Anonymous wrote:If your kid is in CS, rankings are meaningless. There are high stats kid all the way down the line into schools in the 100s, most of whom were WL at much higher ranked schools that kids with the same stats got into. There are fewer spots than qualified students, which is part of why people also note that for CS, it matters much less where you went to school -- there are strong applicants at all the schools.

False, especially when the CS job market is bad like today's.

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Anonymous wrote:Anyone from recent years have a kid who had high stats but ended up with no options aside from their true safety school?
I.e. they applied to top30 schools (with their college counselor's strong support and/or the support of previous years' stats from their school) but the cards just didn't fall their way and they ended up in their true safety school?

How are they doing now?

My kid is a senior at their safety school.

Was rejected from one reach, WL at another (attitude became if they don't want me, I don't want then), in at the state flagship - a target (which they never wanted to attend but we made them apply), rejected from another out of state target and deferred and then rejected from another. In at 3 safetys, and decided they really liked one of them. Has done well, made terrific life-long friends, and is applying to grad schools for next year (humanities major under grad, think History or English).

4.81 wgpa, 12 APs (all 5s), 35 on ACT, national awards and more. And to reiterate, happy as a clam at their safety school.

Great!

And if you actually put time together to select your safety schools, they can be amazing! My own kid was

ED1 Deferred then rejected T10,
WL at 2 T25
Freshman year overseas at a T50 (with 5% admission rates)

Direct admit engineering at state flagship (T60)
Accepted EA T40 (Ulimtately chose this school)
Accepted EA T50 (excellent merit)

Accepted at 3 safeties, top one being a true hidden gem.
The other two were ones kid wasn't as excited about, but data indicated the true gem was a very strong candidate for acceptance for my kid. But the 2nd safety was a guarantee and my kid would have been happy there. But since we chose our targets well (Two schools that definately want you to want them type of schools), we knew chances were higher than many targets (kid was at 75-85%+ for those schools for stats)

Top safety remind in their final 3 (included an April senior year visit with the other two now Top choice) until the end, despite the fact the other two are definately better choices. But if you select the right safeties (ours was a true hidden gem), they are excellent and you can actually envision yourself happily attending---that's what it should be.

Since your kid is in, would you mind sharing the name of your hidden gem?

Anonymous wrote:Yes- took a gap year and at a top ivy now.

What did kid do during gap year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone from recent years have a kid who had high stats but ended up with no options aside from their true safety school?
I.e. they applied to top30 schools (with their college counselor's strong support and/or the support of previous years' stats from their school) but the cards just didn't fall their way and they ended up in their true safety school?

How are they doing now?

My kid is a senior at their safety school.

Was rejected from one reach, WL at another (attitude became if they don't want me, I don't want then), in at the state flagship - a target (which they never wanted to attend but we made them apply), rejected from another out of state target and deferred and then rejected from another. In at 3 safetys, and decided they really liked one of them. Has done well, made terrific life-long friends, and is applying to grad schools for next year (humanities major under grad, think History or English).

4.81 wgpa, 12 APs (all 5s), 35 on ACT, national awards and more. And to reiterate, happy as a clam at their safety school.

Great!

And if you actually put time together to select your safety schools, they can be amazing! My own kid was

ED1 Deferred then rejected T10,
WL at 2 T25
Freshman year overseas at a T50 (with 5% admission rates)

Direct admit engineering at state flagship (T60)
Accepted EA T40 (Ulimtately chose this school)
Accepted EA T50 (excellent merit)

Accepted at 3 safeties, top one being a true hidden gem.
The other two were ones kid wasn't as excited about, but data indicated the true gem was a very strong candidate for acceptance for my kid. But the 2nd safety was a guarantee and my kid would have been happy there. But since we chose our targets well (Two schools that definately want you to want them type of schools), we knew chances were higher than many targets (kid was at 75-85%+ for those schools for stats)

Top safety remind in their final 3 (included an April senior year visit with the other two now Top choice) until the end, despite the fact the other two are definately better choices. But if you select the right safeties (ours was a true hidden gem), they are excellent and you can actually envision yourself happily attending---that's what it should be.

If your kid is in CS, rankings are meaningless. There are high stats kid all the way down the line into schools in the 100s, most of whom were WL at much higher ranked schools that kids with the same stats got into. There are fewer spots than qualified students, which is part of why people also note that for CS, it matters much less where you went to school -- there are strong applicants at all the schools.

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, ended up at UMD for CS major, with merit.

They applied to 4 reaches, and 2 targets, and the one UMD safety.

1580 sat
4.0 uwgpa, 4.92 wgpa from a magnet program

They seem happy there and will do a 3+1 masters program. They are also a dual math major. So, they will graduate with 2 bachelors and 1 masters in four years, all for under $120K. Not too bad.

I know of another magnet student who also ended up in the same boat as my DC.

