<p>A solid state university which allocates majority of its slots for the in-state applicants could be a good safety school to apply to. If you lived in our state, your D would have no problem making into UW. And if all falls through, UW would still be a great school for someone interested in engineering/medicine. Just make sure she is in love with her safety, because admissions game becomes more and more like crapshoot.</p>
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<p>ParentofIvyHope, why does your daughter prefer the Ivies (and there’s quite a collection of diverse experiences under the Ivy label) over non-Ivies? What is her rationale? Does she even have one other than prestige?</p>
<p>And if she is planning to go to medical school, does she really think that the majority of students in medical school came from Ivies? The vast majority come from flagship state universities. Because flagship state universities are more than fine preparation to get into medical school, if that is the goal.</p>
<p>Most of the time people who apply to the combined BA/MD programs are automatically entered into the normal undergrad admissions pool, so the OP’s daughter probably does have a few safeties.</p>
<p>Thanx ‘collegealum314’ for getting the subtle point there.</p>
<p>Indeed the direct Medicine program have inbuilt safety mechanisim.</p>
<p>Stresst: “can’t you just say youre undecided?”</p>
<p>That won’t be wise, as she knows what she wants to do. The question was to know which major will provide any leavrage.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl : UC’s are very good and there is nothing wrong with these but my D doesn’t want to go to one.
BunsenBurner : She wants to go to a PRIVATE college of undegraduate student body of 4000 to 10000 students. So state universities pretty much no-no at this point.</p>
<p>^^You may want to add Northwestern and/or Duke to your list as matches.</p>
<p>^^^: Northwestern is already on her list because of HPME, so she will applying there to college of Engineering too.
We are not that familiar with Duke. What will be the benefit? Is it easier than Northwestern or Cornell or Brown or Dartmouth or Rice?
Rice has a direct medicine so it is on her list.
Direct medicine she is considering includes
USC, Leigh, UCSD, Penn State</p>
<p>So that should provide some safety.</p>
<p>^^well, Duke is a lot like Northwestern. It’s a private school with a good reputation overall and for its engineering. I don’t know that there is a particular advantage to duke–looks like you have a lot of matches already. If the results of my high school 10 years ago are reliable, duke admissions seemed to be easier than the ivies (particularly for great students) and around the same difficulty as NU. </p>
<p>I applied to engineering at NU too–though I turned it down, it looked like an excellent program.</p>
<p>^^^: We will prefer Northwestern to Duke just because of its location, Chicago is more libral than Durham, NC.
Though my D is fan of Duke Sports.</p>
<p>I frankly would be very shocked (and disappointed in Northwestern) if your daughter didn’t get in, so my guess is applying to duke is unnecessary.</p>
<p>I spent some time at northwestern after undergrad and can attest that it really is a wonderful environment.</p>
<p>Northwestern and Duke are not safeties for this young lady, either. Not because she is not qualified, but because there are simply too many people competing for too few spots at all of these schools. </p>
<p>I think the OP would be well-advised to stop thinking of the high-level but non-Ivy schools as “matches” or “safeties.” I sympathize with not wanting to attend a UC school but realistically, at least one (non Berkeley or UCLA) should be on her list as a fallback.</p>
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<p>^^What’s your definition of a match then? It sounds like you are equating match with safety. Berkeley and UCLA might have a quirkier admissions process than NU or Duke. My feeling is that Duke and NU admissions are more stats-driven or at least value academic talent more than other schools–particularly for their engineering candidates. </p>
<p>BTW, the OP already mentioned she is applying to USC, Leigh, UCSD, and Penn State. How many safeties do you really need?</p>
<p>collegealum –
USC, UCSD, etc. are for direct med programs. Since when are those safeties, in that context?
Pizzagirl’s making a lot of sense to me.</p>
<p>^^Like I said before, when you apply to a direct med program you are also automatically put in the pool for regular admission.</p>
<p>^^^: True when you apply to Direct Medicine the rule is to get accepted to some undergrad program before considering for the medical school.
So she will have to get into the Computer Engineering at UCSD, USC and other before being considered for Med school.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, well said</p>
<p>I recommend philosophy… or maybe some obscure language that you’re sure the school offers… however, I still think this entire question is lame.</p>
<p>icypineapple37 : No question is lame.</p>
<p>Like beauty is in the eye of beholder so the question is to the mind of Capable.</p>
<p>I’m sure this advice has been given, but I’ll add one more chip to the table in favor of it. :)</p>
<p>Honestly, your daughter should put down what she is truly interested in. These schools want to see passion, and a major with no evidence of that isn’t going to help. You might luck out with a very unusual major, but only if it happens to strike the adcom’s fancy at the time.</p>
<p>Let your daughter put down what she is passionate about, and can support with extracurriculars and her writing. It’s a much better strategy than hoping to luck out with a contrived major, and it will, if nothing else, make the application process less arduous for her. </p>
<p>On a related note, don’t assume that your daughter will be happy at any Ivy. I hope you at least visit before applying across the board to all of them, because they are VERY different schools.</p>
<p>Hanajima Arashi: True I got the point and will let my daughter go ahead with Computer Engineering as the major.</p>
<p>It’s not your application. It’s not for you to “let” her put down a major that she is truly interested in. If she really wanted to study art history, or philosophy, or Latin, would you not “let” her put down those majors?</p>