Name the safeties your kids love

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For my son, the safeties were WVU and Arizona. He was also planning on applying to UNC Charlotte but as soon as he got in to a few schools that are great options (for him) he didn't finish the application.

We didn't really apply to reaches because we aren't willing to pay full price for an out of state school.

Where were you in-state?

PA.

The reach (slight) would have been Ohio State.

No Penn State? Have heard good things about Arizona, WVU, and OSU, btw. Just curious.

Not interested in Penn State. We tried. We knew he was getting into WVU with merit. People we know love WVU. And we knew he was getting into Arizona, also with merit. Ohio State is great. State schools in PA are not the bargain that they are in other states. Goal was to keep the schools we applied to under 45.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, at private schools there is a clear GPA line for many colleges. This is because unlike a public, you don't have 50% (or 30% or 20% or whatever..) of the class with a 4.0. You probably have 0% with a 4.0. Then you may have 2 kids with a 3.95 (and on down). So GPA actually distinguishes kids from each other.

The colleges know this so many admit solely on GPA. The 4.0 kids don't need a gazillion extracurriculars to distinguish themselves from the other 50 kids in the class with the 4.0. The GPA is enough.

Even some of the top10 schools have this sort of GPA line at our school. If you have XX GPA (which granted is high) it doesn't matter if you did original NIH research or did very little but play video games in high school---you're likely getting in--maybe not 100% likely every year but a very, very strong chance.

What kind of colleges are you referring to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats NMSF. So far, he’s gotten into all his safeties


Alabama
Arizona
Arizona State
Iowa
Michigan State
Oklahoma
Penn State
U of Central Florida
U of Minnesota
U Texas at Dallas
VCU

Why so many?
My kid has 3 safeties. 5 targets. and 12 reaches.

Not to send the thread in an off-topic direction but I like this ratio. I get so confused when I hear people say you should have more than three safeties. Logically, these are the schools you are most likely to get into so why would you waste limited CommonApp slots on sure things?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For my son, the safeties were WVU and Arizona. He was also planning on applying to UNC Charlotte but as soon as he got in to a few schools that are great options (for him) he didn't finish the application.

We didn't really apply to reaches because we aren't willing to pay full price for an out of state school.

Where were you in-state?

PA.

The reach (slight) would have been Ohio State.

No Penn State? Have heard good things about Arizona, WVU, and OSU, btw. Just curious.

Not interested in Penn State. We tried. We knew he was getting into WVU with merit. People we know love WVU. And we knew he was getting into Arizona, also with merit. Ohio State is great. State schools in PA are not the bargain that they are in other states. Goal was to keep the schools we applied to under 45.

45?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats NMSF. So far, he’s gotten into all his safeties


Alabama
Arizona
Arizona State
Iowa
Michigan State
Oklahoma
Penn State
U of Central Florida
U of Minnesota
U Texas at Dallas
VCU

Would they go?

Definitely considering the schools that offer big merit packages like Alabama and Oklahoma. Still waiting on in-state (VA) options and his reaches.

He received a few app fee waivers lso went ahead and applied to more than planned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For my son, the safeties were WVU and Arizona. He was also planning on applying to UNC Charlotte but as soon as he got in to a few schools that are great options (for him) he didn't finish the application.

We didn't really apply to reaches because we aren't willing to pay full price for an out of state school.

Where were you in-state?

PA.

The reach (slight) would have been Ohio State.

No Penn State? Have heard good things about Arizona, WVU, and OSU, btw. Just curious.

Not interested in Penn State. We tried. We knew he was getting into WVU with merit. People we know love WVU. And we knew he was getting into Arizona, also with merit. Ohio State is great. State schools in PA are not the bargain that they are in other states. Goal was to keep the schools we applied to under 45.

45?!

45,000 a year,

[Anonymous]

Alabama is NOT a safety if you are relying on merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats NMSF. So far, he’s gotten into all his safeties


Alabama
Arizona
Arizona State
Iowa
Michigan State
Oklahoma
Penn State
U of Central Florida
U of Minnesota
U Texas at Dallas
VCU

Why so many?
My kid has 3 safeties. 5 targets. and 12 reaches.

Not to send the thread in an off-topic direction but I like this ratio. I get so confused when I hear people say you should have more than three safeties. Logically, these are the schools you are most likely to get into so why would you waste limited CommonApp slots on sure things?

there are older threads on this topic too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats NMSF. So far, he’s gotten into all his safeties


Alabama
Arizona
Arizona State
Iowa
Michigan State
Oklahoma
Penn State
U of Central Florida
U of Minnesota
U Texas at Dallas
VCU

Awesome. Get that money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For my son, the safeties were WVU and Arizona. He was also planning on applying to UNC Charlotte but as soon as he got in to a few schools that are great options (for him) he didn't finish the application.

We didn't really apply to reaches because we aren't willing to pay full price for an out of state school.

Where were you in-state?

PA.

The reach (slight) would have been Ohio State.

No Penn State? Have heard good things about Arizona, WVU, and OSU, btw. Just curious.

Not interested in Penn State. We tried. We knew he was getting into WVU with merit. People we know love WVU. And we knew he was getting into Arizona, also with merit. Ohio State is great. State schools in PA are not the bargain that they are in other states. Goal was to keep the schools we applied to under 45.

45?!

45,000 a year,

Ohh, okay. Nice. Know a kid who now goes to WVU and likes it. Also know a girl who turned down an Ivy for ASU full (?) ride. (Not sure if it was actually a full ride or just very very close to it)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For my son, the safeties were WVU and Arizona. He was also planning on applying to UNC Charlotte but as soon as he got in to a few schools that are great options (for him) he didn't finish the application.

We didn't really apply to reaches because we aren't willing to pay full price for an out of state school.

Where were you in-state?

PA.

The reach (slight) would have been Ohio State.

No Penn State? Have heard good things about Arizona, WVU, and OSU, btw. Just curious.

dp.. what is good about WVU? Seriously asking because it has a major DC wants, but I heard it's a big party school where football is king. DC not interested in that, so we are not sure that it would be a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats NMSF. So far, he’s gotten into all his safeties


Alabama
Arizona
Arizona State
Iowa
Michigan State
Oklahoma
Penn State
U of Central Florida
U of Minnesota
U Texas at Dallas
VCU

Why so many?
My kid has 3 safeties. 5 targets. and 12 reaches.

Not to send the thread in an off-topic direction but I like this ratio. I get so confused when I hear people say you should have more than three safeties. Logically, these are the schools you are most likely to get into so why would you waste limited CommonApp slots on sure things?

I think we probably had too many safeties on the list. I’m a different poster. We had heard too many horror stories and wanted to be safe. My kid was never going to apply to 20 schools, so it was just the admission fee.

[Anonymous]

Kansas State
University of Delaware
Iowa State
Michigan State

Already accepted to all with tons of merit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kansas State
University of Delaware
Iowa State
Michigan State

Already accepted to all with tons of merit

That’s great to hear! Those are all solid schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kansas State
University of Delaware
Iowa State
Michigan State

Already accepted to all with tons of merit

That’s great to hear! Those are all solid schools.

Right and sadly PP’s kid won’t go to any of them, but there were classmates of the kid who were rejected from each of these schools because PP’s kid was one of the 18-20 kids that school accepted. And now some senior is sad because they didn’t get into their reach school due to PPs kid collecting acceptances like trophies that will go on a shelf.

Sorry but if people stopped doing this and actually exercised some discernment in applying to only 2-3 safeties, it would really help other kids in this process.