Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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QOTD: How many safeties (Earth/Likely/SlamDunk/NoBrainer) do you have in your list?

Far too many! Right now my son has 8 safeties on his list, and he will most likely apply to 3 or 4. He kind of has 2 safety lists right now, one list if he makes NMF and a different list if he doesn’t. I would like him to apply to at least 3 safeties, since most of the schools that aren’t safeties would require him to not only get admitted, but also get a large competitive merit scholarship. So I’d guess there is at least an 80% chance he will end up at safety, and I want to make sure he has choices.

I love the idea of early action, it does make things less stressful to know about admission sooner.

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@jedwards70 …you guys are just getting pounded with the rain! I’m so sorry. I know you are ready to be DONE.

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@payn4ward I guess one way to approach the question putting it in straightforward terms, “If you could only apply to one school and it was XXX, would you be happy with only submitting that one?” If the answer is a stare or a no, then they don’t have enough safeties or at least not the right one.

My kids tend to apply to a broad range of schools they know they will be accepted to and will be affordable, but there might be “something” additional they want in order to them to say, yes, I am happy with this school. For example, I am not sure ds would have been as happy at Bama without CBH.

For kids applying to schools like ASU, would the school still be as appealing w/o Barrett’s (not sure if Barrett’s is actually competitive or not)? If the answer is no, they need to have more schools on their list.

You want to make sure that the OK perspective is not coming from “I am not going to need it anyway, so sure, I’m fine with it.” (It’s not going to happen to me syndrome.) They have to be fully prepared to accept that “lesser” school as their final destination.

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@caroldanvers Most are academic safeties. I think 2 or 3 will be financial safeties as well.

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I would like my kid to have at least 2 safeties on the list, so that no matter what, she gets to make a final choice.

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2 safeties for us. 2 other schools he would like to get into. All 4 he’d be happy at. All a little bit different.

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QOTD:
Based solely on admissions stats, D has only safeties. She’s well above the 75%ile for all of the 23 schools currently on “the list” and is way to the right of admissions stats on Naviance for each school.

Factoring in affordability, as most of the schools will not be affordable without large merit scholarships, she has 4+ safeties if she makes NMSF/F and 2 if she does not. The rest are reaches since she’s going after top competitive merit scholarships.

I think having more than 1 safety is good so that your student will have choices no matter what.

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D has one automatic acceptance safety, Tulane, which isn’t really a safety since she would need to get merit aid to afford it. However, merit aid for her stats is very likely, every student at her school with an ACT in the 30s got at least a few thousand dollars, often much more. So, we are fairly confident on Tulane being okay, but we have other safeties for obvious reasons. I think she has three safeties right now, but that might change throughout the summer and fall.

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For my DS the potential safeties based on stats want to see real interest so that’s what we’ll be focusing on for part of this summer. We have 3-4 potential safeties on the list.

So now – but may a QOTD for tomorrow --I am pondering what is a “match” vs. a “reach” or a safety — we know a reach is more selective even if you have the stats. But what makes a school a “match” rather than a safety or a reach?? Is it stats within the range plus high acceptance rate – but where does academic rigor or prestige etc come in as compared to the student’s high school programs, ECs, tests and other info?

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@CA1543 We are making sure we have at least two safe safeties. After that, does it really matter if the others are ‘matches’ or ‘reaches’? I’m not sure. We aren’t concerned with filling those other buckets specifically.

I don’t want to over analyze this! Lol. I can’t believe I just said that!

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I am planning wait for semester to end and get final GPA and then start putting college list. Hopefully we have enough time.

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@CA1543 There are a lot of different reasons to classify schools into different categories. Some schools are not really reaches in terms of admissions for really high profile students, but they may be a reach if a competitive scholarship is necessary for it to be affordable. If budget is not an issue, those categories tend to focus more on just admissions.

@2muchquan As long as there is buffer room for application remorse, whatever the categories the schools fall into is really irrelevant. My ds started thinking he really liked one school and by the end of the application season, it was one that fell into “why the heck did I apply to this school?” Match vs reach?? No really as important as “what was I thinking.”

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QOTD: how many safeties/matches?

I’m only doing safeties and matches. I’m leaving reach and dream up to D17.

So, by that metric, 16 safeties and matches. Ok, one reach, but not so reachy for her because of her hooks (anglo girl in CS with serious real-world programming creds).

FWIW, I don’t think a true “safety” really exists other than an automatic admit based on stats.

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At a college knowledge night at my D17’s high school, a college counselor said you should love your safety school. I thought this was good advice. College is so expensive and such a big part of your life, why go to a school you are only so so about? Or, why even apply to a school you are not all that excited about? Are your students excited about their possible safeties? Would they be happy going there?

