Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1 Rule in college admissions should be:

Make sure your child finds a safety they LOVE.

Takes away all the anxiety, strain, and heartbreak. If you didn’t do this, you’re an idiot.

Finding a safety they LOVE may be stressful in and of itself. Finding a safety they like well enough, is affordable and can definitely get into is just fine.

It really should not be that hard. There are plenty of great schools with a good size group of really smart kids everywhere in the top 100

It's on you to help your kid realize they can thrive somewhere other than a t20 school

Don't select a safety and you might really dislike where you end up freshman year

My kid easily came up with two safeties that were just fine with him. Was he in LOVE with these schools? Champing at the bit to go there? Salivating over the prospect? No. Yet amazingly, all went well. He ended up going to a target but seriously considered the safeties and would have been happy at either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t there a thread on this last spring and the student was upset she only got into Pitt. I wouldn’t recommend not applying to any safeties.

Oh, interesting. Do you have the link?

I think PP might be talking about this thread. The kid did apply to what they considered safeties and only got into those, but being completely shut out of target and reaches with great stats.

It’s a cautionary tale.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1267152.page

Well first you have to define reaches and targets and safeties accurately. If you do that, include affordability for your family you should get into most safeties and at least 50% of targets. It also helps to have a few targets where your kid is at/above 75% as well (but acceptance rates are 25-40%).

My kid got into all targets and safeties and WL at one reach and in with first year abroad at neu (still single digit acceptance rates so a reach)

But if you pick your targets accurately you should get into 50-75%+

However a school with 12% acceptance rates is never a target it simply isn't

The thread is not about my kid. I agree re how you define targets, safeties and reaches. I was just replying to the OP asking for the thread link on the past thread where a the parent of a student with high stats was so shocked they did get into anywhere higher than safeties and that those she picked as safeties aren’t true safeties and she’s lucky to have even gotten into those.

I found that particularly thread very interesting when it was originally posted. Because of that this fall I insisted my kid apply to a few rolling admissions and other safety schools even though my kid is so convinced she will get into her #1 choice in ED (I hope but it’s a lottery at this point). She already has 3 rolling acceptances, one with good merit aid so there is something. I’m not sure I would have insisted so hard if it hadn’t been for the story in that prior thread.

In summary, apply to real safeties, you never know what will happen any year with admissions.

Anonymous wrote:Why not apply to one of the full ride national merit schools such as Alabama as a safety? Student would at least be with other Nmf and also get a full ride.

Because most only want to complain "it's not fair" and feel their snowflake can only excel in life if they are with 100% students who are "equally smart"

But yes the above is a smart choice. And if you don't want the south find similarly good state schools that also offer excellent merit. There are many, and if you join the honors program your kid will be surrounded by spot of equally smart kids but as a perk also learn to deal with people who (gasp!) only got a 1490 and are at the same college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t there a thread on this last spring and the student was upset she only got into Pitt. I wouldn’t recommend not applying to any safeties.

Oh, interesting. Do you have the link?

I think PP might be talking about this thread. The kid did apply to what they considered safeties and only got into those, but being completely shut out of target and reaches with great stats.

It’s a cautionary tale.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1267152.page

Well first you have to define reaches and targets and safeties accurately. If you do that, include affordability for your family you should get into most safeties and at least 50% of targets. It also helps to have a few targets where your kid is at/above 75% as well (but acceptance rates are 25-40%).

My kid got into all targets and safeties and WL at one reach and in with first year abroad at neu (still single digit acceptance rates so a reach)

But if you pick your targets accurately you should get into 50-75%+

However a school with 12% acceptance rates is never a target it simply isn't

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Send an app to ASU. Rolling school, true safety. Every year some top kids get shut out and apply there in April. It costs you $55 to take care of it now and will save you months of anxiety.

You can get accepted but are you willing to pay $60k OOS for your safety?

Well if not, then you need to search and find one that will admit your kid and give you merit to make it "affordable to You". It would be dumb not to do so.

PP. Thats why posted that question. Folks can claim any number of privates or OOS publics as "safeties" but if you aren't willing to full pay, not sure you could classify as such.

Well obviously part of the definition of a safety is 50%+ acceptance rate, your kid at/above 75%, a school your kid likes and also a school you can AFFORD.
Those exist. A kid with top stats can find merit at many in the 40-100 range. Go 100-140 for even better merit.
My 1220/3.5UW/no AP kid got merit of 70% tuition at two schools in the 100-150 range and 35% at two in the 80s.

I think people forget afford. People may call ASU for example, a safety because all stats are in 75th percentile and they have a 90% acceptance rate. Is the applicant capable and willing to pay $60k? If not, don't think its a safety

Exactly!

The affordability matters for all schools....reach/target/safety. If you cannot afford the school then it's not really a school for you. It will just create more drama and frustrations.

Anonymous wrote:UMD is hard to get into. She should not be banking on that. She could definitely be rejected.

My kid was 3.9UW GPA/ 4.7 W GPA, 1580 SATs, a couple extra currics and a good summer job. He squeaked in via Freshman Connection/spring admit.

My god. I guess my 3.7/4.1 1510 11 AP FCPS kid shouldn't have been too unhappy about their spring admission (ended up somewhere else but still).

Why not apply to one of the full ride national merit schools such as Alabama as a safety? Student would at least be with other Nmf and also get a full ride.

