Safety Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats D interested in STEM who went through the process. While the above mentioned schools accepted previous PPs kids with above average stats, that does not make them safety schools.

Safety schools are schools that typically have over 50% acceptance rates and are also financial safeties.

Very true!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh
Lafayette
Franklin and Marshall

Lehigh had a 22% acceptance rate in 2018. It’s a reach for most and a safety for no one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh
Lafayette
Franklin and Marshall

Lehigh had a 22% acceptance rate in 2018. It’s a reach for most and a safety for no one.

Lafayette - 28%
Franklin and Marshall - 39%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high stats D interested in STEM who went through the process. While the above mentioned schools accepted previous PPs kids with above average stats, that does not make them safety schools.

Safety schools are schools that typically have over 50% acceptance rates and are also financial safeties.

Very true!

Not sure I agree with this generalization. It really depends on the school. Alabama's acceptance rate is barely over 50% (53%) but nearly everyone considers it a safety. South Florida is 47%. Wisconsin is 53%. Do you think you have same chance at all of these schools?

[Anonymous]

I always thought of it in relative terms---one person's safety may be another person's reach. Given the numbers of OP's dd, i think many of the schools people are saying aren't safeties would be considered a safety for OP (e.g, Kenyon, Muhlenberg, Denison, Lafayette, Case Western, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought of it in relative terms---one person's safety may be another person's reach. Given the numbers of OP's dd, i think many of the schools people are saying aren't safeties would be considered a safety for OP (e.g, Kenyon, Muhlenberg, Denison, Lafayette, Case Western, etc.)

I get your point, but crazy things happen during admissions. My DC is a very high stats kid that was shut-out from schools that *should* have been a safety for him (including Case Western, Northeastern, Tulane, Tufts).

This is why I also subscribe to the PP's post above:

Safeties are typically where your child is not only in the 75th percentile and above in scores, but ALSO have acceptance rates above 50%, and for good measure, is a school you can safely AFFORD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought of it in relative terms---one person's safety may be another person's reach. Given the numbers of OP's dd, i think many of the schools people are saying aren't safeties would be considered a safety for OP (e.g, Kenyon, Muhlenberg, Denison, Lafayette, Case Western, etc.)

They may be matches, and some may be low matches, but safeties they are not.

Comparing the student's stats to the published stats is important, but isn't nearly enough to determine a safety. One must also consider acceptance rates. For example, without considering acceptance rates, one could argue that Stanford is a safety for a very high stats kid, when obviously that would be an incorrect determination.

I'll add to the post above that a safety should be a school the student wouldn't mind attending. (That part can get tricky.)

[Anonymous]

^^High stats kids are in a pickle with making a safety-match-reach list.

It's difficult to come up with matches because some schools will defer/deny them because they think they're using them as a safety school.

Safeties are easy to come up with as long as you check your ego at the door and stick with a "definite" safety. A school for example that has a very high rate of acceptance, a state school perhaps that takes everyone in Naviance.

If a school has an acceptance rate of below 25%, its a reach for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh
Lafayette
Franklin and Marshall

Ummm...Lehigh is blowing up. Definitely not a safety.

[Anonymous]

Add a rolling admission school, so she’ll know that she’s in somewhere by September or October, and then you can have her adjust accordingly.

These small LACS are never safeties. Many practice yield protection, and really comb over applications prioritizing fit and whole class make-up rather than drawing a hard line with stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought of it in relative terms---one person's safety may be another person's reach. Given the numbers of OP's dd, i think many of the schools people are saying aren't safeties would be considered a safety for OP (e.g, Kenyon, Muhlenberg, Denison, Lafayette, Case Western, etc.)

They may be matches, and some may be low matches, but safeties they are not.

Comparing the student's stats to the published stats is important, but isn't nearly enough to determine a safety. One must also consider acceptance rates. For example, without considering acceptance rates, one could argue that Stanford is a safety for a very high stats kid, when obviously that would be an incorrect determination.

I'll add to the post above that a safety should be a school the student wouldn't mind attending. (That part can get tricky.)

+1. And also how many other students are applying from one's high school/school system/region -- and whether any of those students have hooks you do not. Obviously, this is unknowable when you are applying, but it can make selective schools (anything 25% or below) that look like matches on paper reaches.

Nothing with a 25% or below admission rate should be considered a safety for anyone.

[Anonymous]

How about NOVA, OP? If your smart, motivated DD strikes out with the schools she really wants to go to, a year at NOVA could help her build her credentials for a transfer to a school she genuinely wants to go to after her freshman year. I've never even heard of some of these schools people are recommending (Juniata????), and I don't imagine your DD (or anyone, for that matter) with your DD's stats being excited to attend a safety school that 99.9% of people haven't heard of. Doesn't William & Mary have an agreement with NOVA, wherein admission is guaranteed for students with a certain GPA? I could be wrong about this, but it is worth looking into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought of it in relative terms---one person's safety may be another person's reach. Given the numbers of OP's dd, i think many of the schools people are saying aren't safeties would be considered a safety for OP (e.g, Kenyon, Muhlenberg, Denison, Lafayette, Case Western, etc.)

I get your point, but crazy things happen during admissions. My DC is a very high stats kid that was shut-out from schools that *should* have been a safety for him (including Case Western, Northeastern, Tulane, Tufts).

This is why I also subscribe to the PP's post above:

Safeties are typically where your child is not only in the 75th percentile and above in scores, but ALSO have acceptance rates above 50%, and for good measure, is a school you can safely AFFORD.

Respectfully and redundantly, none of those schools are safeties for anyone, and Tufts is so famous for yield protection that the slang for it is "Tufts Syndrome". That's so well known it makes me doubt this is a real post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought of it in relative terms---one person's safety may be another person's reach. Given the numbers of OP's dd, i think many of the schools people are saying aren't safeties would be considered a safety for OP (e.g, Kenyon, Muhlenberg, Denison, Lafayette, Case Western, etc.)

I get your point, but crazy things happen during admissions. My DC is a very high stats kid that was shut-out from schools that *should* have been a safety for him (including Case Western, Northeastern, Tulane, Tufts).

This is why I also subscribe to the PP's post above:

Safeties are typically where your child is not only in the 75th percentile and above in scores, but ALSO have acceptance rates above 50%, and for good measure, is a school you can safely AFFORD.

Respectfully and redundantly, none of those schools are safeties for anyone, and Tufts is so famous for yield protection that the slang for it is "Tufts Syndrome". That's so well known it makes me doubt this is a real post.

Above a certain GPA/SAT/ACT Case Western is a safety at the 2 high schools I'm familiar with - you can see it very clearly on the Naviance scattergram. Look at your school's Naviance instagrams and you'll see the same pattern for other schools.

[Anonymous]

Similarly, I feel like some colleges just do not "like" my daughter's school. No matter what the stats on Naviance, they reject virtually everyone, every year. My assumption is that they have selected the feeder schools they will use in this area, and we (a W public) are not it.