CS major is just tough.

I wouldn't call a computer science major at the #44 university with a top20 computer science program "true safety" by any definition of the phrase. Isn't that a reach for everyone?
i'm glad it worked out.

What makes you think the safeties and reaches are the same for everyone? Are you assuming the college application process is a true lottery? Your understanding is totally wrong.

Unless the acceptance rate into UMD (or anywhere) is 50%+, then it simply cannot be a "Safety" for anyone. The CS acceptance rate at UMD is around 16-20%. That makes it a REACH for literally everyone. Doesn't matter your stats. There will be plenty of Top stats kids who are rejected because they reject 80%+

Wrong. You either don’t know what a safety is or you don’t understand how college admissions work.

Nope, I completely understand. And the acceptance rate is a KEY part of what makes something a Reach, Target, Safety or Likely. Something with a 16% acceptance rate is NOT a safety for anyone. Just like Harvard is not a Safety for anyone (unless your family name is on a building there, and then that's a completely different story), UMD CS is not either.

But people who think like you are precisely why there will be kids who "applied to 15+ T30 schools and didn't get acceptances to any" It happens. Because when acceptance rates are sub 20% it's a reach for everyone unhooked. Vast majority in the 80%+ rejected will also have "a resume highly qualified for the school" yet they got rejected.
And applying to more Reaches doesn't increase your acceptance chances at any one school

My kid applied to UVA, UMich and GTech as safeties (all with CS/engineering) and they got in all of them.

Troll elsewhere

LMAO

Anonymous wrote:I know a few high stats kids who just applied to very selective colleges and our state flagship, UW Seattle, and they only got into UW. All happy and doing well. It wasn't a safety for direct admit CS (25% in-state admit rate, 2% OOS) but was for the others (55% in-state admit rate, 45% OOS).

Yes, UW Seattle is not a safety for CS or Engineering (~40% acceptance) and also not for business.

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Anonymous wrote:Schools with a reputation for yield protection are not safeties, by definition.

The problem with confusing some sort of great likelihood with a true safety here is that misleads other families into some poor kid getting shut out.

Show me a school with "yield protection" that has an acceptance rate above 50% (because a safety requires that). Most YP schools are Reaches (Think Tufts) or places like CWRU (whose acceptance rates make it a Target at best )

Schools like Tulane, American and GWU have lowered their acceptance rates below 50 through a combination of RD yield protection and extensive use of ED.

Nobody has proven that yield protection occurs anywhere.

+1

And so what if it does? in 99% of the cases, the student claiming "yield protection" by school X doesn't really want to attend school X. They have several other "better schools" that they are hoping to get into. Well the goal of the school is to actually fill their class with Z students (or slightly over ) for freshman year. That means School X wants/needs students who actually want to attend. So it's up to your kid to convince the school you actually want to attend.

For example:

My 1520, female, engineering major, 3.98UW, 8 AP, good EC with one major EC they have dedicated themselves since late ES. They applied to CWRU in time for EA, mainly because they researched and realized it was a good school, and didn't have any extra essays. Had not visited (from west coast and it wasn't on our radar for summer tours). Yet once my kid decided to apply, they attended online sessions, emailed admissions and the specific engineering dept they were interested in, so showed as much interest as possible.
My DD got admitted EA with the top general merit award (it was $42K/year).
So yes they were not 1600 and 15 APs, but still very high stats (1520 normally makes that cut, especially when it was still TO).
Yet there are people with similar stats on College confidential that year claiming their kid was "yield protected" with very similar stats. Yes, schools use ED1 and ED2 to attempt to ensure attendance. So does every single school that has a form of ED. That's the goal.

However unless the acceptance rate is 80%+ and your high stats kid was rejected, they likely were not yield protected. They just were not the perfect person for that school and with slightly over 70% rejected at CWRU, there are still plenty of highly qualified kids who will be rejected. Remember the goal of AO when reading your application is to try and determine who will actually attend (yes that is the purpose of college admission) and who will fit in the best at the school and make for a well rounded freshman class. But don't scream "yield protection" just because you got rejected.
Because, just like your target schools are not your first choices (sometimes they might not even be in your top 5-8 choices), schools also get to choose their top students, and GPA/SAT is not the only way to do that


Finally---CWRU is filled with "T25 rejects" as they say--the students joke about it. Read the student newspaper and there is an article yearly.

My kid didn't attend there---instead are at a similar school, also around 25-30% acceptance rate, a school where it seems literally everyone had a list of 3-5+ "higher schools" they also wanted to attend and most were WL in some form at one or more (or at least of my DD 15+ friends, every single one was WL at a T25 school, several at multiple and several were also offered spring or fall sophomore year admissions).

Anonymous wrote:Anyone from recent years have a kid who had high stats but ended up with no options aside from their true safety school?
I.e. they applied to top30 schools (with their college counselor's strong support and/or the support of previous years' stats from their school) but the cards just didn't fall their way and they ended up in their true safety school?

