Anonymous wrote:Let’s say you have the stats to qualify for an Ivy - 4.0 UW, 1550 or greater SAT, 10 plus APS w all 5s, several years post BC calc math. national recognition in more than one area, lots of leadership, NMSF, etc

What are targets / safeties (not in state for MD or UVA)

Not a recruited athlete or URM

Want both STEM and humanities
Prefer midsize but open to larger
Like city / city adjacent
Prefer a campus, but would consider a more open campus
Not super Greek
Like Boston , DC, NY, Chicago but open to Philly , SF, NC

Not sure what is a safety/ target nowadays ? Everywhere seems harder to get in and some places yield protect

Assuming the student has all above and is at or near the top of their HS rank, and the teacher recs would confirm they are a true standout/best of their year, for a top suburban public or magnet or above avg private. At a feeder (top-100 in the nation) private, such as Nobles, Sidwell: the student would only have to be top 5%/"best few" to have the list below be accurate, as these schools regularly get over 50% of their class in T30 unis/T15 LACs:

Safeties for RD (>75% chance, some 75, some 95+): Wake, BC, UVA in state, Villanova, Davidson, NCState OOS, NYU
Target for RD (avg 50% chance, range 25-75%): Rice, Notre Dame, UVA OOS, Northwestern, Swarthmore, Georgetown, UNC OOS

Every Ivy and T10 is a reach, but some are closer to a target for ED, depending on the high school track record (ie Hopkins, Dartmouth, Cornell in ED are about 25%-30% chance for many HS, or targets for the student described).

I personally had a range of safeties. 2 state schools - got full rides to both, one small private, 2 HYPSM, 1 other Ivy with legacy, Duke

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s say you have the stats to qualify for an Ivy - 4.0 UW, 1550 or greater SAT, 10 plus APS w all 5s, several years post BC calc math. national recognition in more than one area, lots of leadership, NMSF, etc

What are targets / safeties (not in state for MD or UVA)

Not a recruited athlete or URM

Want both STEM and humanities
Prefer midsize but open to larger
Like city / city adjacent
Prefer a campus, but would consider a more open campus
Not super Greek
Like Boston , DC, NY, Chicago but open to Philly , SF, NC

Not sure what is a safety/ target nowadays ? Everywhere seems harder to get in and some places yield protect

Penn, Cornell, Dartmouth

Those are safeties!?

I don’t think you understood the question.

St Andrews
UK schools
UMD

Anonymous wrote:Let’s say you have the stats to qualify for an Ivy - 4.0 UW, 1550 or greater SAT, 10 plus APS w all 5s, several years post BC calc math. national recognition in more than one area, lots of leadership, NMSF, etc

What are targets / safeties (not in state for MD or UVA)

Not a recruited athlete or URM

Want both STEM and humanities
Prefer midsize but open to larger
Like city / city adjacent
Prefer a campus, but would consider a more open campus
Not super Greek
Like Boston , DC, NY, Chicago but open to Philly , SF, NC

Not sure what is a safety/ target nowadays ? Everywhere seems harder to get in and some places yield protect

Target
UMD
GW
NEU (ED)
BU (my kid with similar stats accepted RD)
NYU? (hard target-ED)

Safeties
AU
Fordham
Drexel
UIC

Not all encompassing list...Good luck!

McGill, Toronto, UBC

Those Stats are really good - I would think Chicago, NorthEastern and Cornell would be likely but not necessarily safeties....also UVA

Anonymous wrote:Let’s say you have the stats to qualify for an Ivy - 4.0 UW, 1550 or greater SAT, 10 plus APS w all 5s, several years post BC calc math. national recognition in more than one area, lots of leadership, NMSF, etc

What are targets / safeties (not in state for MD or UVA)

Not a recruited athlete or URM

Want both STEM and humanities
Prefer midsize but open to larger
Like city / city adjacent
Prefer a campus, but would consider a more open campus
Not super Greek
Like Boston , DC, NY, Chicago but open to Philly , SF, NC

Not sure what is a safety/ target nowadays ? Everywhere seems harder to get in and some places yield protect

I think that all kids like that should apply to their state’s equivalent of George Mason.

IMO ED is for kids who have Ivy stats but not the *extra* shit. They should ED to Chicago etc.

Ivy potential (really T10 potential) : ea to some good schools. Than RD to reaches.

Case, U Rochester, Wake, Davidson

This is a tough question, OP. There are a couple of different challenges: 1) finding "true safeties" that you your high stats kid is excited about and 2) convincing those very good schools listed by PPs that your student is actually interested in attending. FWIW, my kid got into several crazy reaches but was waitlisted by several of the aforementioned schools (BC, Tufts, etc). Even if there were a good chance of getting in, that doesn't work like a safety.

As far as schools you can count on accepting a high stats kid, we felt like the best bets were honors colleges at state schools, Canadian schools, universities in Europe.

Cambridge / Oxford
Imperial
KCL

Anonymous wrote:You need to plan ED and ED2 schools.
Those stats should easily get into Tufts as a high target ED and BC level as a safety RD but you might get yield protected with those scores at BC and a few schools ranked lower in the RD round.

You may not need it but some of these could be safeties.
Case
Tulane
Lafayette
BU
BC
GW

FYI-none of those schools are "Safeties" for any one with any stats! But they are targets for the OP kid

Anonymous wrote:As other posters are saying, rather than thinking of safeties think of timing--find a school like Pitt that has rolling admissions or others that have EA and get a sure admittance under your belt (or a recalibration of the landscape if you are rejected/deferred). With that admittance, you don't have to choose a 'true safety' which many think of as an acceptance rate of over 50% and stats over 75%ile and your job becomes easier. Your next decision is whether you want to have an ED strategy which is really important if you want to target a certain level of selectivity. At selective schools the most telling information is whether you have chosen to go ED or not. Those stats would be high enough to say Dream school 1 ED1, Dream school 2 ED2. If none of that pans out, you apply to all the schools that you like more than your early action/rolling admissions acceptance in hand.

Agreed. If you find a school your kid likes with rolling admissions (Pitt is a popular one), then they do not need other "safeties" if you can afford Pitt

Anonymous wrote:Wash U
Richmond
Tufts
Northeastern
Villanova
Lehigh
Michigan

WashU, Tufts, Northeastern and Michigan are NOT targets or Safeties for anyone, even "ivy qualified"
Anything with less than 20% acceptance rate is a Reach for everyone