you get into their honors college. University of Rochester could also be a good one. I’ve heard Bowdoin is pretty good for engineering too, but the price is steep and it’s not a safety school.</p>

14

<p>Union, Drexel, RPI</p>

15

<p>Thanks everyone for your suggestions!
Just so you know, I meant not over 7,000 per class, not for the entire school.</p>

<p>I looked at your suggestions and I really like Drexel and Case Western</p>

16

<p>“7,000 per class” means about 28,000 undergrads. There aren’t many schools larger than that - maybe Ohio State and UTexas.</p>

17

<p>[List</a> of United States university campuses by undergraduate enrollment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_university_campuses_by_undergraduate_enrollment]List”>List of United States university campuses by undergraduate enrollment - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>I know there aren’t many, but there are more than just two. Maybe it is a stupid criteria, but I just don’t like the idea of my class being bigger than the population of my town</p>

18

<p>Great list. I agree that you will likely get into Georgia Tech. It may not have the breadth beyond engineering that you want. </p>

<p>Let me recommend the University of Wisconsin at Madison. </p>

<p>I think it’s a safety for you. If you apply in September, you will be admitted by October and will know for sure. If I’m wrong you have time to get another safety, but I don’t think I’m wrong. </p>

<p>First rate engineering, beautiful campus on a lake, and right in the city of Madison Wisconsin. They are about 35% out of state and would love a full-pay student from Maine with your high stats. You’d also about 2 hours from Chicago.</p>