Did you feel initially disappointed? Was the school’s atmosphere welcoming? How did you react when you realize your safety school was your next step?
Many people go to their safety school, or to a second choice school. Perhaps they didn’t get into their first choice, or they did, but the financial aid at their first choice didn’t turn out as it needed to.
I always suggest that students apply to safety schools, but that those schools be places they do like, because it’s really possible they might go there.
It’s normal to be disappointed. But you need to make the best of this. Go there open to new experiences. Get involved on campus so you meet people. Try to make the place work for you. It may very well surprise you.
I am currently going to my safety school, Union College, which I had not researched adequately outside their own propaganda, and did not visit before attending. As it turns out, this has been a huge mistake, and I am transferring either to BU next year or taking a gap year and going somewhere else afterwards. So, basically, be careful; if you won’t actually enjoy your safety school, it is better to take a year off and find schools that fit you better (that will actually accept you), since transferring is a much more frustrating process.
By definition, a safety school should be a school:
- that you can afford
- that you’re VERY confident you’ll get into, based on both GPA and SATs… so we’re talking 75th percentile type scores
- that you’ve confident you’ll enjoy.
Part of that third point is the necessity of visiting the school; how on earth could you make such an important decision without an impression of the campus itself?
Yes, I guess I went to my safety-- my dad said to go to Community College, and I did since he was paying. Then I went to the local university, where I got my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.
No angst, School was never an end in itself, merely a means to an end.
As to yet another thread so similar to all the others: Please. Go outside. Play ball. Go for a walk. Go to the mall and talk to other kids your own age-- and NOT about college. Put the electronics away and interact with other teens in real time, face to face. Live in the moment-- your life, not mine or any of the other adult strangers here.
This is not healthy/