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.

Oh for christ's sake. That just makes you a complete moron.

+1

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.

Sorry, should have said not a safety for anyone outside of rural VA.

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.

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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."

Aren’t likelies and safeties the same thing?

DD was deferred from a likely-kids with lower stats and less on their resume were admitted so think it was some sort of yield protection. Admitted to second and still waiting on third. Admitted to a target so unlikely she will attend any of the Likelies.

DP: I don't consider likelies and safeties the same thing. Safeties are schools that admit 80+% of applicants, and your child's stats are in the top 75%. A likely is a school with an overall admissions rate of 50-74% and your child is at or above 75%. However, a likely can become a target if your child is applying to a competitive major.

My definition of "safeties" is stricter. They're schools where either (1) you've already been accepted (usually an early rolling acceptance) or (2) acceptance decisions are made strictly "by the numbers" (e.g., Iowa/Iowa State, Kansas) and you have the necessary numbers. Anything less certain is a "likely."

Aside from a competitive major (business, CS, engineering none of this applies), can you tell me about a kid who actually was rejected from a school that admits 80+% and the kid is at/above the 75 percentile? Oh, and the kid showed some interest in the school (visit, communication with AO, online "visit", etc).

If you need to carve out 30% of applicants and put additional requirements on the ones who remain, your definition is worthless.

No it is not. If you are applying for a direct admit major, you should look at the admit rate for that major, not the overall admit rate for a school. Because they are not applying for an Art history or English major at a school with 80% acceptance rate. They are applying for CS which has a 15% acceptance rate (not 80%).

do colleges show admit rates by major? I haven't seen that in the CDS.

It's not in the CDS. Some schools make the info available on their websites--Virginia Tech is super transparent, for example--but most don't. It's not centralized in any publicly available reliable source that I'm aware of.

People are also getting shut out of Univ. Of South Carolina and Tennessee.

Because these are the current popular schools (beyond T30s) as well as Auburn, Georgia and UMiami.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Aren’t likelies and safeties the same thing?

DD was deferred from a likely-kids with lower stats and less on their resume were admitted so think it was some sort of yield protection. Admitted to second and still waiting on third. Admitted to a target so unlikely she will attend any of the Likelies.

DP: I don't consider likelies and safeties the same thing. Safeties are schools that admit 80+% of applicants, and your child's stats are in the top 75%. A likely is a school with an overall admissions rate of 50-74% and your child is at or above 75%. However, a likely can become a target if your child is applying to a competitive major.

My definition of "safeties" is stricter. They're schools where either (1) you've already been accepted (usually an early rolling acceptance) or (2) acceptance decisions are made strictly "by the numbers" (e.g., Iowa/Iowa State, Kansas) and you have the necessary numbers. Anything less certain is a "likely."

Aside from a competitive major (business, CS, engineering none of this applies), can you tell me about a kid who actually was rejected from a school that admits 80+% and the kid is at/above the 75 percentile? Oh, and the kid showed some interest in the school (visit, communication with AO, online "visit", etc).

If you need to carve out 30% of applicants and put additional requirements on the ones who remain, your definition is worthless.

No it is not. If you are applying for a direct admit major, you should look at the admit rate for that major, not the overall admit rate for a school. Because they are not applying for an Art history or English major at a school with 80% acceptance rate. They are applying for CS which has a 15% acceptance rate (not 80%).

do colleges show admit rates by major? I haven't seen that in the CDS.

People are also getting shut out of Univ. Of South Carolina and Tennessee.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Mom was so proud of the effort her child was putting in, and the grades he was getting, she was sure he’d be a shoo-in to these SLACs she hadn’t even heard of. She actually thought they were no-name schools.

She'll be here in May complaining that her kid was "shut out." The overall admit rate is only one factor in admissions. Demand for major (nursing, engineering, CS, business), popularity of the school and timing of the application (ED, EA, RD) have to be considered as well when picking safeties. Like PPs, my DC was accepted at all 3 three safeties, with nice merit. If you spend some time looking at the CDS for schools, you should be able to make a realistic list.

