My 1450/3.6 kid was rejected for cs (or undecided when major wasn’t required) from Penn State, JMU, Drexel, Delaware, VT, South Carolina, Villanova. Legacies at two, strong demonstrated interest, and preferential invitations for honors college from some. It’s been a brutal cycle with a “trash” gpa. Kid will be attending a need aware school at full pay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a friend today that this happened to her son. Does this happen more often than we think? I remember some stories from last year, but I didn't come across any examples until today. Now her son thinks he won't get in anywhere.

Yes it happens. We are at a Big 3 and yes kids with high high stats that were admitted to Ivies often will get rejected from lower ranked schools. You can see and the counselor said it is because of a variety of reasons. Usually the schools don't think you will attend and know it is their safety. Also kids in the past from your school admitted did not attend.

Tell her to reassure them. He will get in somewhere.

Daughter who graduated HS in 2020:

Accepted at VTech, Syracuse, Temple, CNU, Towson
Waitlisted at Wake Forest
Rejected at UVA, UMD

She saw UMD as somewhat of a safety, even though we knew admission has become increasingly competitive. Come to find out, they were even more selective, especially for OOS students like her.

This is just a sign of your misunderstanding of selectivity. Given your list, the rejections/WL are predictably the harder admits. This doesn't suggest being rejected from a safety...

You're missing my point. There is no misunderstanding of selectivity here. My point is that we, like many parents/students (mistakenly) saw UMD as a much higher likelihood of admission and subsequently saw it as somewhat of a safety. We learned the hard way that wasn't the case. As evidenced by the conversation on this thread, there are still parents that, like us, saw certain schools as safeties, even though they are far from it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a friend today that this happened to her son. Does this happen more often than we think? I remember some stories from last year, but I didn't come across any examples until today. Now her son thinks he won't get in anywhere.

Yes it happens. We are at a Big 3 and yes kids with high high stats that were admitted to Ivies often will get rejected from lower ranked schools. You can see and the counselor said it is because of a variety of reasons. Usually the schools don't think you will attend and know it is their safety. Also kids in the past from your school admitted did not attend.

Tell her to reassure them. He will get in somewhere.

Daughter who graduated HS in 2020:

Accepted at VTech, Syracuse, Temple, CNU, Towson
Waitlisted at Wake Forest
Rejected at UVA, UMD

She saw UMD as somewhat of a safety, even though we knew admission has become increasingly competitive. Come to find out, they were even more selective, especially for OOS students like her.

This is just a sign of your misunderstanding of selectivity. Given your list, the rejections/WL are predictably the harder admits. This doesn't suggest being rejected from a safety...

Private or public HS? My guess is private which is why UMD was not a safety

This isn't the 70s. UMD is not a safety for anyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a friend today that this happened to her son. Does this happen more often than we think? I remember some stories from last year, but I didn't come across any examples until today. Now her son thinks he won't get in anywhere.

Yes it happens. We are at a Big 3 and yes kids with high high stats that were admitted to Ivies often will get rejected from lower ranked schools. You can see and the counselor said it is because of a variety of reasons. Usually the schools don't think you will attend and know it is their safety. Also kids in the past from your school admitted did not attend.

Tell her to reassure them. He will get in somewhere.

Daughter who graduated HS in 2020:

Accepted at VTech, Syracuse, Temple, CNU, Towson
Waitlisted at Wake Forest
Rejected at UVA, UMD

She saw UMD as somewhat of a safety, even though we knew admission has become increasingly competitive. Come to find out, they were even more selective, especially for OOS students like her.

This is just a sign of your misunderstanding of selectivity. Given your list, the rejections/WL are predictably the harder admits. This doesn't suggest being rejected from a safety...

Private or public HS? My guess is private which is why UMD was not a safety

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

This.

There's far from a definitive definition of "safety".

For people shooting for Harvard, UVA, Northwestern, W&M, Amherst or even VTech could be considered a "safety".

For others, those "safeties" are first choices.

Nope. None of those schools you listed are safeties, even for someone "shooting for Harvard." Northwestern's acceptance rate is 7% this year. That is not a safety for anyone.

Not disagreeing with you here, but many people here think about "safety school" from the perspective of where a kid is near guaranteed admission, versus their likelihood of admission relative to other schools they are applying to.

Its a key distinction that I believe many folks here are missing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

This.

There's far from a definitive definition of "safety".

For people shooting for Harvard, UVA, Northwestern, W&M, Amherst or even VTech could be considered a "safety".

For others, those "safeties" are first choices.

This is not true.

Not sure what you mean by that.

Its not about whether its "true." Its just a fact.

A kid applying wanting Harvard as a first choice, will likely have schools the caliber of the other ones listed, as their "backups/safeties."

For other kids, UVA, W&M and VTech may be first choices, with schools like JMU or VCU as safeties.

