Target/Match vs. Likely/Safety

[Anonymous]

Fwiw, college counselor is advising kid that certain schools are safeties even though they would not be safeties on this board (BC and Wake for example).

So I think it depends on the kid. The general guidelines on an anon board are going to very broad (and likely skew to finding common denominator schools that work for almost everyone of a specific profile). but I would assume the school counselor would know what she is talking about and info about my kid specifically would be more accurate.

We will see in the spring…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, college counselor is advising kid that certain schools are safeties even though they would not be safeties on this board (BC and Wake for example).

So I think it depends on the kid. The general guidelines on an anon board are going to very broad (and likely skew to finding common denominator schools that work for almost everyone of a specific profile). but I would assume the school counselor would know what she is talking about and info about my kid specifically would be more accurate.

We will see in the spring…

Surely this is kid dependent (strength of application) and school dependent (favorable past acceptances from that school) and family dependent (alum). That said - I would add a true safety to that list that has much higher acceptance rates than the two you listed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, college counselor is advising kid that certain schools are safeties even though they would not be safeties on this board (BC and Wake for example).

So I think it depends on the kid. The general guidelines on an anon board are going to very broad (and likely skew to finding common denominator schools that work for almost everyone of a specific profile). but I would assume the school counselor would know what she is talking about and info about my kid specifically would be more accurate.

We will see in the spring…

Surely this is kid dependent (strength of application) and school dependent (favorable past acceptances from that school) and family dependent (alum). That said - I would add a true safety to that list that has much higher acceptance rates than the two you listed.

We will definitely add a third school (likely my alma mater) but it has only 30% rate. Fwiw, we are not alums of either BC or Wake - want to be clear so no one accuses us (and kid won’t play sports at either). We are full pay.

[Anonymous]

Any college counselor who considers BC or Wake to be a safety for ANY applicant is not correct.

[Anonymous]

A counselor with that opinion is completely out of touch with reality

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:OP here- with TO it seems that the test scores of admitted students will be skewed much higher because only kids with high test scores will be submitting them, right? And I have heard that Naviance is only as good as how up to date your school admin keeps it, correct?

I hope the SATS scores are skewing high and will come back to earth before my 10 & 11th graders apply. The 11th grader is practice testing around 1390 & with a weighted 4.0, and against current college stats, his “safeties” are looking more like super “reaches”. Regarding naviance, the high schools I’m aware of are good at keeping that up to date.

I hope so too (for my 11th grader) but realistically the only way that will happen is if more schools (like MIT) revert to non-optional. So many schools have not announced their plans for the fall 2023 application cycle (current juniors) -- BC and Villanova are two that come to mind -- so I'll be curious to see whether they, or schools of similar selectivity, start requiring scores again.

Actually, many schools have announced their plans: test optional.

If you're going to take the SAT, just factor in higher scores since only applicants with high scores will submit.

After the SCOTUS bans affirmative action in the upcoming cases, test optional will likely be the norm anyways.

There won't be any clear / definitive advantage to having a high SAT score. The SAT is already a lower stakes test in today's college admissions environment.

I agree that the significance of an SAT scores ain't what it used to be by any means. But as long as the scores submitted by applicants are made public, and are available on the many college related websites, colleges will want those scores to be as high as practical. (Some people will continue to believe that the higher the average scores, the more selective and prestigious the school.) Thus there will still be value in a strong SAT score.

For a test optional school, how so?

Test optional is not really test optional. It basically allows the school to do whatever they want without objective criteria. So, if you have some characteristic that the school wants (demographics, a 4.3 40 yard, a great 3pt shot, a father that donated a library), then don't submit tests. If you don't have these things, you better have very high test scores.

To be blunt, if you are white and not first-generation you need to have top grades and submit scores if you want to get into a top school.

+100 This.

Oh, look: Dumb agrees with Dumber.

Go look at the final RD results postings right year from this year. Over and over.

While it's true that some school took more kids who submitted scores, you cannot infer from that statistic that the school preferred scores. It is equally possible (even likely) that there were a higher percentage of kids who went test option and presented a less favorable academic records and THAT was the factor which result in their rejection rather than the lack of an ACT/SAT score.

The number of test optional admits is too high at many schools for the only answer to be that an unhooked kids must submit a score. Instead, the answer is closer to the truth: you do not have to submit the score and they will not hold it against you, but the remainder of your applicant must make up for the lack of a submitted score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A counselor with that opinion is completely out of touch with reality

I think she was looking at previous acceptances from kid’s school, including last year’s results. In any event, he will add additional “safety” schools to his list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of this has to do with your child's major.

In CS, schools that are strong matches or very feasible reaches become high unlikely. My son was only accepted to safeties which he only applied to because they thought they might offer full merit rides based on his credentials. And we had looked at all the numbers- when you have a near perfect SAT and GPA everything (except Naviance) will tell you you are a strong match for everything all the way to the ivys. Naviance will at least show you that your school isnt favored by the top tier even with kids with very good scores. However Naviance also told us that he was a likely shoe in for all matches - he got into none of them because of the competitiveness of the major. If you are in a major like this, the general acceptance rates are worthless. I'd probably look at Naviance to see if you school is just overall disliked by the college and then for those where your school is not banned through history, look at college confidential threads and see who go in for your major last year and what their stats were.

If you are are in a regular major you probably don't have to go to this trouble.

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Great suggestions in this thread, thanks.

Did any of you encourage your student to include rolling admission schools on their likely list, and apply to them as early as possible?

PITT is it.

We kept going back and forth on Pitt but after visiting, it’s now one of DS’s top choice schools. It’s really good to like your safeties!

My high stats kid is not thrilled with Pitt as a safety. Any suggestions of other safeties/rolling admit schools? Not interested in huge state schools, not interested in Greek life, prefers East Coast, nerdy kids who wants challenge.

Have you looked at smaller state schools? UMBC has about 11,000 undergraduates and University Delaware has less than 19,000 undergraduates. I think they release decisions earlier than the posted decision date so while not rolling admissions you could get a decision by late December, especially if you apply a few weeks before the EA deadline so it gets reviewed before the big rush. Also, consider if getting into an honors program/ college within a larger university might make it a contender.