Not OP, but thank you. |
One thing my DS's counselor stressed at a meeting in early September: there are no more safety schools. He said a safety school is a thing of the past due to the number of kids applying to every school and also the overall caliber of kids applying. The way he explained it is... If a rockstar student applies to ODU or VCU, which used to be two great VA safety schools, the school knows that they are that kid's safety and therefore they are more apt to defer or deny them. Why? Because they don't want to give a spot to a kid they know will not accept admittance for the fall. It makes their numbers look bad. Another counselor agreed and said that if your kid really wants to go to one of those schools and the kid's stats are above average, they need to express their desire to attend that college/university to them so they know it's not a safety application. Other schools that were mentioned that used to be solid safeties for good students but no longer are: Kent State, Gonzaga, Elon, MSU, Texas A&M, and either FAU or FIU (can't remember which). All of the counselors agreed that 10 used to be the magic number for applications but but now say that 20!!! is the minimum they believe each kid should submit. Heck, by the time my freshman is a senior, it'll probably be up to 30 apps! |
Yay! So happy for you guys. Congrats on the acceptances! |
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Congratulations! That is great news. Thanks for letting us know.....
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If you have to worry about getting into a college with 70% 80% 90% acceptance rate, college is probably not the right place. |
+1. The counselors aren’t God. They don’t know and can’t predict. The ten only rule was to help them precovid. It’s now harming their own students. |
I'm so glad you came back and told us this. It shows how quickly things can take shape. It's a tough process and it's great he has choices now. |
There are no safeties anymore for most average students |
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Why would you say this?
"If you have to worry about getting into a college with 70% 80% 90% acceptance rate, college is probably not the right place." There are plenty of kids who for one reason or another have lower grades or a lower SAT score than the scores found on the Common Data Set. Lots of these kids will be just as successful as the kids who "played the game" right and got better grades or scores. In a time when so many (is it half?) of kids have an A average, kids who are more than capable of doing college level work won't meet the minimum stats at lots of schools. |
| OP, would you be willing to share the names of the schools that eventually admitted him? Asking because there are still two days to apply for many/most schools. |
No, must be willing to move up (down?) in the USNWR rankings, problem solved. |
That is great news, congratulations! And it proves that you can still identify safeties/targets, and that you guys did a good job putting together your list. It is nice to have options (though I can understand why you got nervous when your first five responses were deferrals!)
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None at my house yet. Sigh. One deferral and one rejection. About 10 other apps in so far, and aiming for some more on Jan 15 deadline. We haven't even heard from Pitt yet, which is concerning. DC applied in early November and application still says "pending." What is up with that? |
Don't forget the deferrals from the class of 2020 are still having an effect. |
See: "yield protection" Too many applicants. |