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.

Just fyi, Pitt Honors isn’t announced until March 1.

Aside from that, solid approach.

Anonymous wrote:IME, rejections from safeties happen.

If a safety does ED1 and ED2 and you apply RD with high stats--you will often get rejected because they know you are using them as a safety.

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.

IME, rejections from safeties happen.

This is a good thread, I thinks its important our kids apply to more safeties/just in case but choose one they are really excited about and could see themselves happy in, so the reaches and targets will be less stressful to apply to.

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?

Dc guidance counselor is suggesting:
2 “reachable” reaches
5 targets
3 safeties

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.

Yes, at least two, three is better. Weird things can happen. Yield protection, bucket you fit in is already full, AO turned off by your essay.

For those proponents of no more than 10 applications, would have 3 safeties, 2 or 3 reaches and the rest targets. This mix should prevent getting shut out.

Yes, definitely.

This might change as more schools go back to SAT required (Yay!)

But many kids this year were waitlisted or outright rejected from what should have been safeties based on stats, with lower stat kids getting accepted test optional.

Apply for severral safeties until the test optional stupidity comes to an end.

Two is better than one. Sometimes weird stuff happens.

Anonymous wrote:If you have a safety on your list you love, and you'd be happy to go there, do you really need more? Especially if they have rolling or early action. If for some reason, you are rejected, you would still have time to apply to other safeties if necessary. But assuming you do get in, you could save your efforts for targets and reaches..
.No? Tell me what you think if you've BTDT. Thanks!

For a kid who’s truly full-pay, no.

For a kid who will need a lot of aid, it’s better to have more safeties, in case some schools are much more generous than others.

IMO - YES!!! Quite a lot changes over the course of a few months. "Options" was our mantra throughout the whole process. Writing a few other essays is worth the peace of mind and flexibility.

For a rolling admission safety, if the stats are 75 percentile and above, I'd say you're good.

If you have a safety on your list you love, and you'd be happy to go there, do you really need more? Especially if they have rolling or early action. If for some reason, you are rejected, you would still have time to apply to other safeties if necessary. But assuming you do get in, you could save your efforts for targets and reaches..
.No? Tell me what you think if you've BTDT. Thanks!