DP but I think what they meant is that UVA, W&M, VTech, Northwestern, Amherst are not safeties no matter how high your stats are...because their acceptance rates are all below 30%. They are by definition not safeties for anyone

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, there isn’t a stipulated definition on DCUM of what constitutes a safety.

Yeah, this board is full of folks who describe likelies and then call them "safeties."

This.

There's far from a definitive definition of "safety".

For people shooting for Harvard, UVA, Northwestern, W&M, Amherst or even VTech could be considered a "safety".

For others, those "safeties" are first choices.

This is not true.

Not sure what you mean by that.

Its not about whether its "true." Its just a fact.

A kid applying wanting Harvard as a first choice, will likely have schools the caliber of the other ones listed, as their "backups/safeties."

For other kids, UVA, W&M and VTech may be first choices, with schools like JMU or VCU as safeties.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a friend today that this happened to her son. Does this happen more often than we think? I remember some stories from last year, but I didn't come across any examples until today. Now her son thinks he won't get in anywhere.

Yes it happens. We are at a Big 3 and yes kids with high high stats that were admitted to Ivies often will get rejected from lower ranked schools. You can see and the counselor said it is because of a variety of reasons. Usually the schools don't think you will attend and know it is their safety. Also kids in the past from your school admitted did not attend.

Tell her to reassure them. He will get in somewhere.

Daughter who graduated HS in 2020:

Accepted at VTech, Syracuse, Temple, CNU, Towson
Waitlisted at Wake Forest
Rejected at UVA, UMD

She saw UMD as somewhat of a safety, even though we knew admission has become increasingly competitive. Come to find out, they were even more selective, especially for OOS students like her.

This is just a sign of your misunderstanding of selectivity. Given your list, the rejections/WL are predictably the harder admits. This doesn't suggest being rejected from a safety...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is GW considered a safety? DH is convinced DD is a shoo in but I lean toward the side of caution.

GW is not a safety.

James Madison and George Mason are more so considered safeties.

GW is NOT.

Well, they may be safeties for generally high-achieving NOVA kids, but not for many others. Never been particularly easy to get into GW, and Mason has become increasingly competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from a friend today that this happened to her son. Does this happen more often than we think? I remember some stories from last year, but I didn't come across any examples until today. Now her son thinks he won't get in anywhere.

Yes it happens. We are at a Big 3 and yes kids with high high stats that were admitted to Ivies often will get rejected from lower ranked schools. You can see and the counselor said it is because of a variety of reasons. Usually the schools don't think you will attend and know it is their safety. Also kids in the past from your school admitted did not attend.

Tell her to reassure them. He will get in somewhere.

Daughter who graduated HS in 2020:

Accepted at VTech, Syracuse, Temple, CNU, Towson
Waitlisted at Wake Forest
Rejected at UVA, UMD

She saw UMD as somewhat of a safety, even though we knew admission has become increasingly competitive. Come to find out, they were even more selective, especially for OOS students like her.

I know of five kids from the Blair science magnet in MCPS who didn’t get into UMD. I think of that as a safety for those kiddos but I guess not!

Anonymous wrote:DS was deferred EA from what we thought was a safety. I don't believe safeties exist anymore.

With the high number of kids applying, and the increasingly high stats many of them bring to the table, I'm not sure that true safeties exist anymore for 50/75th percentile+ kids. Most of their target schools are going to be at least relatively selective competitive, i.e. not just accepting any kid who can fog a mirror.

The exception are schools with generally low SATs/GPA requirements. Those schools exist so ultimately, most high school graduates can get a college degree if that's their desire - it just depends on where. On Niche, several schools offer direct admission through the site, no application required, just by meeting certain minimum GPA requirements.

if the acceptance rate is lower than 50% it can't really be a true safety for anyone. It could be a very likely but it's not a safety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are not there yet. I thought Penn state would be the safety for one kid and UVA the safety for another. I have learned that these are both not safeties.

UVA was not a safety for anyone when I graduated high school in 1993.

+1

I graduated HS in 1989 and attended UVA. It was my dream (and stretch) school.

Then, and now, it is far from anyone's safety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

It accepted 43% of students the previous year. Not a safety.

A friend who thought their kid was destined to top tier schools had Clemson as their safety school. Well let's just say they are not going to Clemson. It seems to be a very common for people to think this and get shut out and end up scrambling when they do get shut out of all the schools they apply to.

To me a safety school would be community college then transfer to your dream school.

This.

When I graduated high school in '89, a good friend applied to pretty much all top tier schools - UVA, Amherst, Williams, UNC, a bunch other top SLACs, 2 or three Ivies. Solid grades, strong SAT's and EC's, AP classes. If I remember correctly, he only got into one - Trinity - which he ended up attending, and ultimately got his MBA from UNC.

I think he saw the non-Ivy schools as safeties. Though he ended up fine, that was a risky (and tactically questionable) move.

Back then, Trinity was a safety for strong candidates. When I applied to colleges in 1993, Carleton and Oberlin were my safeties. That would be unthinkable now.