From DC's public magnet high school, a kid with DC's grades, scores, awards, leadership position and EC's always got into T10 in the last 10 years.

The specific club's website has alumni listing it was the captain in the last 10 years ended up at a HYPSM in 7 of the years and at worst ended up at Duke.

I still insisted DC to apply to 2 safeties. So there is at least a choice and does not look like you are forced to go to one college without any choice if every other college ends up rejecting you.

Op, why not consider it a fluid process? If she hasn't heard from any schools on her list that she's admitted and it's _____ date, she needs to apply to a few more. Ideally, a couple lower ranked schools.

Yes, it requires some research and strategic planning (knowing deadlines)

Otherwise, there's always The Space Available Survey that comes out in May -- a list of schools that, as of May, still have space.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t there a thread on this last spring and the student was upset she only got into Pitt. I wouldn’t recommend not applying to any safeties.

Oh, interesting. Do you have the link?

I think PP might be talking about this thread. The kid did apply to what they considered safeties and only got into those, but being completely shut out of target and reaches with great stats.

It’s a cautionary tale.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1267152.page

Anonymous wrote:Applying only to reach schools is risky. Sometimes the only ones accepted the kid are the targets and safeties.

In a typical year, kids at our school would apply to several ivies and Stanford MIT as reach, applying to Duke, JHU as targets, and applying to Northwestern, Vandy, WashU, as safties. Often times, the only schools accepted them are the safeties. So counselor's advice is to focus on the essays for target/safety schools.

Those are not targets or safeties by any stretch of the imagination. Duke is a high reach. Lol!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Send an app to ASU. Rolling school, true safety. Every year some top kids get shut out and apply there in April. It costs you $55 to take care of it now and will save you months of anxiety.

You can get accepted but are you willing to pay $60k OOS for your safety?

Well if not, then you need to search and find one that will admit your kid and give you merit to make it "affordable to You". It would be dumb not to do so.

PP. Thats why posted that question. Folks can claim any number of privates or OOS publics as "safeties" but if you aren't willing to full pay, not sure you could classify as such.

Well obviously part of the definition of a safety is 50%+ acceptance rate, your kid at/above 75%, a school your kid likes and also a school you can AFFORD.
Those exist. A kid with top stats can find merit at many in the 40-100 range. Go 100-140 for even better merit.
My 1220/3.5UW/no AP kid got merit of 70% tuition at two schools in the 100-150 range and 35% at two in the 80s.

I think people forget afford. People may call ASU for example, a safety because all stats are in 75th percentile and they have a 90% acceptance rate. Is the applicant capable and willing to pay $60k? If not, don't think its a safety

Anonymous wrote:This is probably more a psychological thing but I wanted my kid to apply to 2-3 safeties because I wanted them to have some excitement about their choices in March-April and not feel like they had to “settle” for a safety they weren’t happy with. It can be very disheartening for a kid who was shut out by most colleges, to be surrounded by classmates who are excited about their choices. I knew a couple people whose kids were in this situation. Fortunately their kids ended up loving their experience at their safety school but it did make for a tough March-April senior year.

This!!

My kid was in at her top safety before Xmas (with good merit) as well as one of her targets. So the Dec 15 Ed deferral was not as harsh since she had acceptances at two great schools.

Also we had prepped our kid for fact that she was likely going to a target school, vbecause all of her reaches were single digit acceptance rates.

Now she did get Wl at two but never looked at those just picked a top choice and moved forward

Large public school in a wealthy area competitive area completely changes the game. There often is no counselor who has any clue who will or won’t get in where because they don’t bother to look at the data. Naviance and overall acceptance stats can be very deceiving. At our school the valedictorian, class president and several NMSF students did not get in, not even waitlisted, to several mid tier UCs that have a published 30-40% acceptance rate.

When you look at Naviance you really need to understand the patterns not the number. You have to remove the athletes, other gender, FGLI, and honestly race and then see how many admit spots went to kid that demographically matches. Some schools mix it up others follow patterns.

For example, if there are 100 applications and 10 admits from the school but 60%- 70% are girls for the past 3-4 years that changes your likelihood. If you are a girl you have a 6 or 7% chance not 10. If you are a boy, you have a 3-4% chance. There is more data that the school guidance counselor can see such as how many are athletes, how many are genders applying to majors looking for that gender, how many claimed FGLI. etc. If your DD is applying to be a physics major and plays volleyball she may in fact be a sure thing. If your DD is applying to be a neuroscience major then a lower stat girl with the physics and volleyball is likely to bump her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Send an app to ASU. Rolling school, true safety. Every year some top kids get shut out and apply there in April. It costs you $55 to take care of it now and will save you months of anxiety.

You can get accepted but are you willing to pay $60k OOS for your safety?

Well if not, then you need to search and find one that will admit your kid and give you merit to make it "affordable to You". It would be dumb not to do so.

PP. Thats why posted that question. Folks can claim any number of privates or OOS publics as "safeties" but if you aren't willing to full pay, not sure you could classify as such.

Well obviously part of the definition of a safety is 50%+ acceptance rate, your kid at/above 75%, a school your kid likes and also a school you can AFFORD.
Those exist. A kid with top stats can find merit at many in the 40-100 range. Go 100-140 for even better merit.
My 1220/3.5UW/no AP kid got merit of 70% tuition at two schools in the 100-150 range and 35% at two in the 80s.