How are they doing now?

My kid is a senior at their safety school.

Was rejected from one reach, WL at another (attitude became if they don't want me, I don't want then), in at the state flagship - a target (which they never wanted to attend but we made them apply), rejected from another out of state target and deferred and then rejected from another. In at 3 safetys, and decided they really liked one of them. Has done well, made terrific life-long friends, and is applying to grad schools for next year (humanities major under grad, think History or English).

4.81 wgpa, 12 APs (all 5s), 35 on ACT, national awards and more. And to reiterate, happy as a clam at their safety school.

Anonymous wrote:A friend’s DD with an UW 4.0 and 1540 SAT got into zero colleges they applied. Not a single one. Obviously they didn’t have a true safety on the list but did have some schools ranked out of the top 50. They ended up scrambling and applying to rolling admission colleges in the UK and attended one.

+1. I've seen this several times. No acceotances anywhere which is why we started with Pitt rolling to have at least one acceptance in hand

Anonymous wrote:A school can be a safety for two reasons.

1) It accepts the majority of kids and you are well above the median applicant

2) You have already been accepted before RD apps are due

UMD pretty much requires people to apply EA notifies before RD applications are due so it can be a safety for anyone who gets in.

But I wouldn’t a “true safety” in that there is the possibility of rejection. OP is asking about true safety.

No, #2 does not make it a "safety". Many schools require applicantions by Nov 1/Nov 15 if you really want to attend. Our state flagship (Similar ranking to UMD) requires applications by Nov 15. Trust me, it does not "make it a safety school" for anyone and certainly not for any of the Direct admit/Impacted majors. All it means is that you will hear back from them before many RD applications are due. But in reality, if a school has EA, there are very few reasons not to submit by that deadline---First: it shows the school you are serious about attending and second it shows them you are organized enough to get your application in before Jan.

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Anonymous wrote:My DS had 4.0 GPA with 1590 SAT, and was accepted to an Ivy. He turned it down to attend George Mason on a full tuition+room/board scholarship because we would have to pay almost 85K per year, and we didn't receive any financial aid at the Ivy where he was accepted. Fast-forward to today, he is currently at UVA medical school.

Congrats to you and your son as being one of the few families on dcum making smart decisions.

Because they made you feel less inferior?

I'm a DP but I agree that the PP with the kid who took the full ride at GMU and got the super high GPA and all the bennies that go with it made a smart decision. Med school is all about GPA and accolades. It's harder to get that in an ivy, and the student now has several hundred thousand dollars saved toward med school.

Plus as far as I can tell GMU's star is rising, while many DCUM threads lately are discussing the stars of other schools falling.

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Anonymous wrote:Schools with a reputation for yield protection are not safeties, by definition.

The problem with confusing some sort of great likelihood with a true safety here is that misleads other families into some poor kid getting shut out.

Show me a school with "yield protection" that has an acceptance rate above 50% (because a safety requires that). Most YP schools are Reaches (Think Tufts) or places like CWRU (whose acceptance rates make it a Target at best )

Schools like Tulane, American and GWU have lowered their acceptance rates below 50 through a combination of RD yield protection and extensive use of ED.

No they have done it mostly thru ED---and that is what every school aims to do. Their ultimate goal as a business is to have a full freshman class come fall (not much over and certainly not ANY less ) So ED is a good tool to get there. So is ED2. But they are no longer Safety schools, no matter how you look at it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools with a reputation for yield protection are not safeties, by definition.

The problem with confusing some sort of great likelihood with a true safety here is that misleads other families into some poor kid getting shut out.

Show me a school with "yield protection" that has an acceptance rate above 50% (because a safety requires that). Most YP schools are Reaches (Think Tufts) or places like CWRU (whose acceptance rates make it a Target at best )

CU Boulder has a reputation for yield protecting OOS high stats. Sometimes it's not obvious, as the scenario will involve acceptance to the catch-all exploratory studies major, denying direct entry to engineering or business.

So yes it's close, But their Engineering admission rate is typically around 40%. I'm guessing OOS is lower (it's popular OOS school for it's location). So engineering is Not a Safety at CU Boulder for anyone

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools with a reputation for yield protection are not safeties, by definition.

The problem with confusing some sort of great likelihood with a true safety here is that misleads other families into some poor kid getting shut out.

Show me a school with "yield protection" that has an acceptance rate above 50% (because a safety requires that). Most YP schools are Reaches (Think Tufts) or places like CWRU (whose acceptance rates make it a Target at best )

Pretty sure there's an entire recent thread, maybe more than one, discussing whether VT yield protects. Rate 57%

Well if VT yield protects, it's for STEM majors/Eng/CS and those certainly do not have a 57% admission rate. They don't yield protect for open/easy to get into majors