<p>How does anyone decide what colleges will be a safety? If the test score, GPA, class rank are in the 75% or higher and the finances are within reach, would it be safe to call it safety?</p>
<p>igloo, that is how I define a safety. As a financial safety, DS is looking at the schools that give automatic merit aid based on his grades and scores.</p>
<p>and make sure your kids love their safety as much as the reaches. this whole process doesn’t always have rhyme and reason behind it to us on this side of the story.</p>
<p>My D has one or two “safety” colleges she will love. Their admit rate is around 35-40%. That worries me a little.</p>
<p>Igloo - for me to consider it a safety, it has to have a pretty high acceptance rate also. I figure any school that accepts less than 40% of applicants is turning away kids with the right stats and using some less predictable factors in their decisions, so it’s a reach in my book. I don’t like to be unpleasantly surprised, so I tend to be conservative in my expectations on things, including reach/match/safety. In general, I look at it this way:</p>
<p>Reach - a school where S’s stats are lower than the 50% mark OR any school that takes less than 40% of applicants, regardless of where his stats are.</p>
<p>Match - stats all line up well (middle 50% or higher) AND it accepts more than 40% of applicants</p>
<p>Safety - S’s stats are on the high end, it accepts most (65%+) applicants AND it’s close to a slam dunk for being affordable.</p>
<p>Of course, my kids seem to have SAT scores that are in the top 25% and GPA’s that are…not. So that makes things unpredictable.</p>
<p>^ Might be a match</p>
<p>I asked my D to find 2 safeties she is willing to attend, we could afford, and where she is WELL above the average GPA/SATs, school has high accept rate (like 70%) or offers guaranteed admission based on stats (e.g., our in-state colleges). Having an Honors Program option at these safeties is a plus.</p>
<p>For her the safeties and reaches are easy to identify --it’s the matches we struggle with (and will all spring).</p>
<p>PN: We must be using a similar mental rule book!</p>
<p>I agree with PN that acceptance rates plays a role. The most selective schools are not a match for anyone because they routinely turn away kids with the highest stats. That means a lot of high stats kids have no “match” schools per se. My D’10 applied to 3 safeties, her stats were above 70%, their acceptance rates were above 40%, and she got into all of them, often with merit aid and honors college offers. She also applied to 5 reaches, all schools where her stats put her solidly in the mix, but all had acceptance rates of less than 30%. As expected she had mixed results at those schools, and is now happily ensconced at one of them. For D’12 we hope to use the same strategy. Find some safeties you love, then assume all of those less than 30% acceptance schools are a reach and don’t fall in love.</p>
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<p>:)…</p>
<p>We employed the same strategy as 1012 mom with our daughter and she had plenty of good options when it came to making a decision. </p>
<p>The hardest part of her decision was knowing she had gotten into her #1 school, but without merit aid we couldn’t afford to send her. However, from the start of her search process, we had been very clear that this school did not give merit aid and it was likely that we would be unable to to send her to it. It was still very disappointing, but after a bit of mourning for the school we looked at all the great options she had and she could get excited about her possibilities. </p>
<p>We’re starting on the same path with S and although we will look at some great schools that don’t give merit aid, we are being very clear that we can only afford to spend a certain amount of money. I do wonder whether we should even look at the schools, but I think it is natural to be curious about the big-name schools and it gives him a basis for comparison. I also think if he finds a school compelling, he should apply as long as he has a solid base of good, affordable schools to fall back on.</p>
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<p>Sounds like a great strategy. One related question - How would you convince a safety school that you really want to attend it (given that you are happy to go)?</p>
<p>lake42s, we plan to visit our safeties (complete with interview) more than once. We will interview in the summer or very early fall, then visit at least one more time before apps are due. Part of it is a plan to help DS to love his safety, and part of it is to show them that we really, really like them!</p>
<p>@lk42ks
Basically my D had certain things about each of her safeties that were very attractive to her. One had a house system that she liked, they all were strong in dance (her primary EC), and were in good locations and the right size. It was easy to express her love, because she really felt it. She reached out to the dance department, etc., just like she did at her biggest reaches. She loved her safeties so much that one of them ended up in her final two at decision time.</p>