It is very possible to do that. My kid (2023 fall, 1500/3.98UW/8AP):
T10: ED1, deferred then rejected
T20: Rejected
T30: WL
Ranked in 30s: EA accepted merit
Ranked in 40s: EA accepted Excellent merit
~50: Accepted, spend semester abroad (acceptance rates in single digits, over 93K applications for 2500-4000 spots)
~50: Accepted Direct admit Engineering (state flagship, engineering acceptance rate ~40%)
~60s: Accepted, great merit (was top Safety)
3 schools 70+: accepted to all, all with merit

So it went exactly how we expected. Rejected from T20 schools (high reaches), WL at "low reach", and accepted at all targets, safeties, and likelies.
If you create a balanced list, you should get into at least 50% of your target and safeties, and all of your likelies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

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

But wouldn’t it be a safety if the kid has a 35 act and a very high gpa?
Most kids applying there do not for instance. Ave score is 30.
I think likely schools are kid dependent

No it is not. That's the entire problem many people have. They think their 35/4.0UW kid can consider schools with 20-30% "safeties". They are not. They are targets at most for Everyone. Stats do not matter, if a school still rejects more kids than they accept it cannot be a safety/likely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possible reasons are the "safety" was ranked too highly to be a real safety, or there was yield protection going on, or there was some problem with the application like something was not completed properly.

Can schools that consider demonstrated interest be true safety?

Of course they can. Your kid just has to put in the effort to convince them "you are school #1 for me". DO that and you will likely get accepted.

No. Far too much uncertainty involved in that. The entire point of a safety is certain admission.

Well then your kid might not get into their safeties. Or all their safeties will be Iowa, Kansas, ASU---schools that guarantee admission if you have a 3.X+ gpa or Sat over 1XYZ

But there are plenty of Likelies/safeties that do not do that your kid can get into, but you of course need to convince them you want to attend. My 3.99/1520/10+ AP kid did not really want to attend a school with a 85%+ acceptance rate (or a large school). So we searched for excellent choices in the 50-70% acceptance range and made sure to show interest/do interviews if offered. My kid got into all their Safeties (50-75% acceptance rate) and only applied to 1 with a higher acceptance rate (and had no intention of attending it, but our CC requires you apply to a Safety/likely that's within 6 hour drive so we did that).

Anonymous wrote:Of the three safeties that DC applied to, was accepted by 2 - Gettysburg & Clark, however was waitlisted by St Olaf.

ST Olaf acceptance rate is less than 50%. So technically not a safety, more like a "likely target" or whatever you want to call it (a target that you are more likely to get into than a High target)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Aren’t likelies and safeties the same thing?

DD was deferred from a likely-kids with lower stats and less on their resume were admitted so think it was some sort of yield protection. Admitted to second and still waiting on third. Admitted to a target so unlikely she will attend any of the Likelies.

DP: I don't consider likelies and safeties the same thing. Safeties are schools that admit 80+% of applicants, and your child's stats are in the top 75%. A likely is a school with an overall admissions rate of 50-74% and your child is at or above 75%. However, a likely can become a target if your child is applying to a competitive major.

My definition of "safeties" is stricter. They're schools where either (1) you've already been accepted (usually an early rolling acceptance) or (2) acceptance decisions are made strictly "by the numbers" (e.g., Iowa/Iowa State, Kansas) and you have the necessary numbers. Anything less certain is a "likely."

Aside from a competitive major (business, CS, engineering none of this applies), can you tell me about a kid who actually was rejected from a school that admits 80+% and the kid is at/above the 75 percentile? Oh, and the kid showed some interest in the school (visit, communication with AO, online "visit", etc).

If you need to carve out 30% of applicants and put additional requirements on the ones who remain, your definition is worthless.

No it is not. If you are applying for a direct admit major, you should look at the admit rate for that major, not the overall admit rate for a school. Because they are not applying for an Art history or English major at a school with 80% acceptance rate. They are applying for CS which has a 15% acceptance rate (not 80%).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

There is a generally accepted definition in the college admission world:
Acceptance rate of 50-60%+ and your kid has stats at or above the 75% for SAT and GPA.

So no, no kid can use CWRU as a safety school even with 1600/4.0/15+ APs and a stellar EC list. Because it's acceptance rate is ~30%. So it's at best a Target school for high stats kids.

Whereas, Applying to MSU (Michigan state) can be a Safety because their general admission rate is 83%. But it might not be a safety if you are applying for a direct admit program with lower rates

You don’t speak for “the college admission world.”

What?

So you think CWRU is a "safety" for someone? It simply is not. Nothing with a 30% acceptance rate is a safety. that's fairly well established.

And that is where the issues come. Kids with "very high stats" think their safeties are schools with 20 or 30% acceptance rates just because their kids are at/+ 75% for stats. But there is still a 70-80% chance of rejection so it cannot be a safety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clemson was really tough this year.

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

But wouldn’t it be a safety if the kid has a 35 act and a very high gpa?
Most kids applying there do not for instance. Ave score is 30.
I think likely schools are kid dependent

Nope