Anyone here been rejected from their safety?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a friend today that this happened to her son. Does this happen more often than we think? I remember some stories from last year, but I didn't come across any examples until today. Now her son thinks he won't get in anywhere.

Can you tell us the safety school?

If you do, we can give you other schools of similar quality that he has a chance of getting into that he may not have considered before.

I hate that he thinks he won't get in anywhere now... that's an awful feeling for a teenager. 🥺

Here's the thing - I know the school, but I don't know his stats (and didn't want to question her about it since its not my business and she was obviously upset). My friend just described the school as a safety for her son. So I don't know if the school was truly a safety. Still, I imagine that parents around here do some basic level of research to figure out safeties and targets (i.e. common data set); and this friend is someone who would be on top of those things. The school is Clemson.

I know one very qualified student that was denied at Clemson this year and several others that were offered summer start. Clemson is not a safety anymore.

Clemson is not a safety for any student anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS was deferred EA from what we thought was a safety. I don't believe safeties exist anymore.

We should not consider most of these places safeties anymore; instead, they are likelies.

DP. I think "likelies" is just as misleading as "safeties."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS was deferred EA from what we thought was a safety. I don't believe safeties exist anymore.

We should not consider most of these places safeties anymore; instead, they are likelies.

DP. I think "likelies" is just as misleading as "safeties."

Then they're probably not likely for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS was deferred EA from what we thought was a safety. I don't believe safeties exist anymore.

We should not consider most of these places safeties anymore; instead, they are likelies.

Agree. Though I don't know if it was even a likely! He was got into several much more difficult admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should only apply to seven or so schools so that you can demonstrate true interest in each of them. Schools like BC aren’t going to waste an admission on a kid they know is bound for HYP.

BC isn't a safety. True safeties don't yield protect. State schools don't yield protect. Schools with an acceptance rate over 80% don't yield protect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

This.

There's far from a definitive definition of "safety".

For people shooting for Harvard, UVA, Northwestern, W&M, Amherst or even VTech could be considered a "safety".

For others, those "safeties" are first choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

This.

There's far from a definitive definition of "safety".

For people shooting for Harvard, UVA, Northwestern, W&M, Amherst or even VTech could be considered a "safety".

For others, those "safeties" are first choices.

This is not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a school that used to be considered a safety, but now has so many applications it’s getting more difficult to get in? Like maybe Auburn or Alabama?

+1

Is it really a "safety"? A general definition for Safety: your kid's stats are 75% or above for GPA and SAT/ACT and the school has an acceptance rate of 50-60%+. IMO, it also needs to be somewhere your kid would like to attend and your family can afford

So any school with less than 50% acceptance rate by definition is NOT a safety for anyone

Good way to define Safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a school that used to be considered a safety, but now has so many applications it’s getting more difficult to get in? Like maybe Auburn or Alabama?

+1

Is it really a "safety"? A general definition for Safety: your kid's stats are 75% or above for GPA and SAT/ACT and the school has an acceptance rate of 50-60%+. IMO, it also needs to be somewhere your kid would like to attend and your family can afford

So any school with less than 50% acceptance rate by definition is NOT a safety for anyone

Good way to define Safety.

Probably need to break it out by major, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

Aren’t likelies and safeties the same thing?

DD was deferred from a likely-kids with lower stats and less on their resume were admitted so think it was some sort of yield protection. Admitted to second and still waiting on third. Admitted to a target so unlikely she will attend any of the Likelies.

DP: I don't consider likelies and safeties the same thing. Safeties are schools that admit 80+% of applicants, and your child's stats are in the top 75%. A likely is a school with an overall admissions rate of 50-74% and your child is at or above 75%. However, a likely can become a target if your child is applying to a competitive major.

My definition of "safeties" is stricter. They're schools where either (1) you've already been accepted (usually an early rolling acceptance) or (2) acceptance decisions are made strictly "by the numbers" (e.g., Iowa/Iowa State, Kansas) and you have the necessary numbers. Anything less certain is a "likely."

This is one reason the guaranteed admissions policy at VCU is so great. It puts VCU in the second category of actual safety (admission by the numbers).

True...but when the guaranteed admissions threshold is a 3.5 GPA or top 10% of their class (not sure if/what the SAT target is) I'd think VCU would still be considered competitive by most standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are not there yet. I thought Penn state would be the safety for one kid and UVA the safety for another. I have learned that these are both not safeties.

Yeah. Not sure many would put UVA in the safety category.

[Anonymous]

Nothing is safe! We have friends with a kid at Bowdoin who didn't get into Penn State; kid's little sibling, who's a B student with a 1200 SAT, just got into Penn State. All the yield protecting is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is safe! We have friends with a kid at Bowdoin who didn't get into Penn State; kid's little sibling, who's a B student with a 1200 SAT, just got into Penn State. All the yield protecting is crazy.

Penn State does not yield protect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

This.

There's far from a definitive definition of "safety".

For people shooting for Harvard, UVA, Northwestern, W&M, Amherst or even VTech could be considered a "safety".

For others, those "safeties" are first choices.

Nope. None of those schools you listed are safeties, even for someone "shooting for Harvard." Northwestern's acceptance rate is 7% this year. That is not a safety for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

It accepted 43% of students the previous year. Not a safety.

A friend who thought their kid was destined to top tier schools had Clemson as their safety school. Well let's just say they are not going to Clemson. It seems to be a very common for people to think this and get shut out and end up scrambling when they do get shut out of all the schools they apply to.

To me a safety school would be community college then transfer to your dream school.

This.

When I graduated high school in '89, a good friend applied to pretty much all top tier schools - UVA, Amherst, Williams, UNC, a bunch other top SLACs, 2 or three Ivies. Solid grades, strong SAT's and EC's, AP classes. If I remember correctly, he only got into one - Trinity - which he ended up attending, and ultimately got his MBA from UNC.

I think he saw the non-Ivy schools as safeties. Though he ended up fine, that was a risky (and tactically questionable) move.