Do you need more than one true safety?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had 2 and didn't need them. Their counselor wanted safety-heavy (suggested like 6+ safeties my kid had zero interest in). We didn't take that advice and he applied reach-target heavy and 2 safeties.

He got in pretty much everywhere. WL at 2 HPYSM and in everywhere else. It was a waste of application fees and time to do more.

That said he was a strong applicant perfect 4.0 uw gpa, 35 ACT, 5s all AP exams and very involved ECs --sport, community service, job, academic club.

I do think counselors don't want to face a kid/parents if they don't get in anywhere so they tend to be very cautious. I feel like many have you shoot below your weight too.

Well a school is NOT a safety if your kid has no interest in them. They are supposed to be somewhere your kid would actually want to attend (and yes every snowflake can find 2-3 safeties that meet this criteria).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

Some of these are part of a group of schools that are sort of like the LACs of engineering schools: they are small, mostly undergrad focused (some are only undergrad), engineering-only schools. Given that niche, they are self-selecting and so some, but not all, are a little easier to get into by percentages (but not by grades, etc.), than the big universities that also have engineering programs. Some of them include: Olin, RPI, WPI, Rose Hulman, Stevens, Colorado School of Mines, Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union.

ok thanks-this really makes sense, my DD is getting tons of mail from these schools based on Ap comp princ she took as a freshman--which ones would you consider the better in the group?

Can't go wrong with any of them. They are really spread all over the country, so geography might be a good way to narrow that down. Also since engineering programs tend to be male-heavy, she may want to compare the M/F ratio (haven't compared recently, but I think WPI has a reputation for being balanced in that regard, as they have had female Presidents for quite a while.) Harvey Mudd is 50/50 but it is a reach for everyone.

WPI had been moving towards 50/50 and were at about 60/40 a few years ago. Now it's back to 70/30 and the female president is gone.

[Anonymous]

Depends. Is it the safety for 50% of the kids in your kids class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

DP: case, RPI, Rochester are not Safeties for anyone. They can be targets for many higher stats/good students. WPI can be a safety since acceptance rate is 57%.

Those are definately a great list of Target engineering schools. My kid applied to all of those, except RPI (hated it). Case, Rochester and WPI were actually their final 3. All 3 let you switch your major, choose minors without having to "reapply/compete to get your major" so IMO they are excellent schools.
I'd personally have my kid apply to a few of them as well along with Pitt. Just so you have a few more choices

thank you-this is really helpful! I know Case has premed as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

Some of these are part of a group of schools that are sort of like the LACs of engineering schools: they are small, mostly undergrad focused (some are only undergrad), engineering-only schools. Given that niche, they are self-selecting and so some, but not all, are a little easier to get into by percentages (but not by grades, etc.), than the big universities that also have engineering programs. Some of them include: Olin, RPI, WPI, Rose Hulman, Stevens, Colorado School of Mines, Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union.

ok thanks-this really makes sense, my DD is getting tons of mail from these schools based on Ap comp princ she took as a freshman--which ones would you consider the better in the group?

Can't go wrong with any of them. They are really spread all over the country, so geography might be a good way to narrow that down. Also since engineering programs tend to be male-heavy, she may want to compare the M/F ratio (haven't compared recently, but I think WPI has a reputation for being balanced in that regard, as they have had female Presidents for quite a while.) Harvey Mudd is 50/50 but it is a reach for everyone.

WPI had been moving towards 50/50 and were at about 60/40 a few years ago. Now it's back to 70/30 and the female president is gone.

LOL my DD actually told me she would prefer going to a school with a higher ratio of guys!!! LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

DP: case, RPI, Rochester are not Safeties for anyone. They can be targets for many higher stats/good students. WPI can be a safety since acceptance rate is 57%.

Those are definately a great list of Target engineering schools. My kid applied to all of those, except RPI (hated it). Case, Rochester and WPI were actually their final 3. All 3 let you switch your major, choose minors without having to "reapply/compete to get your major" so IMO they are excellent schools.
I'd personally have my kid apply to a few of them as well along with Pitt. Just so you have a few more choices

thank you-this is really helpful! I know Case has premed as well.

Where did your son end up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

Some of these are part of a group of schools that are sort of like the LACs of engineering schools: they are small, mostly undergrad focused (some are only undergrad), engineering-only schools. Given that niche, they are self-selecting and so some, but not all, are a little easier to get into by percentages (but not by grades, etc.), than the big universities that also have engineering programs. Some of them include: Olin, RPI, WPI, Rose Hulman, Stevens, Colorado School of Mines, Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union.

ok thanks-this really makes sense, my DD is getting tons of mail from these schools based on Ap comp princ she took as a freshman--which ones would you consider the better in the group?

