Do you know of any situations where student got into "reach" schools but not safety schools?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Being denied from a safety is oxymoronic. That just means the school was never actually safe, i.e. there was a miscalculation. Colleges that consider demonstrated interest are not safeties (no matter that the acceptance rate hovers above 50% sometimes). Colleges with acceptance rates under 50% are not safeties (no matter what Naviance says). And colleges that are not certain to be affordable are not safeties. |
Anonymous
| Happend to both me and dh. Met at Stanford in 87. Neither of us got into our safeties. Mine was Franklin & Marshall and his was Haverford. |
Anonymous
lmao. okay. |
Anonymous
So true. A lot of DC's friends got rejected from GMU. The 75th percentile median for last year's entering class was a 3.93 GPA; bottom 25th percentile was a 3.47. 75th percentile ACT was a 30. http://research.schev.edu//enrollment/B10_FreshmenProfile.asp |
Anonymous
This. This happened to our DC. Got into two of three reach schools, both national USN top 40s. Got into the very best of the safeties. Did NOT get into a single other safety. The safeties that are regularly used as safeties have become sophisticated at managing the statistics. They know who is just not likely to enroll. If your DC wants to go to a school for which DC is above-high-numbers, it is very wise to directly contact admissions, express interest, maybe apply early, definitely do a formal visit - so that they know that DC is likely to enroll and is not simply filing with a safety. |
Anonymous
|
PSA, schools that yield protect SHOULD NOT BE considered safeties BY DEFINITION!!!
Schools with <50% acceptance rates are NOT safeties. People rejected from "safeties" did not actually have safeties. |
Anonymous
Examples of safety miscalculations. Those schools were not actual safeties. |
Anonymous
This question is OT, but how in the world are we supposed to find out if a school yield protects? This obviously isn't something that they put forward on their websites! |
Anonymous
|
Many of the kids "rejected by safeties" for a good reason: the school looks at the application and sees that the applicant is overqualified as compared to the pool of accepted and attended students. Universities are aware that most students are sending in as many applications as possible and that many who are applying have no intention of attending even if accepted. So those students are rejected.
It is time that students (and parents) stopped the practice of collecting acceptances--applying to schools they are not interested in attending just to get the acceptances. I have heard (and personally know of) students who applied to 18 or 20 schools, most of which they did not visit or had little interest in, only because the schools were perceived as 'easy to get into.' |
Anonymous
If you have to ask.... then it is not a safety. |
Anonymous
I was accepted at Georgetown and Washington & Lee, and waitlisted (ultimately didn't get in) at Dickinson, which was my major safety. |
Anonymous
|
Friendly reminder to this year’s parents that uMich should be considered a reach for most — here’s a point of reference: last year my unhooked DD with 3.7 uwGPA (10 APs) and 32 ACT, and great ECs (club pres, solid internships, etc) was rejected from uMich. She had visited and emailed her admissions rep about her interest. We certainly knew it was a long shot with those stats, but hey, that’s what reaches are for. If your kid has similar stats, you should also consider uMich a long shot.
BTW, DD also was rejected from William and Mary (OOS), BC, Tufts, and Tulane. She visited the first three but not Tulane. |
Anonymous
Look over last year's discussions (e.g. on college confidential) to see whether high-stats applicants are sometimes among the rejected or among those deferred in the early round. This does not typically happen at schools with higher acceptance rates (say, >70%). Yield protection seems to be more of an issue in the middle ranges (say, 40-55%). Example of a school that yield protects: Santa Clara U. Overall acceptance rate approaches 50%. High-stats applicants are routinely rejected if they don't show demonstrated interest and/or a good fit with jesuit educational ideals. Another important note: the overall acceptance rate at a university may not be indicative of the acceptance rate to a particular program or major. Engineering (CS specifically!) and business are often more competitive than the school's overall stats suggest. Some schools publish separate stats, but most do not. Less-selective state colleges and lower-ranked privates tend to admit more on stats and less holistically (i.e. less on subjective factors) and accordingly make for more reliable safeties. Look to the back quarter of the top 100 national universities or just beyond the top 50 LACs. |
Anonymous
For starters, you should check the school's Common Data Set. The table at C7 has an entry for "Level of Applicant's Interest." If the school indicates that interest is considered, important, or very important, you can assume they are more likely to yield protect that a college that indicates that the factor is not considered. Also College Confidential is a good source. Just do a forum search for which schools yield protect. |
Anonymous
Adding, schools in the back quarter of the top 100 national universities are a mixture of safeties and low matches for the high-stats applicant. Look carefully. |