This happened to my S22 also. He got in to CWRU, RPI, WPI, Lehigh, Pitt and Purdue, but waitlisted at our instate Va Tech. His best friend got in to MIT, Caltech, Ga Tech, Cornell, and Stanford but waitlisted at VA Tech. We decided it was yield protection and to treat it as “well, guess the school knew this was a safety or they knew he wouldn’t fit here.” Didn’t make it sting less, and obviously three years later I’m still thinking about it, but it was the best for him, and hopefully will ultimately be for the best for your child.
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Thank you for this!
S is in at Grinnell ED! We are so proud and happy for him to attend this amazing school. It’s a GREAT fit for him.
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D25’s UC apps completed and turned last weekend. Like her big sibs(S17, D19, and D21), she limited herself to 4 UCs, with UCLA being the Do-or-Die.
She knows she has the option to go to the Honors program at our local CC if she doesn’t get into UCLA or a UC she wants to attend. Her big sibs had the same options, and choose CC. S17 and D19 ended up at Berkeley, and D21 is finishing up at UCLA, so D25 knows she has a very viable path whatever happens in March, and has been “relatively” chill this application season (she loves to write and was asked to TA the 11th grade AP English class, so she of course obsessed on her UC essays).
D25 is the strongest HS student of the 4, so she’s going to apply to Stanford for the heck of it - you never know.
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Thanks! The TCU thread has Dec. 19 for EA (ED today), so just a little longer. D25’s Rollins news came sooner than expected; we thought we’d hear about EA ~Jan. 15, so not to worry. My S23 is at Furman and LOVES it. It came down to Auburn and Furman for him, and the small school has been a fit.
Good luck to your S25 on the rest of his list!
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Great to hear! Furman is one of his top choices!
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Another acceptance today – Pitt! This one feels good – his grandparents met there as physics grad students and on paper it looked like a match but you never know these days. Feeling relieved (especially since he came home today looking queasy after a physics test that didn’t go so well. RA cycle might not go as well as we’d hoped…)
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My daughter was accepted at Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, William and Mary and Macalester but was rejected by UConn. This is why I say the system is broken— UConn knew they were a super-safety for her and didn’t want her to reject them (to protect their yield number) so they rejected her first. It’s like a really messed up 7th grade dance 
. Tell him not to sweat it.
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Thank you! I also think there is a big difference between schools that have holistic admissions and ones that only look at numbers/metrics.
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Just curious…how do they know they were her safety school?
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Our D21 is at Furman. Perfect fit for her!
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It makes me mad when state schools play yield protection though. It’s really not their function. Very different situation than just high demand for certain schools.
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Definitely yield protection. My best friend’s daughter didn’t get into 4 UCs (Berkeley and UCLA are difficult, but she is a very strong student-athlete, so the other two rejects were surprises). But she got into Smith and Wellesley (she chose Wellesley and loves it). Her older and younger brothers collectively got into only one UC, but both went to Ivies.
The UCs with the exception of 2 campuses are hard gets nowadays (we have SO many HS and CC students in Cali), but still do engage in yield protection.
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Did Grinnell release ED decisions today? CONGRATS to your son!!! My daughter chose to ED at Carleton but Grinnell was a close second (still waiting on Carleton…) 
Just want to post for parents of future classes that a safety is a for sure admission. Not a likely admission. There are plenty of public schools that are selective, especially if you are OOS or applying for a competitive major. My take is if a student was rejected from a “safety”, it was not categorized properly to begin with.
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Yes Grinnell released Friday at 4pm. Good luck with Carleton and Grinnell has ED2 if it doesn’t work out… but I hope it does!
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Our guess was that they looked at his application and made an educated guess that he didn’t really want them. My S22 was a rockstar candidate for our in-state Va Tech. He only ever received A’s, not a single other grade, and that includes 10 AP courses and lots of honors. He was an Eagle Scout (and senior patrol leader), captain of the varsity crew team, and had a 1540 SAT. He was applying for the engineering school and had three years of engineering classes, including a capstone course which included a project where his team designed a new product that was patent pending at the time of application. He had a regional and state wide award winning science fair project on the physics of sound. We were looking at schools during COVID restrictions so we couldn’t tour much, but he did get there in person and he also attended at least two or three virtual events so they should have seen demonstrated interest. He should have been admitted but was waitlisted. Thankfully, we could afford the other schools in his list and he didn’t have his heart set on VT - if they guessed he wouldn’t attend, they were probably right. In all likelihood, he would’ve accepted somewhere else, it really was just too big for him. But if we had been counting on being able to attend a less expensive in state program, the WL would have stung worse.
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Last night S25 got an acceptance to Ithaca College. This was a big one, as he plans to study film and they have a great program. He thinks he wants urban - which Ithaca is NOT, but we will see what he thinks when he has all of his options on the table. The idea of a residential campus in a fabulous college town sounds amazing - but 17 year olds know everything, so there’s that. In any case, our family is very happy. Great school and with the merit award - we can swing it! We are celebrating!
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Congrats! My S25 has a couple of older friends at Ithaca & they are loving it.
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Congrats! It’s not urban, but Ithaca is a vibrant little city. He might love it there.
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