Can't go wrong with any of them. They are really spread all over the country, so geography might be a good way to narrow that down. Also since engineering programs tend to be male-heavy, she may want to compare the M/F ratio (haven't compared recently, but I think WPI has a reputation for being balanced in that regard, as they have had female Presidents for quite a while.) Harvey Mudd is 50/50 but it is a reach for everyone.

WPI had been moving towards 50/50 and were at about 60/40 a few years ago. Now it's back to 70/30 and the female president is gone.

The current WPI President is a woman: Grace Wang.

[Anonymous]

Short answer is Yes. 2-3 safeties.

[Anonymous]

Yes, because if you only get into safeties, it would be nice to still be in the position of going to admitted students days and making a choice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

DP: case, RPI, Rochester are not Safeties for anyone. They can be targets for many higher stats/good students. WPI can be a safety since acceptance rate is 57%.

Those are definately a great list of Target engineering schools. My kid applied to all of those, except RPI (hated it). Case, Rochester and WPI were actually their final 3. All 3 let you switch your major, choose minors without having to "reapply/compete to get your major" so IMO they are excellent schools.
I'd personally have my kid apply to a few of them as well along with Pitt. Just so you have a few more choices

I would say RPI was borderline likely along with WPI. But agree about Rochester and Case. Both targets made higher targets because of need to convince them they are #1.

I know it's a little semantics, but I prefer likely to safety. There are just so many factors, including interest that you just can't count on an acceptance even for a kid with great stats at higher percent admissions school. Also, it's easier to get motivated to show live for a likely than a safety (which is what many schools want to see in addition to great admissions profile).

[Anonymous]

yes. It might boil down to who gives the most merit $

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

DP: case, RPI, Rochester are not Safeties for anyone. They can be targets for many higher stats/good students. WPI can be a safety since acceptance rate is 57%.

Those are definately a great list of Target engineering schools. My kid applied to all of those, except RPI (hated it). Case, Rochester and WPI were actually their final 3. All 3 let you switch your major, choose minors without having to "reapply/compete to get your major" so IMO they are excellent schools.
I'd personally have my kid apply to a few of them as well along with Pitt. Just so you have a few more choices

thank you-this is really helpful! I know Case has premed as well.

Case and Rochester both have a lot of Premed students. Case is a bit more STEM/premed focused. Rochester has a bit less techie/premed/Engineering students so a nice balance with Humanities/Music/Social science majors. WPI is almost all STEM, so a great school but a different vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS LOVES Pitt engineering. He is planning to apply in August. It’s a safety for him - he’ll also apply to Purdue, Michigan, GT. But he has mixed applying to Case, WPI, RPI, Rochester bc he prefers Pitt to any other place. I figure that we’ll know about $$ and honors college before he the deadlines for other safeties.

are those the usual safeties for engineering?

Some of these are part of a group of schools that are sort of like the LACs of engineering schools: they are small, mostly undergrad focused (some are only undergrad), engineering-only schools. Given that niche, they are self-selecting and so some, but not all, are a little easier to get into by percentages (but not by grades, etc.), than the big universities that also have engineering programs. Some of them include: Olin, RPI, WPI, Rose Hulman, Stevens, Colorado School of Mines, Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union.

ok thanks-this really makes sense, my DD is getting tons of mail from these schools based on Ap comp princ she took as a freshman--which ones would you consider the better in the group?

Can't go wrong with any of them. They are really spread all over the country, so geography might be a good way to narrow that down. Also since engineering programs tend to be male-heavy, she may want to compare the M/F ratio (haven't compared recently, but I think WPI has a reputation for being balanced in that regard, as they have had female Presidents for quite a while.) Harvey Mudd is 50/50 but it is a reach for everyone.

WPI had been moving towards 50/50 and were at about 60/40 a few years ago. Now it's back to 70/30 and the female president is gone.

The current WPI President is a woman: Grace Wang.

hadn't followed that. Just knew they were trending back towards 70/30 after the previous one left. Making my DD happy they didn't choose WPI because of that balance

[Anonymous]

at least 3 4 safeties.

Nowadays, its getting difficult with safeties like gettysburg, union, st olaf etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had 2 and didn't need them. Their counselor wanted safety-heavy (suggested like 6+ safeties my kid had zero interest in). We didn't take that advice and he applied reach-target heavy and 2 safeties.

He got in pretty much everywhere. WL at 2 HPYSM and in everywhere else. It was a waste of application fees and time to do more.

That said he was a strong applicant perfect 4.0 uw gpa, 35 ACT, 5s all AP exams and very involved ECs --sport, community service, job, academic club.

I do think counselors don't want to face a kid/parents if they don't get in anywhere so they tend to be very cautious. I feel like many have you shoot below your weight too.

We know a family that had the opposite experience. Had 2 safeties, don't know about targets and reaches but did not get in anywhere. Anywhere. 4.0 UW student with high SAT and APs and strong ECs.