<p>Lulu63- I don’t really understand checkbooks comments, but I can give you a little of our story. The majority of the schools my D applied to fell well within her academic range, with her most academically competitive being a non-audition school. She also had a more academically competitive school that had a weak arts programs so it was sort of her artistic safety. Basically her its consisted of school schools she was well with in the academic range for (typically upper end of 50%) but none would be considered academically exclusive. We (DH and I) felt it was most important that she woudl be a strong academic student and able to get academic scholarships to the schools she applied. Maybe we under sold her but that is what safe felt to us.
BTW - D was accepted every where she applied academically and artistically. In almost all instances the great majority of her scholarships were academic, not artistic. She was able to select from 4 schools that she loved and provided enough scholarship money to make it affordable. I think that safety, like much else, is relative.</p>