What are your high stat kid’s safeties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

Rice? Did you go to Rice?

Np, why would you ask that? Rice is excellent for STEM and has a 9.5% acceptance rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Public: JMU, Virginia Tech, George Mason, Christopher Newport

Private: Richmond, Dickinson, Wake Forest, Colgate, Bucknell, Lehigh

Some of these are in no way safeties. Virginia Tech, in particular, should not be on this list.

The privates here are not safeties. Virginia Tech is not a safety. Look at state flagships that are not as competitive for good safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

+1
We feel the same way. Know someone who is paying a boatload of money to attend Northeastern (??) when they could have gone to their very good state school instead and gotten an excellent education for far less money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

+1
We feel the same way. Know someone who is paying a boatload of money to attend Northeastern (??) when they could have gone to their very good state school instead and gotten an excellent education for far less money.

Apples and oranges, but you most certainly know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

+1
We feel the same way. Know someone who is paying a boatload of money to attend Northeastern (??) when they could have gone to their very good state school instead and gotten an excellent education for far less money.

Apples and oranges, but you most certainly know that.

Not at all. Northeastern is so overhyped as to be absurd. But you most certainly know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

+1
We feel the same way. Know someone who is paying a boatload of money to attend Northeastern (??) when they could have gone to their very good state school instead and gotten an excellent education for far less money.

Is this because you care about your acquaintance financial well-being? Very noble of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

way to sneak Rice in there lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safeties are Pitt and Santa Clara.

Many matches, even matches/targets where DC is in the top 25%, but low acceptance rates keep DC from considering them safeties.

Applying to 17 schools total. 4 reaches and I am not in support of all the reaches because I consider them a waste of time but I am not driving this bus. I do support the 11 matches/targets because DC is a strong match but the current state of test optional makes the likelihood of acceptance much harder to predict and she would prefer to go to one of those schools. I expect to be doing some traveling come April to visit schools.

If they have submitted a good test score, its not that hard to predict. 11 matches is an awful lot but I guess, at this point, what's done is done.


Good Luck.

DC is submitting strong test scores, and again, in the top 25% for many of the matches. Sea of green on Naviance for her school but all the crazy discussed on the board has me a little nervous.

[Anonymous]

Super important that folks are conservative when it comes to definition of reach/safety/target for your student. Reaches are a dime a dozen. Targets can be elusive. Safeties can be hard to find.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in the day, I would have put Boston University and not even Northeastern as a safety. We can full pay private so looking to add some safeties.

I think that, these days, even rich students with perfect stats should apply for a nearby community college and a nonselective state college with good merit aid, in time to meet the merit aid deadlines.

They should also apply to their state flagships by the merit aid deadlines.

If the state flagship is very selective, I’d also consider adding a school from the list here: https://blog.prepscholar.com/highest-acceptance-rate-colleges

If the student has high stats and plenty of money, the student could consider adding great but low-glamor state flagships, like the University of Kansas or the University of Iowa, almost any private school ranked below the top 300.

If the student has high stats and is broke, the student could try looking at cheap English-language bachelor’s programs in Europe; aim for stats-based merit aid at places like Arizona State; or try the community college-to-four-year college route.

[Anonymous]

During the 2020 admission cycle my truly high stats kids (top in IB program top SAT national merit finalist etc.) had bu engineering and Olin as his safe targets and rose hulman as his true safety. I know things have changed post COVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety: UMd

No interest in paying big $$ for a school that is not notably better than UMd (will be a Stem major). Therefore he took a swing at a few heavyweights and if it doesn't work out, UMd it is. 1530/4.3w, private.

I can't even imagine paying somewhere like BU (or many others) a truckload of money for an education that is not *notably and substantially* better or more prestigious than UMd and *is* notably less prestigious than HYP/Rice/Penn. And this is no knock on BU, its a very fine school probably better in some fields then UMd but is it 150-200K+ better?

way to sneak Rice in there lol

The reality is: If ordinary DCUM users from outside a region, who aren’t that into colleges, have heard of a college, and it’s not a college with open or nearly open admissions, it’s probably too unpredictable to be a true safety even for high-stats students.

Example: Creighton is a fairly obscure private school. But it’s ranked 115th on the USNWR list and has an acceptance rate of 71%. So, it is over the 70% safety cutoff, but, if I were the student, I’d want to either have two schools like that on my list, and hope at least one has generous merit aid, or have a school on the list with an acceptance rate over 90% and a low price or decent merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Public: JMU, Virginia Tech, George Mason, Christopher Newport

Private: Richmond, Dickinson, Wake Forest, Colgate, Bucknell, Lehigh

What are your target/reach schools for private?

Targets: Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Rice, Georgetown
Reach: Princeton, Dartmouth

Swat isn’t a target for anyone unless you are a recruited athlete or urm

Rice a target, ha, ha, ha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the day, I would have put Boston University and not even Northeastern as a safety. We can full pay private so looking to add some safeties.

I think that, these days, even rich students with perfect stats should apply for a nearby community college and a nonselective state college with good merit aid, in time to meet the merit aid deadlines.

They should also apply to their state flagships by the merit aid deadlines.

If the state flagship is very selective, I’d also consider adding a school from the list here: https://blog.prepscholar.com/highest-acceptance-rate-colleges

If the student has high stats and plenty of money, the student could consider adding great but low-glamor state flagships, like the University of Kansas or the University of Iowa, almost any private school ranked below the top 300.

If the student has high stats and is broke, the student could try looking at cheap English-language bachelor’s programs in Europe; aim for stats-based merit aid at places like Arizona State; or try the community college-to-four-year college route.

Unless you want to go to school in Kansas or Iowa, it's not necessary for a high stats kid to go that "low" on the rankings list. DS from FCPS during this admissions cycle, received $25k from UMN and anticipating ~$15k from Ohio State. Michigan State is also very generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the day, I would have put Boston University and not even Northeastern as a safety. We can full pay private so looking to add some safeties.

I think that, these days, even rich students with perfect stats should apply for a nearby community college and a nonselective state college with good merit aid, in time to meet the merit aid deadlines.

They should also apply to their state flagships by the merit aid deadlines.

If the state flagship is very selective, I’d also consider adding a school from the list here: https://blog.prepscholar.com/highest-acceptance-rate-colleges

If the student has high stats and plenty of money, the student could consider adding great but low-glamor state flagships, like the University of Kansas or the University of Iowa, almost any private school ranked below the top 300.

If the student has high stats and is broke, the student could try looking at cheap English-language bachelor’s programs in Europe; aim for stats-based merit aid at places like Arizona State; or try the community college-to-four-year college route.

Unless you want to go to school in Kansas or Iowa, it's not necessary for a high stats kid to go that "low" on the rankings list. DS from FCPS during this admissions cycle, received $25k from UMN and anticipating ~$15k from Ohio State. Michigan State is also very generous.

Exactly this. High-yield large research universities in relatively desirable locations, ideally with rolling admissions (UMN and Mich State) and generous merit to make them equivalent to - or cheaper- than top in state options. Add in CU Boulder as well.