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2 of D’s top 3 are safeties. The other 15 or so she doesn’t know well enough. She loves her current #1.

(I actually hope that changes, but I’m ok with it.)

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Right now my D will apply to 2 safeties. One in state, one EA. Always nice to have an acceptance esp. When all the other schools are highly selective.

Just got home from my D16 graduation. What a night. Can’t believe we will all go through this together next year.

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This is why in our college visits we’ve focused on safeties and mid-to-low matches.

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Loving the safety is excellent advice. Loving 2 or more safeties is even better as kids change their minds so often and may not love their safety in March when all other decisions are in hand and the one safety is their only option (worst case scenario).

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I fell way behind again.

@eandesmom That is such an awesome story about your son! What a wonderful, poised kid! Congrats to him also on the green status for his HS!

@dfbdfb Congrats on the Brain Camp acceptance!!! That sounds like a great program!

@Gator88NE Congrats on the SAT scores!

@Tgirlfriend Congrats on the math competition win!

@MotherofDragons Congrats on your D18’s AP World final–that was a huge amount of stress. Glad it’s over and turned out well!

Yay! for those who are finished with junior year. We have a week and a half left. Once the “one year left” seems real, it’s going to hit me pretty hard…

Re: School times
School is basically 8 am to 3 pm with 6 x 58 minutes classes. (Wed and Thurs are shorter with 3 x 90 minute classes each.) No thoughts about delaying school start here, but 8 am is better than some of your early start times. (Junior high starts at 8:30.) Our sports teams have to travel a long way to get to other schools they play against, so they already miss a lot of school leaving early.

Re: Transcripts
I agree with checking transcripts over for mistakes before fall. We found several errors before applying for summer programs.

Re: Collaborative learning
@thermom Also check “project-based learning” along with “hands-on learning”.

Re: PSAT prep
@RightCoaster DS took the old PSAT in 10th with one practice test. He did the one released practice test for the new PSAT before taking it in 11th. Unless these crazy new concordances are real (I don’t think they work for this purpose), he should make NMF. I told him what the test was for and why it was important; the school didn’t.

Re: Computational Biology
@srk2017 Is that the same as Bioinformatics? If so, I think that’s usually pretty heavy on the CS requirements and the subset of biology that’s needed is mostly limited to molecular biology and genetics. UC Santa Cruz reportedly has a good undergrad program (probably a safety for your son). BTW, have fun in Yosemite! We love it there.

Re: Cheating
@thermom Sorry to hear about the grade grubber cheaters. About a month ago, the APUSH teachers found out that about 1/3 of the class was copying the chapter outlines from some website. DS doesn’t know what consequences they got, but the class had 2 days of lectures about cheating and associated issues and his teacher was visibly shaken. DS says it was the weaker students in the class cheating, because you couldn’t pass the tests if you didn’t read the chapters. But, at least sometimes cheaters get caught.

Re: QOTD – safeties
I think it’s 3 safeties based on Naviance not having any red X’s near him. But, there is a special program at one that is not a safety. None are automatic safeties or >50% acceptance, so that’s why more than one safety for him. UC Merced is automatic admit without an application required, but not a place he would be happy to go. I think he could be happy at his 3 safeties.

Re: Our news
DS got approved for the program that he interviewed for at the local UC. They want him to come up with plans for 3 courses he wants to take in each of fall, winter, and spring quarters next year. He goes in for advising on that in a couple weeks.

He has school until June 8. Mainly group projects left. For APUSH, they are giving presentations about a conspiracy theory. His is on how the Titanic was sunk for the insurance money and some associated Titanic conspiracy theories. He says they had a great one today by another group on Bigfoot.

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Gotta say - really think we have a great thread going & love the QOTD. We don’t have any auto admits here as safety schools - but NY has a scholarship program for STEM students in top 10% and who agree to stay and work in NY for 5 years: https://www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid/types-of-financial-aid/nys-grants-scholarships-awards/nys-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-incentive-program.html

We see safetys mostly as those with high acceptance rates and good programs and where on Naviance many students from our HS have gotten in. Found a summer Physics II course at a local college - DS determined to take it before AP Physics C and needs to take SAT in Physics in October. So he’ll get a week off when school ends, go to FBLA nationals and then back to school for 1 month it looks like. Good thing he views this as fun! At least he then has another month with no structured requirements - still lots to do though for next year’s APs, college Apps, science research project, & IT internship. Hope college visits can be combined with a little vacation too! B-)

Might prep for Chinese SAT subject test as he may drop Chinese senior year to take AP Chem. Will need to see if really plausible to take it.