<p>Yes… we have the dreaded SAT’s in top 25% range, but GPA… not. It is VERY difficult to figure out where you stand in this area. Especially if you do have a demanding and rigorous schedule at a top prep school, excellent and atypical EC’s with tons of leadership and your teacher’s LOVE you. I went with the strategy of taking my S to visit some great over 60% admit rate schools that I knew he would like… I like safety EA schools too because if he could get into one of those early that you truly love, you can eliminate a bunch of match and additional safety schools. So far, he has a few on his list that myself and his GC are pretty sure he can get in. Now, just deciding how many reaches he wants to reach for.</p>
<p>Throw into the mix that based on his past study habits… i.e. low GPA, does he really want to be at any of those reaches where he is going to have to really push himself to get good grades for med school??? My S is a kid who likes to get involved in EVERYTHING… so he will want a healthy balance of academics and fun. He is one of those intellectual kids that likes to discuss Philosophy at nauseam… but isn’t one to do all the little piddly stuff in HS that you have to do to get all A’s. He is an excellent reader and writer, so in some aspects I think college grades will come easier to him.</p>
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<p>5boys - I think schools will love your son. I think with a lot of them, the grades and scores have to make the cut, and then they set that aside and look at how interesting and interested a kid is. My older son was like this, and he was accepted to all of the schools he applied to, including his reaches, and ended up with a handful of schools that gave him enough money to attend. </p>
<p>My 2012 S is a really cool kid, but not as unusual and his coolness isn’t as well documented (;)), so I think he’ll have fewer happy surprises.</p>
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Sounds just like my D2. Well, D1 who is already a college sophomore, too. Very bright girls who just refuse to go all out in pursuit of grades. There are days when I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing, but DH has been reading about the Chinese mom’s methods, and is now second guessing the amount of pressure we’ve put on our kids…</p>
<p>^ Whenever I think about applying a little “pressure” to my kids, I ask myself, “Is this how I want my DD to treat my grandkids?” Because that is what’s going to happen . . .</p>
<p>PN… I too think that colleges will love my S because he is very unpretentious and authentic and has never done anything in his life to impress an admissions committee. I think for that reason AND he is a boy who has accomplished A LOT… most of my friends boys… although they are not the kind of amazing boys you read about on this sight… just like hanging out after school and playing video games all night. The colleges even admit… although not HPY types, that they are having a hard time finding boys of character AND ability. The funny thing is that my S doesn’t think he is going to get in anywhere because of his B+ average. He told me that again last night. I told him that the truth is, he will probably get into many schools, and his biggest problem will be making a decision. In todays world of so many “packaged” HS kids that all look the same… my S will stand out just being different.</p>
<p>So my daughter is trying to apply to United World Colleges [UWC-USA:</a> Welcome](<a href=“http://www.uwc-usa.org/podium/default.aspx?t=116609]UWC-USA:”>http://www.uwc-usa.org/podium/default.aspx?t=116609) at the last minute (deadline next Friday). She just found out today that the guidance office at her current school does not put AP scores on transcripts - probably because they don’t consider them as important to admissions. It is too late to have official scores sent. Do you think I should mail in her official student scores or a photocopy of them? She also had a score for HL IB psychology that we would have loved to have submitted but I can’t find the paper anywhere.</p>
<p>5boys - your post was most refreshing. My s is a “this is me, take me as I am.” kind of kid and we fought for years as I tried to mold him into what I thought was “college material.”. In the end, he showed me by getting into the school of his choice which was not even on my radar as I didn’t think they’d even consider him.
D12 is very similar but not as rebellious. She smiles and nods at our suggestions and then does what she wants - ha! Somehow, I’m not as stressed out this time.</p>
<p>MizBee and others who visit (or plan to visit) lots of schools – how do you fit in the visits? </p>
<p>My D may be interested in going to college on the other side of the country, and it’s a BIG country! Visiting is going to be a major project, probably involving multiple plane flights and car rentals, parent(s) taking time off from work, and $$$.</p>
<p>Even for local schools, how do you find time to visit while the college is in session? Do you pull your kids out of HS to go visiting colleges?</p>