Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh

Sorry, not any more. Lehigh is still fairly difficult to get into. It's a match for many, but not a safety even for top kids.

Lehigh is a safety for a high stats kid. Many kids with mediocre grades get in.

St Lawrence University - my highish stats kid got a great merit scholarship and is loving their time there so far

Pitt

Anonymous wrote:I get the idea of a safety, but if you compromise too much is a safety worth attending? It strike me that if you’re reaching for Cornell and end up at George Mason you’ve either messed up your application or were terribly unrealistic. In that scenario, I’d find something else to do for a year and reapply.

Admissions, especially when most schools are test optional, can be difficult to predict. The game is won or lost in the making of the list. There should be a variety of matches, low matches, and more than one safety.

Students with high stats should not be applying only to super-reaches and one safety. There is an entire continuum in between, though sometimes students and families may have overinflated ideas of where they will be admitted and where they would deign to attend; when that happens, beware, as being shut out of all one's super-reaches is quite common.

Also define high stats. 4.0 unweighted from TJ and Fairfax High is totally different.

I get the idea of a safety, but if you compromise too much is a safety worth attending? It strike me that if you’re reaching for Cornell and end up at George Mason you’ve either messed up your application or were terribly unrealistic. In that scenario, I’d find something else to do for a year and reapply.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh

That is an interesting idea. It was not on my radar, kids from our school don’t apply there

Lafayette, maybe? What is your kid interested in studying?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In VA, for a high stats kid, I’d say VT non-engineering and JMU are safeties. In MD, UMD-CP.

UMD CP is the flagship. Not a safety. Perhaps it’s not as highly ranked as UVA, etc but there are tons of high stats kids applying. My son has high stats but he has plenty of other schools he is applying to because we have known kids who experienced surprise rejections. Our issue is the $$ so he needs to find a backup in-state in case his other backups don’t provide enough merit aid. He is struggling with finding a good fit in state. For most kids aiming for UMD CP, it’s UMBC as it’s stronger than others. I wish we had as many options as VA.

in most states, the state flagship IS a safety for high stats kids. Virginia and a handful of other states are exceptions to this. I get your point about UMD-CP, but in my kids’ anecdotal experience at a MoCo HS, probably 1/4-1/3 of the class gets admitted and certainly all of the high stats kids, although to your point there is occasionally an outlier (and those outliers usually applied after Nov 1).

If you don't want honors or engineering, OK, UMD-CP might be a safety for high stats kids, but it's become more competitive as the cost of private colleges has risen out of reach for many middle class parents. So I wouldn't count on UMD-CP, even for your high stats kid.

UVA if s/he is truly outstanding.

Anonymous wrote:In VA, for a high stats kid, I’d say VT non-engineering and JMU are safeties. In MD, UMD-CP.

UMD-CP is not a safety, even for high stats kids. The honors and engineering schools are very competitive.

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh

Sorry, not any more. Lehigh is still fairly difficult to get into. It's a match for many, but not a safety even for top kids.

Anonymous wrote:How about William and Mary, in state? Is it a safety

No.

UMW is a safety. In state.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about William and Mary, in state? Is it a safety

Maybe for an in-state kid with straight A’s and over 1560 on the SATs who doesn’t need aid other than student loans.

W&M, like all VA public schools, is need blind. W&M might be a safety for a in-state male with over 1560 on SATs and straight As in rigorous courses. But maybe not RD, so I wouldn't consider it a safety even then.

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh

That is an interesting idea. It was not on my radar, kids from our school don’t apply there

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wisconsin

Is it easy to get in from oos?

50-50. It is a very popular school and they have started to do what Michigan has been doing for decades in terms of yield protection for prospective students they deem as pure safety applicants.