<p>I wonder if some are thinking that being left with only safeties shouldn’t be disappointing. I imagine it’s always disappointing, at least initially. My S just got into his first school, a safety. He’s not excited (we are!) but I don’t expect him to be. But if nothing else works out, this school will be fine, maybe much better than fine. </p>
<p>Exaclty Collegetime. Most kids (and parents) may be disappointed if the safety is the only option. Definitely tough on a kid that works hard and feels like they could have gotten into their safety with a lot less effort. The ability to move on and make it be “better then fine” is the key. Or at least to go through the first year and figure out a good transfer option.</p>
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<p>I would consider the long list of people who have had difficulty in organized educational settings, take into account their even longer list of accomplishments, and realize that a single score alone can’t give me that answer.</p>
<p>So would I. And I would consider exceptional artistic or musical talent or the ability to invent useful things more impressive than being good at taking tests.</p>
<p>My daughter asked me why I put so many of what she considers to be safety schools on the list for the spring break trip. My response was that it’s easy to find great reach schools. The harder, and more important job, is to find likely schools you can fall in love with.</p>
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<p>Perhaps your state does not do like California and some other states do, which is that the state universities do not require transcripts or recommendations at application time. Transcripts are only needed after matriculation to verify previously self-reported courses and grades and check that the student did not have a severe case of senioritis. So a student in California can apply to up to 32 public universities in California without creating any additional load on the high school’s teaching and counseling staff for recommendations or transcripts. They do not use the Common Application, but there is one UC application and one CSU application that can be used for any number of campuses in each system, and each system shares SAT/ACT score reports among its campuses. But the student does have to pay an additional application fee for each campus applied to, which does tend to limit the shotgun applications to a more reasonable number.</p>
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<p>Yes, but you have to admit that there is some correlation. Exceptionally smart people will tend to do better on standardized tests than ordinary people. It’s not a perfect science where we can say that just because Person A had a higher SAT score than Person B that means Person A is smarter or will be more successful than Person B, but indicates a higher probability of such. </p>
<p>I think it’s important to have two safeties so that one doesn’t feel “forced” - having that choice is essential, at least psychologically. The student still “chooses” and attends the school s/he wants most.
I like Honors Colleges, but in the case of the hypothetical 3.5/ACT27 those aren’t necessarily accessible. Another issue is that some students don’t actually understand that the Honors College is not like “honors” in high school.
I’m among these kids (ex-) who went to the full ride safety rather than the “prestigious” colleges where I’d been admitted. But I’d picked carefully, safety schools that shared enough characteristics with my favorite colleges that I knew it’d be a good fit even if it wasn’t as selective. I’d looked at atmosphere, the campus paper (if you asked nicely, they sent you 1-2 issues), what Fiske said and “Insider’s Guide” said, how many majors had graduated in the past years (at that time, it meant hunting it down because there was no internet… I actually wrote letters, by hand because no home computer, no printer accessible, not even a fax machine… I started as a sophomore and used part of my “pocket money” on the stamps instead of the 3 pieces of candy it was supposed to buy, and got information. Where I lived, there were still card catalogs in the public library in 1990. And of course once I’d taken the requisite tests, I received tons of brochures every day, which I read carefully - free reading! free information! Every day! Seriously, you can’t imagine how amazing that was 
- to see if I’d write them or not. I compiled quite a notebook.) I absolutely didn’t want to attend either my state flagship nor the local university and I made sure I wouldn’t. I probably overdid it a bit on safeties actually. :p</p>
<p>My nephew was a top student… high GPA…tons of APs…had taken several courses at a local college, including Calc III…scored a 34 on ACT…4- year varsity swimmer who placed at the states…had great ECs…etc. His parents (my in-laws) had been convinced since birth that he was a wonderkid. They pushed him to apply to only top schools. He applied to–and was rejected by–Harvard, MIT, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and Brown. Luckily his GC also encouraged him to submit an app to the state flagship university. He’s now attending their honors program, and is happy to be there. But the sting of being rejected everywhere–when he and his parents thought he was a super-genius–was very real. </p>
<p>^^ I would say it a bit differently - he probably is a super genius, but so were the other applicants. There is only room for so many. That is why I tell my kids 2300, 800s and ECs are only invites to be reviewed with everyone who looks just like you numbers-wise. Getting accepted after the invite is another issue. </p>
<p>amiable wrote: “They pushed him to apply to only top schools. He applied to–and was rejected by–Harvard, MIT, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and Brown.”</p>
<p>amiable, that’s unfortunate. When I see a list like your nephew’s my first thought is weak guidance and lack of research - the kid’s likely not going to be admitted. On the other hand, when I see a list with say Rice, Bucknell, Colgate and Princeton OR Wesleyan, Vassar, Bard and Brown OR Harvey Mudd, Purdue and MIT, I’m thinking the kid is self aware, has done some research, and is probably a strong candidate for the most selective colleges on his list. </p>
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I talk to parents all the time about trying to remain realistic about the college admissions process. To help adjust their expectations, I explain to them that almost every single high school in the country has a small group of students that we would consider “outstanding.” That’s the competition. In order to have a fighting chance, “unhooked” students have to check the boxes next to: “works hard,” “takes the most difficult curriculum offered,” “has earned the respect of the best teachers at the school,” “earns straight As,” and “gets nearly perfect scores on all standardized tests.” Then the student’s extracurricular record will be used as a determining factor in the admissions decision. The successful applicant’s extracurricular activities reflect a mix of initiative, intelligence, dedication, leadership, and passion.</p>
<p>If a student isn’t the “top dog” at a given high school, how can he/she expect to secure one of a limited number of coveted acceptances at the most selective colleges in the world? The odds are very, very low…even for the “top dog.”</p>
<p>I know someone who only applied to Ivies, best offer was a waitlist.
