Anyone here been rejected from their safety?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is GW considered a safety? DH is convinced DD is a shoo in but I lean toward the side of caution.

GW is not a safety.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possible reasons are the "safety" was ranked too highly to be a real safety, or there was yield protection going on, or there was some problem with the application like something was not completed properly.

Can schools that consider demonstrated interest be true safety?

Of course they can. Your kid just has to put in the effort to convince them "you are school #1 for me". DO that and you will likely get accepted.

No. Far too much uncertainty involved in that. The entire point of a safety is certain admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No.

My kid's safeties were UMD, St John's College (Annapolis), George Washington and McGill. He was accepted to all 4 and is attending one of them.

McGill was a safety?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is GW considered a safety? DH is convinced DD is a shoo in but I lean toward the side of caution.

GW is not a safety.

49% acceptance? Not a safety.

[Anonymous]

Clemson was really tough this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

It accepted 43% of students the previous year. Not a safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

It accepted 43% of students the previous year. Not a safety.

I heard this year was 36% at Clemson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen posters here describe well-ranked schools with 25% acceptance rates as "safeties," so there's lots of misplaced confidence by parents — which unfortunately hurts the kids applying.

That's why so many colleges use demonstrated interest as a factor. They don't want to be a lazy fallback for students who really have no intererest in going there. But it doesn't have to be hard — if you can't visit in person, at least do a virtual tour or sit in on a Zoom presentation and make sure it's a college you actually would be happy to attend.

Some parents don’t know any better. A friend showed me her son’s list. His “safeties” had admit rates in the 17-20% range, and targets in the low teens. Not to mention, his SAT scores were in the mid 1300s, and because he only got his act together in his junior year, his grades and rigor were nothing to write home about.

Mom was so proud of the effort her child was putting in, and the grades he was getting, she was sure he’d be a shoo-in to these SLACs she hadn’t even heard of. She actually thought they were no-name schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

It accepted 43% of students the previous year. Not a safety.

one also has to tease out the out of state rate. for instance Tennessee had an OOS admit rate of 28%

[Anonymous]

Yes, sort of. A few years ago, my DS was waitlisted at JMU (3.85 uwgpa; 1480 SAT; in state).

[Anonymous]

My kids are not there yet. I thought Penn state would be the safety for one kid and UVA the safety for another. I have learned that these are both not safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possible reasons are the "safety" was ranked too highly to be a real safety, or there was yield protection going on, or there was some problem with the application like something was not completed properly.

Can schools that consider demonstrated interest be true safety?

Of course they can. Your kid just has to put in the effort to convince them "you are school #1 for me". DO that and you will likely get accepted.

A safety isn’t a school where you are likely to get accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

It accepted 43% of students the previous year. Not a safety.

But wouldn’t it be a safety if the kid has a 35 act and a very high gpa?
Most kids applying there do not for instance. Ave score is 30.
I think likely schools are kid dependent

[Anonymous]

Mom was so proud of the effort her child was putting in, and the grades he was getting, she was sure he’d be a shoo-in to these SLACs she hadn’t even heard of. She actually thought they were no-name schools.

She'll be here in May complaining that her kid was "shut out." The overall admit rate is only one factor in admissions. Demand for major (nursing, engineering, CS, business), popularity of the school and timing of the application (ED, EA, RD) have to be considered as well when picking safeties. Like PPs, my DC was accepted at all 3 three safeties, with nice merit. If you spend some time looking at the CDS for schools, you should be able to make a realistic list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No.

My kid's safeties were UMD, St John's College (Annapolis), George Washington and McGill. He was accepted to all 4 and is attending one of them.

McGill was a safety?!

NB Canadian colleges are good safeties if you have the stats because they mostly accept based on stats.