Safety Universities

 Now that I have discussed  the Reach and Realistic  college lists,  its time to look at the  third set , the so called "safety" options.
 Safety schools are those  in which a well prepared student has a very strong chance  of admission.
While there are many  colleges that will admit pretty much anyone,what  I aim  todo is identify  strong academic  programs where there  the odds of admission are still very good.

 It takes a  bit f effort to find these safety schools and they often depend on your interest. A university may be an excellent safety school for a liberal arts major but a terrible choice for an engineer and vice-versa.

 Some of the Universities I recommend as geerally safe choices are

• Penn State University
• Michigan State University
• Syracuse University
•  University of Pittsburgh
• Franklin & Marshall College
• Bucknell University
• College of Wooster

 Ther sare a  coupe of STEM  institutions that  have strong engineering programs  but are not too difficult to get into

•  Rochester Institute of Technology
• Worcester  Polytechnic Institute

 The key is to find the right  "reach", "realistic" and s "safe" options for you.

 Contact  us at clearskyeducation@gmail.com to schedule a free consultation and start working on your college list

 Now  lets return to looking at individual university applications

Realistic Universities

 The most important choices are those I refer to as the realistic set.    These are colleges  where  you think  you have a reasonable chance  of admission. Like all  good things, there is a lot of work involved.
   Many of the programs I  rate as realistic options are large  public universities. While thes schools re not as competitive as the "Reach programs" thry are just as strong academically.
 The realistic group also includes   several liberal arts schools which

 Some of the realistic schools  I recommend are:

• University of Michigan
• UCLA
•  Georgia Tech
• University  of  Virginia
• CMU ( non cs  majors)
• New York University
• University of Southern California
• Emory
• Tufts
• Rochester
• Case Western Reserve
•  Brandeis
• University of  North Carolina
• University of California - Berkeley
• Purdue
•  Miami ( Ohio)
• Oberlin
• Davidson
• Wake Forest 
• 
  

• 
  

Reach Universities

A good place to start with your  List of schools to apply to is with the  list of "Reach programs.


  Aspirational is another tag for  reach schools.A reach school is  one that you think you wil not get into and that it is out of reach. However if you set your goals high  and apply your self  to the task there is no reason  you cannot convert "out if reach" to "within reach"

 The canonical reach  schools are the  ivy  league universities. However  top STEM  universities and elite liberal arts colleges also fit in this list. Many big Research  universities are also in this category


 Here is my list of reach programs

•  The Ivy League schools-  namely
• Harvard
• Yale
•  Princeton
• University of Pennsylvania
• Cornell
• Columbia
• Dartmouth
• Brown
•  the  best STEM programs
• MIT
• Caltech
• CMU ( for Computer Science especially)
• Harvey  Mudd College
•  Large Research Universities
•  Northwestern
•  University of Chicago
•  Johns  Hopkins
•  Stanford
• Duke
• Rice
•   Elite Liberal Arts schools
• Amherst
• Swarthmore
• Williams
• Pomona

 Of course  this a is a generic list , It is individualised for each student based on their academic and  other interests.

Finalize your College List

With about 5 weeks( 38 days to be exact)until Jan 1  left to get your applications complete, the furst thing is to decide where to apply. I recommend applying to between  8 to 12  colleges and not more than 15 under any circumstances..


 I recommend applying to between  8 to 12  colleges and not more than 15 under any circumstances.
While its true that most universities use the common ap, each program will have at least one supplementary essay   and    you are looking at writing, editing and rewriting  about 15 essays  in 44 days. That one every 3 days for 6 weeks - a tiring and daunting scenario.

My method for selecting schools is to start by forming 3 big lists .
 Create  a list of Universities that appeal to  you  and form 3 groups - the reach schools which you know are   tough to get into and  you realize  your odds of admission are around 30% or   less.
 The Ivy league schools and premier STEM programs  are  the  best example of Reach programs.
  Then you have a realistic list where  your chance of admission should be between 30 to 50%.
 Many of the big public universities  such as UCLA, Michigan  are often excellent   realistic choices
 Finally the all important safety list  where  you think you have a better than 50% chance of being accepted.
 Urban  universities  along with  Some of the public universities and smaller liberal arts schools are ideal safe options.
Examples are -  University of Pittsburgh, Boston U Northeastern, Depaul.

 I will   be giving long lists of  universities by these categories in the coming week



 Send an email to clearsky education with your profile to get consulting aid on this.
 Your first session or  phone call is free.

Time to get started

  The early Action and Early decision application deadlines have passed.
 I had  reviewed and analysed the applications for several universities for this.
 However most people need to

 The universities I recommended  and reviewed for Early application were:

• Caltech
•  University of Chicago
•   University of Pennsylvania(UPenn)
• Northwestern University
• 
  
•  Brown University
•  Columbia University
• Carnegie  Mellon  University
• Rice University
• Dartmouth University
• Duke University
• MIT
• Georgia Tech
• University of  Michigan
• University of Illinois

 Hopefully some of you will be receiving congratulatory letters in mid December and ending your college application process.

 However most people need to start  finalizing their college list and send out 5-10 applications by  January 1.

 I will be  looking at several other programs in the next few weeks  as well as provide information on schools which have late deadlines in February and rolling deadlines.

 If you have not started finalizing your  college list or essays yet - It  about Time.


 Pleae look at www.clearskyeducation.com and Contact me at clearskyeducation@gmail.com to  warn about my services

Clearskyeducation.com

I have enjoyed blogging on this site for the past three months  and am now launching my website
http://www.clearskyeducation.com/.

 I will continue blogging on this site until the January  application deadline and  plan on covering many more  university  applications
 Please log into the website or leave comments here  to  suggest   to suggest  universities  you  think I should  look at.

 Anyone can  get a free  telephonic consultation   by sending me a request at http://www.clearskyeducation.com/

Details of services offered and the way I work are mentioned there.

 I look forward to getting to know some of my readers