nkayyy

My two safeties are Biola and UCI, both of which have strong Music and English programs, easy admits for me, and affordable. If I get scholarship money from Pepperdine, though, I'll go there in a heartbeat.

Mason17

Hendrix College is one the strongest academic colleges in the South, with a free application (using the CommonApp) and late admissions.

oodadoo

My son's first choices:
University of WA (local, top BioMedical Eng & his dream career was 'born' there on a 7th grade visit to their Schools of Engineering)
Rice University (even better Eng school w/ 'need blind' policy and offers a Free Ride at our income level - rated as the 'Happiest University')
Harvey Mudd College (another elite engineering school w/ Lib Arts feel - applied for a $40,000 FIRST Robotics Scholarship - fingers crossed)

Fall Backs - Cal Poly SLO (premium Eng school - great location w/ easier acceptance - but NOT by much)
UC Santa Cruz (a strong candidate that makes its mark in engineering yet easier to get into)
University of Utah (U of WA 'light' - Strong BioMedical Eng, offers an Honor College w/ smaller classes and more attention - VERY cool - or the regular college that is a LOT easier to get into)

To date (3/19/2012) - each of the 'fall backs' have accepted and still waiting to hear from Rice, HMC and UW - also none have came in with financial aid/scholarship packages yet...tough wait for sure

VADAD1

Ok, well, my daughter is living a nightmare right now, and I think I will share our story and hopefully it will benefit somebody that reads it.

My daughter scored a 2330 on her SAT in October, and had 3 SAT subject tests of 760, 750, and 730. She has good stats other than that too. A 4.5 GPA, a class ranking in the top 2%. She has a decent number of extra curricular activities but no leadership. She is, in fact, a bit shy.

He dream school was always Wellesley College, which accepts like 30% of applicants normally. We knew that her stats gave her a chance but the fact she isn't hooked up in some way or an athlete might go against her and cost her a chance to get in.

After she busted the 2330 on the SAT, we decided to take a flyer on MIT, what the heck.

UVA is obviously a very good University, and we live in Virginia, so we thought she was a very safe bet to get into UVA, because last year UVA accepted 45% of in state applicants. Seeing that stat, we really felt like she was pretty safe there.

We visited Duke University, and wow, what a beautiful campus. And what a great University. Have to apply there.

Then realizing there wasn't too much safety on the list, she added Smith College. Smith College admits 45% of applicants and all of my daughter's quantifiable stats would put her among the very top applicants at Smith.

Being the obsessive Father I am, I go over to Parchment.com (formerly mychances.com) and I am punching in her info, and the numbers are coming back 23% for MIT, 60% for Wellesley, 57% for Duke, 91% for Smith, and 96% for UVA. My daughter is asking me if she is safe, and I am telling her "Well yeah, I think you are safe, but if you want to drop another 60$ on another application, go ahead." There really wasn't any other schools she was interested in, so she ended up standing pat.

According to Parchment, whose numbers I pretty much agreed with, there was a .04% chance of her being turned down everywhere. Not 4%. .04%. That is a 1 in 2500 chance.

Well she was rejected by MIT......as expected.
Wait listed at Wellesley............not shocking.
Wait listed at Smith................uh, now we are in trouble.
Wait listed at UVA..................full meltdown mode now. We are hiding the sharp objects.

Duke decisions are coming out on Thursday, and it's hard for us to be remotely optimistic. My daughter's essays were fine. Not great, but not terrible either. We don't really know what went wrong.

We are scrambling for schools now with rolling admissions, but my daughter is devastated by this predicament.

So my advice to everyone is to apply to a large state school that is very far below your achievement level, and be mentally prepared as you can to be happy there if everything goes wrong.

Because it can.

jym626

Time to have your GC call the waitlist schools, especially her top choice and work their magic. Good luck!

ucbalumnus

Re: #109

The remaining safety is to go to community college, then transfer to the University of Virginia or some other four year school as a junior (some may accept sophomore transfers also).

For the University of Virginia, see the transfer admissions page and use the transfer credit equivalencies for schedule planning at the community college.

kittypals2

Try University of Alabama's rolling admissions plus an Honor College! Great suite/apt-style dorms, lots of improvements/new buildings, & a ton of school spirit. Great financial scholarships for good students. You can call the admissions office to rush your application thru. They are not on the Common App.

It is a great "safety school" with a true college experience!

Blueash

Also, University of Oklahoma has rolling admissions.My DS received a postcard today and they apparently still have merit money. Not the caliber of your list - but better than community college.

VADAD1

Kittypals2 and Blueash, thank you so much, I had been looking for schools with rolling admissions, and did not know those two schools were options.

dudedad

VADAD1 -

Also check out the three public universities in Arizona. Her high stats would yield merit money and admisson to honors. And they are pretty flexible about when they receive applications.

Best of luck,
NOVA dudedad

Icarus77

Sounds like D needs to take control of the process.She is feeling like a loser for no reason but she has takeover now Dad.Ultimately the decision has to be hers.I say this because I"ve been there.

VADAD1

Icarus77, I agree with that. Completely agree.

jujummm

I know that University of Sydney is still accepting applications, also any university where your daughter might be considered a "top student" can offer special late applications that are faster to fill in, so you should look into that. Please remind your daughter that she can always transfer to that Ivy League if she ends up not loving the college she goes to.

VADAD1

Thanks for that jujummm, I appreciate that info and advice.

momof3greatgirls

VADAD1 I am so shocked about the UVA waitlist. I think I would have to call and find out what happened. She falls in the top 25% for UVA.