I would add one more thing. Visit a close, likely safety candidate that you think your student would be OK with (that’s a little tough in CA because many of the publics, including some of the CSUs are competitive). Ask them if they could see themselves there. If the answer is yes, you have one safety and you can let them know that no matter what else happens (drop in grades, underperformance on ACT/SAT, etc.) that they have that one in the bag. It takes some of the pressure off. My son actually had 3 safeties, our flagship in Oregon and 2 WUE schools. He liked them all.
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