<p>haha i knew this kid who applied only to two schools. Princeton…and Rutgers. He got into Princeton</p>
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<p>That is the key idea. I opened this thread, and some others like it on Brand X college forums, because most years here on College Confidential we parents read about some quite strong applicant who gets rejected by ALL the colleges to which he applies. Ouch. Some applicants to Princeton will be admitted to Princeton. Many applicants to Princeton will be admitted to some really good college. But every applicant to Princeton should figure out, for himself or herself, what sure-bet college is a suitable college for his or her circumstances, and be sure to apply to that college, to make sure to get in somewhere. And now that Princeton doesn’t have an early decision program anymore, it is a good idea to apply early to some sure-bet college, just to make sure that you are in somewhere as you apply to the more speculative colleges that interest you. </p>
<p>Good luck in the application season.</p>
<p>I am planning on applying out-of-state for engineering @ both UCB and CMU.</p>
<p>My hope is that these are safe alternatives… given a decent
profile match for Princeton Engineering (i.e. academics and research wise)
at this point</p>
<p>I don’t know your stats, but UCB OOS is no walk in the park. I think CMU is the real safety in your case.</p>
<p>michigan is my only real safety, but i have a good number of matches like jhu, cmu, cornell etc.</p>
<p>University of Oklahoma!</p>
<p>When I applied to Princeton, my safeties were - WashU, Emory, and Northwestern.</p>
<p>Did WashU backfire for you? Quite a few people were “overqualified” and were put on the wait list.</p>
<p>Yes indeed. I got waitlisted.</p>
<p>It appears that some colleges are safer for some applicants than for others.</p>
<p>I was afraid of telling people my safeties were Wash U, U Chicago, Georgetown, and Wellesley. It really does depend on the person… I thought I was going to get into one of HYP, and I did early, so I never did apply to any “safety.”</p>
<p>If Princeton is a sort-of-reach, I’d apply to a couple in the top 20 (esp Chicago and Georgetown because they are amazing schools with similar strengths) and then the merit program of your state school.</p>
<p>I’m applying to my “safety” early action, Boston College. My friend was waitlisted at BC and accepted to Harvard, so it can be very sporadic, but I think I can get in EA. Perhaps hers was a case of Tufts syndrome, and I think applying EA can help me avoid that by letting admission officers know I really would like to go there.
So, hopefully I will get into BC early, which will then leave me 5 slots to apply to mostly reach schools like Princeton, Williams, Duke, et al. :)</p>
<p>I applied to BC early action too, and was accepted into their honors program! I then applied to a bunch of Ivies, Williams, WashU, and JHU, as well as a state school, already knowing I was in at BC. I thought it worked out really well, and it was nice to know that I had already gotten in a school that I would like to go to. Although BC did give me zero financial aid, as opposed to Princeton’s $15,000 per year, which was nice.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s the problem. My family is at the point where financial aid is going to suck no matter what, even with “100% need-met admissions”. I feel bad - knowing that I could go to a school like UMinnesota or Cal Berkeley for nothing - but east coat has always been my dream, and my parents just grit their teeth and tell me not to worry about costs.
I can live with student loans to pay off, I suppose.</p>
<p>Thanks for the additional replies. I hope this helps this year’s Princeton applicants line up a suitable list of colleges to apply to, to ensure getting into at least one good college that fits each applicant.</p>
<p>Pepperdine, U of Minn-TC</p>
<p>We are starting to get recruiting mail from U of MN TC here. I think there is a NACAC rule about how early a grade of high school students colleges should/ought to send mail to. Our son, about to be a tenth grader, is just beginning to get mail.</p>
<p>Tokenadult,
DS1 received 25 lbs. of college mail soph year. At last count, he has gotten 34 lbs. this year – 1/3 of his body weight – and we still have a month and a half to go (we start counting at the beginning of the school year). </p>
<p>This doesn’t count what’s in his college app box (the schools where he’s actually planning to apply)!</p>
<p>We are also well over 500 emails, and that’s after he has opted out of many of the schools.</p>
<p>Reaches: Princeton, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, maybe Columbia.
Matches/Safeties: Williams, Middlebury, Reed, IUB (Bremen), Mount Holyoke.</p>
<p>Am I realistic?</p>
<p>williams is definitely more selective than cornell.</p>