Cal Berkeley, CU Boulder. Same difference. 
Just kidding. I know the difference. 
Itās probably the reason why CU doesnāt spell itself UC!
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USC (Southern Cal) and USC (South Carolina) always trip me up.
No worries! Thanks for sharing! I didnāt think to break down āSafetyā schools into āsafetiesā and ālikeliesā and ātargetā schools into āsolid targetsā and āharder targets.ā I appreciate you defining each group too!
S26 is having a hard time accepting true & pure safeties - that auto accepts him AND also within our budget. He feels like heās settling because schools have his major, but the major does not have the depth and breadth that he likes. Though he understands that if he doesnāt include true & pure safeties to his list they he may end up at a community college (nothing wrong with this at all) which is not what he wants to do.
What would you advise him?
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Does he have any likely schools on his list that offer early rolling admission, and that he likes? (For my D for example, these are UMN, Pitt, Oregon State.)
If a student applies to such schools at the beginning of admissions season, they may have an admission by Sept-Oct, before they have to apply to other early schools with a deadline in Nov.
Once a student is admitted, the school is a 100% safety, and they donāt have to bother applying to other schools that they may like less.
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Oh! I see your thinking there! Susquehanna is the only one that has a Nov 1 deadline and the notification is Dec 1. So thatās as close to a ārolling admissionā as we can get.
S26 had Pitt on his list but realized he does not like urban/city campus as much unfortunately. My S23 is at Pitt and loving it! Apply to Pitt early!
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Even Dec 1 is pretty early for a notification, so thatās good! There are lots of schools with Dec and Jan application deadlines, so he would still be able to adjust his strategy based on that one (if he likes it well enough to make it his provisional āsafetyā).
Edited to add: My D has decided urban is a big big plus for her! She has not visited Pitt but I think she would really like it.
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Itās a great campus! The Cathedral of Learning is gorgeous. S23 chose Pitt because it has both the qualities of an urban campus that he loves AND green spaces to escape to! Visit in the fall if you can. Itās beautiful in the fall!
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So, C26 was also unimpressed with what is really the only true safety (auto admit) on their list, ie ASU - albeit more to do with location than curriculum*, but part of what they have realized on the current program, even with the social issues, is that they actually really donāt want to go to a CC. (Especially as the most logical CC for their major is here in SLO, and they donāt like the location of it at all (the CCās specific location; SLO as a town is lovely.) So their thinking now is that if they need to transfer would rather at least get a proper freshman experience first. There are some likelies on the list, in cities and states theyād rather be in, but none of them offer rolling admissions.
I just donāt know what to think about Pitt. Their counselor suggested it as a target/likely, Maia suggests itās a likely, but collegevine has it as a hard target, with a 10% lower probability than UIUC (!!). I canāt figure that out. Most everything else on collegevine is more optimistic than weād expect. Iām not sure theyāll apply there.
*one oddity of the ASU arch curriculum is that they donāt seem to have mandatory calculus and physics courses as all the other schools theyāve looked at do, but C26 would do those anyway.
Not sure where to put thisā¦but whoa.
Michigan to offer ED this Fall @knowstuff @sushiritto:
Early Decision
- Application Deadline: Nov. 1
- Financial Aid Deadline: Nov. 15
- Decision Date: By the end of December
- Commitment Date: By mid-January
New for fall 2026 first-year applicants, Early Decision (ED) is a binding plan. Students who participate in the Early Decision plan will apply by Nov. 1 and can expect a decision notification by the end of December. The introduction of this new plan allows highly qualified students, who know that the University of Michigan is their top choice institution, to affirm their commitment to the university earlier in the annual application cycle.
https://admissions.umich.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/first-year-application-plans
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Too bad it costs so much!
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For sure. They do meet full need for Michigan residents but not OOS. I hope their NPC is accurate for all students!
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So, after you mentioned the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design major, my D26 looked into it ā and sheās intrigued. I think itās more coding-heavy than sheās really looking for (she wants more the art/design side) ā but it might get her to her end goal.
She was already interested in the city because weād been looking at CMU (which she didnāt end up adding to her list), and I think she would like an urban campus ā so Pitt is a definite maybe for her right now.
I wish we had time to visit before applications start, but alas.
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Definitely some shift in the public landscape this yearā¦first U Arizona moving away from rolling and auto admit, and now this. It will be interesting to see how much of their class UMich admit ED. I wonder if part of the reason is (it seems to me) that they are often used as a ābackupā application for T20s and they are trying to manage yield better?
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Pitt is super high on my D26ās list and she plans to apply early August! We visited and she really liked the campus (prefers urban). Bonus that I grew up in the North Hills. Glad to hear your S23 loves it.
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It is more coding than actual art/design. They write code to create designs/virtual worlds.
Hereās a link to the overview of the major:
Hereās the direct link to the Game Design Track:
S23 loves it and is having fun. The major allows him to apply what heās learning in his CS/DNID classes to make things.
What is your daughterās end goal?
Yes apply early to get a better chance at getting merit! Good luck to her! Whatās her intended major?
Nursing (a tough admit!!)
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I love Pitt but itās sadly a real reach for D26. S23 went to Duquesne but he spent all of his time with his best friends who went to Pitt. D26 has a college visit in the beginning of August with Point Park, but while she wants to be close to a big city, she doesnāt really care for the urban campuses. Sheād rather go someplace like Marist (her dream school) where she could take a train into NYC.
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Well, she says she wants to work in UX/UI ā but Iām not 100% sure she knows in what capacity. She is working on a year-long project senior year where sheās designing a video game, and I think she really enjoys the process of figuring out details for every stage, building wireframes, planning it all out, plus the aesthetic side.
I think she would enjoy doing this in various industries ā it makes her crazy when websites arenāt logical, and she canāt find what she wants. Sheās forever pointing out what sheād improve. So sheās not set on video games, especially since weāve heard thatās a brutal industry.
Sheās also a really creative kid, artsy ā but sheās not a coder. (Sheās not opposed to learning, and sheās pretty logical with a head for math, but itās not her main interest.) Thereās a major at RIT, new media design, that offers a BFA and is studio-focused, and they work in teams with the new media interactive development kids who come at the project from the coding side. I think thatās the closest major weāve found thatās aligned with her interests, but weāve been doing a deep dive for other programs that are similar (and still meet all her other requirements in a college, lol).
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