Finding safeties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured Lawrence, Macalester and St. Olaf. DS liked St. Olaf but not the other two. Still looking for more targets and safeties.

Wooster might go along with that list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Lawrence, Macalester and St. Olaf. DS liked St. Olaf but not the other two. Still looking for more targets and safeties.

Wooster might go along with that list.[/quote

Yes. We there too but DS doesn’t seem interested enough to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Lawrence, Macalester and St. Olaf. DS liked St. Olaf but not the other two. Still looking for more targets and safeties.

Wooster might go along with that list.

Did you read the original post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Lawrence, Macalester and St. Olaf. DS liked St. Olaf but not the other two. Still looking for more targets and safeties.

Wooster might go along with that list.

Did you read the original post?

Yes, last month when it was written, so unfortunately I didn’t remember all the details. (Also thought this might not have been OP anyway.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+3 I think there is some confusion about what a safety school is, especially in the current time.

A safety school is one that you are extremely likely to be admitted - like at least 70% and for some up to 99% (there is no 100 of course).

That is partially a measure of your credentials compared to typical admits, but also a measure of the school's process - which of course is never fully known.

Just an example, Miami of Ohio received 26,844 applications (from 2020-2021 common data set). They admitted 24,684, over 90%.

So we know they are not highly selective, and we likely know that if your credentials compare favorably to their typical applicant, you are highly likely to be admitted. They also have a low ultimate yield, because they had 3800 enrollments from that 24,684 admitted number.

That is a safety school for a lot of people.

Tulane at 9% or even 15% admittance rate is not a typical safety. It may be for very high achieving students, but for most it is not a guaranteed admittance.

Plus, keep in mind that an AO can also sniff out if they think a student is serious about attending, right? What if they perceive your non-early RD application as over-qualified and might reject to protect their yield? So even on the highest end you are not guaranteed anything.

Tulane has been perhaps the most aggressive school out there at drumming up applications so they can lower their acceptance rate. They send postcards to people with a pulse.

+

My kid with a 2.8 and 22 ACT has been getting inundated with stuff from Tulane.

Yes Tulane cheats when it comes to it's acceptance rate but it's still not a safety. And whoever mentioned Emory is just one of the many anti-Emory trolls on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

Urban or urbanish -- Macalester, Rhodes, Hartford, Trinity, all of the Claremont Colleges, Beloit, Augustana (IL)

+1 Kalamazoo is urbanish (though in MI so it is also cold).

[Anonymous]

OP here. We’ve been touring schools and my child definitely does not want to be in an urban environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

Towson or St. Mary's if he wants smaller.

Was just going to suggest St. Marys. DC's couselor went there and highly recommended it. Muhlenberg is DC's likely. The visit really wowed us. DC is applying to mostly top LACs, some ivies, Northwestern, umd and umich. But, it's good to have a likely you like in addition to umd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

Towson or St. Mary's if he wants smaller.

Was just going to suggest St. Marys. DC's couselor went there and highly recommended it. Muhlenberg is DC's likely. The visit really wowed us. DC is applying to mostly top LACs, some ivies, Northwestern, umd and umich. But, it's good to have a likely you like in addition to umd.

What did you like about Muhlenburg? We were so disappointed. Did not wow us at all.

[Anonymous]

The latest Princeton Review is out. Look at the top regional colleges. Generally they make good safeties.

[Anonymous]

Kalamazoo, Hanover, Wabash, Franklin.....there a ton of small colleges. I went to a no name SLAC, and had some great professors. A few now teach at Notre Dame, one teaches at SUNY, another at Washington St. Louis, etc.

[Anonymous]

Maybe Elon? It has a pretty campus and about 6,000 undergrads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The latest Princeton Review is out. Look at the top regional colleges. Generally they make good safeties.

But are they liberal arts colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The latest Princeton Review is out. Look at the top regional colleges. Generally they make good safeties.

But are they liberal arts colleges?

USNews has its updated rankings for best liberal arts colleges, so you can look further down on the list for ideas of safeties:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges

DD applied to top ranking SLACs (and ended up going to one) but also selected a couple of safeties that happened to be in the 60s the year she applied. Got in to both with merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The latest Princeton Review is out. Look at the top regional colleges. Generally they make good safeties.

But are they liberal arts colleges?

USNews has its updated rankings for best liberal arts colleges, so you can look further down on the list for ideas of safeties:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges

DD applied to top ranking SLACs (and ended up going to one) but also selected a couple of safeties that happened to be in the 60s the year she applied. Got in to both with merit aid.

Which ones in the 60s did she like? We've seen several in the 50s-70s and they just don't compare to the top 30 or so schools. Wondering if my child's safeties should be a different type of school even though he has a preference to attend a liberal arts college.