Ended up scrambling to apply to less selective schools in April, paid deposits
on 2 different schools as the results came back, but the accepted from an Ivy waitlist
(it does happen), so paid 3 deposits in total 
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<p>Another bugaboo that can cause a de facto shut out is an inaccurate (or dishonest) Net Price Calculator (NPC). </p>
<p>The NPC at one of my daughter’s safety schools was so far off from the actual package they offered that it made the school unaffordable/unattendable.</p>
<p>One of her two safeties, a $58,000 private university, accepted her early action before Christmas with a $25,000 merit scholarship. Their NPC had projected that she would receive her $25,000 merit scholarship plus an additional $14,000 in financial aid, which would have made the college affordable for us. We would get the actual financial aid package in February or March.</p>
<p>She applied early decision II to another school, and was accepted in Mid-February with a great financial aid package (under $15,000 total cost for a $60,000 college).</p>
<p>Two days later, the financial aid package from the $58,000 safety school landed in our mailbox. In addition to her $25,000 merit scholarship, they offered her only $5,000 in financial aid instead of the projected $14,000. That school would have been unaffordable for us at a $28,000 cost with another child in college.</p>
<p>By the way, the Net Price Calculator from her early decision college was within $200 of their actual package.</p>
<p>It was a moot point for us, fortunately, because she had been accepted by her early decision school with an ample package. She withdrew all her other applications, so we never saw the aid package from the state flagship (which also accepted her early action and whose NPC showed us an affordable figure) or found out the results of her other 9 applications (all of which were too selective to be considered safeties). It’s unlikely that the NPC at the state flagship would also have been as far off as that of the $58,000 “safety” school and that all of the 9 others would have said no, but as we know in college admissions, anything is possible.</p>
<p>The lesson learned here is to make sure that you have more than two safety schools if you need financial aid, because Net Price Calculators aren’t always accurate. </p>
<p>And talk to financial aid if you can. I had my daughter remove one safety school from her list after getting an early financial aid estimate from the school (which is supposedly more accurate than their NPC) and talking to their financial aid department about what size package was likely, based on her transcript, test scores and our income. In addition, I spoke to a senior financial aid officer at her full-need, need-blind early decision school about the accuracy of their NPC, and asked what could make it produce an inaccurate result before allowing her to apply there early decision.</p>
<p>It seems to me that a lot of people are just plain stupid - their kid is top 1% (or top 2% or top 5%) in their high school, so they figure they’ll be top 1%/2%/5% among the applicant pool to Harvard or Stanford or whatever, and it’s like — really? You really don’t get that your competition are <em>all</em> kids who are Practically Perfect?</p>
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<p>He was a SOPHOMORE in HS!!! They were COLLEGE students!!! He was probably 15 yrs old. You can’t be serious in implying that this would have been an acceptable college for him. </p>
<p>I need to show this thread to my parents. I’m a freshman and they’re on my backs already about HYPSM. </p>
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<p>Any student with a record like this should be applying to at least one school where admissions is determined by a known formula of grades and standardized test scores. It used to be that most state flagships did this for in-state students.</p>
<p>“The brilliant student can and should be able to receive personal attention from his brilliant professor. He can find other brilliant students to study and socialize with. If there is a general lack of ambition among his classmates, he should be in a better position to take advantage of opportunities that are harder to get at more competitive schools (scholarships, internships, etc.).”</p>
<p>I think that’s a very extrovert thing to say - that our brilliant student can find the other brilliant students. As an introvert, I think that’s a hard thing to do, and why I value the high “thickness” of smart students at elite schools. </p>
<p>This whole idea that “smart kids” will find each other, as if they were magnets to a fridge, is strange to me. There are MANY universities where that isn’t possible, especially at directional/commuter campuses, or very large campuses where freshmen are lost. If they’ve been randomly placed in classes where there’s no one “like them”, if they’re in lecture halls with 300 other freshmen, if half their classmates attend class and leave (perhaps, including the students in question), how are they supposed to find the “other students like them”? In addition, it’s not just a matter of being brilliant: the 3.5/27 kid is in the same boat. It’s also a matter of drive, priorities, whimsy, character, etc. and what the “norm” is for most on campus when one kid is “outside” that norm and has been all his/her life.</p>