how to tell "safety" school

Parents Forum
1

<p>My neice has a 4.0, valedictorian, one summer worth of medical research at a hospital, and SAT of 2000. Neice’s mom feels Scripps can be a “safety” school for this student. It seems to me that Scripps is too competitive in admissions to be considered the “sure thing”. The student LOVES the school and it may in fact be first choice, it’s just that there are no other schools on her list that are “more likely” for admission and I told the mom that scares me a bit. (yes, she asked my opinion)</p>

<p>Am I off base?</p>

2

<p>Scripps is not a safety school for her since it still has a pretty low admit rate 39%. Also, is it a school that her parents can pay for without any issues? To me safety also implies that she will be able to be accepted and will give her enough aid to pay for it.</p>

3

<p>Mom needs an intro to the admissions stats at Scripps, such as how many applicatoions yearly and the GPAs etc of the applicants. </p>

<p>Niece needs to develop a longer list. It isn’t that she is not qualified to go here or there, the problem is that there are tens of thousands of other equally qualified applicants to probably all the schools that she has on that list. They can’t take them all.</p>

4

<p>My point exactly!
I just wanted some outside verification that I’m not being overly dower.</p>

<p>Getting folks to look at finances and admission realistically may not be something a family member can do! </p>

<p>Isn’t that part of the thread somewhere called “smile and nod”…</p>

5

<p>Scripps is not a safety with a 2000. Info from their CDS. </p>

<p>25th Percentile/75th Percentile</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading
640/740</p>

<p>SAT Math
630/710</p>

<p>SAT Writing
640/740</p>

<p>Has she tried the ACT? What was the breakdown of the 2000?</p>

6

<p>“Safety” also requires that affordability is definitely known.</p>

<p>Scripps also lists “level of applicant’s interest” as a “very important” criterion for admission. This means that it cannot be considered a safety – schools using level of interest for admissions purposes may reject applicants using them as safeties in order to keep their yield high.</p>

7

<p>She is very competitive and will likely get in, but Scripps is not a safety.</p>