Rolling Schools/Safeties

soozievt
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:59:54 +0000

soozievt, Would Beloit with an incoming student body with median stats of 1250/1600 or 27/36 ACT be a place that the OP’s daughter would find sufficiently intellectually stimulating? I ask this because I had planned to take my 2012 D to visit Beloit but after visiting St Olaf, Carleton, Macalester and Grinnell, she decided she did not want to visit a school with such low median stats - even if they did offer good merit aid and interesting programs. She thought Grinnell was the best match for her interests of the above schools. How can you tell how low is too low for a high stats kid? Are schools that accept 40-50% of their applicants “safeties” if your kid’s stats are in the top 25-35% of their applicants?



Apollo, let me first say that had the OP merely asked for small schools that would be safeties for her D, there would be many I might suggest. However, she wanted the safeties to also be rolling admissions. I could not find that many that fit that criteria that were also small schools (without going too low level of a college). I went further to suggest EA safety schools to at least open up more possibilities. So, keep in mind that the pickings were more limited by this criteria.

However, you can’t expect the level of selectivity (or perhaps challenge of the majority of the student body) at your safety school to be like that at your matches or reaches. Further, this student, having such good “stats” and needing financial help, may wish to pursue merit aid and so the safety even more needs to be a sure bet where the student is above the median stats of admitted students and where the acceptance rate is not a low one. I might have suggested Grinnell (more selective than Beloit and should be a likely safety for the OP’s D) but Grinnell doesn’t have rolling admissions or EA. The OP’s D could find safeties that are a bit more selective than Beloit in other words (putting rolling admissions and EA aside). My own D was a top student (val, etc.) and her safety schools were still pretty selective (more so than Beloit) and she surely got into them, though attended an Ivy.

I don’t know enough about your D to state with any certainty, but for a top student (which the OP’s D is as far as “stats” go at least), yes, if one’s stats are in the top 25% or above for admitted students and the school admits more than 40-50%, it should be a safety (that is a generalization). You are wise to not just examine the stats of admitted students, but also look at the acceptance rate. When the acceptance rates get low (such as under 20-25%), it isn’t a safety for anyone.