THis 1000%. If your major has an acceptance rate of 12%, it's a reach for everyone, doesn't matter if the school's acceptance rate is 55%. |
When my son changes his major to engineering vs sociology, for example, the chance percentages significantly change for targets and 2-8 percentage points for reaches. |
Safeties -
State schools that are not "HOT" Temple, Michigan State, Kansas, Indiana, Minnesota Catholic Colleges (excluding BC, Villanova, Holy Cross, GT and Notre Dame) Schools that extended application dates / are still sending emails: Seton Hall, Hofstra, College of Wooster, Rider, Longwood, NJIT |
Tennessee not a safety anymore for OOS. 33 percent admit rate. Less for business.
Same with South Carolina with the new state admissions rules (top 10 percent auto admit) I know because my son got waitlisted at both. The very very big lesson here is that things can really change year to year so need more safeties and don’t make any assumptions if you are looking at public’s and our OOS. |
loose is the opposite of tight... |
One thing I think people also need to consider is the size of the college and even their own high school—students are competing with others from their high school so if a small college has a 30% admit rate, they may only take 1-2 kids from the same private. If all your reaches/targets are smaller in size, students are risking coming up empty handed if others from their high school edge them out. You can look at the prior year Instagram accounts of high school seniors to see which schools are popular and which admit more than a few students. |
Did you happen to use CollegeVine for estimating your chances at TN and SC? It is estimating TN as a 98% chance of admittance for my kid. Wondering if they use outdated data because I have also heard that it is no longer a target or safety. |
Waitlist means that the app clear the step1 of shortlisting that is based on basis scores / grades. Essentially your app was read. Thereafter, the committee didn't find any oomph or alignment with college priorities to select the applicant. Getting into a stage where applications are read is a big thing. In 60 to 70% of the cases apps are not even read, and straight send to reject. If I were you, I will carefully introspect why did the college didnt select - look at the why college essays, and ECs that is or that is not aligned well with college. Prepare real good LOCI and start engaging with waitlist colleges. |
Well, the year before he applied, the Northeastern acceptance rate was about 18%, so it was much closer to a target than it was his year (when acceptance rate dropped below 7%). So it felt like both UVa and NU were targets, with VT and JMU as safeties. And while there were plenty of kids with grades/scores like my kid, I think most of them who applied to NU got in. Based on the merit aid he got from NU, he didn't just squeeze into the class. |
This was us last year and it included WL to most matches as well - unhooked high stats kids at top DC private have slim chances. Hope your DC did a good job at choosing matches/safeties they would be happy at. |
HA HA - that wouldn't be happening at our Big 3 (sad but true) |
NP here - but don't let this fool you into believing you will have success at reaches if you have no hook. This will send you down a bad path... Unless you want to ED to Chicago (then you're set). Otherwise, be very thoughtful about an ED choice - don't waste that. |
I find it hard to believe there are only 30 legacy Princeton kids. The tour guide we had was legacy. And the biggest head scratcher admit from our school was a legacy. |
Agreed! We tried to give everyone the heads up but everyone wants to believe their kid is different. From what I've seen - this year is just like last year. (rough for unhooked but otherwise very strong students) |
Only 30 benefitted from the legacy boost (being give a spot over equally qualified non-legacy students). Rest were allegedly in on their own merits. |