“Yes, I’m paranoid…but am I paranoid enough?” - David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
This is not infrequent. I don’t know the particulars being referenced here, but I bet I can guess the long-time poster. 
However, as always, if you think the OP is responding to any member in a less-than-civil way (and FYI, being blunt and telling it like it is is not a ToS violation), feel free to report it, and I, or one of the other mods, will set the OP straight.
Both posts are buried in their respective topics. Both took place Monday so I saw both pretty much back to back which is what caught my attention. The responders acquitted themselves with maturity. The topics died quickly I think partially because of the tone the conversations were taking. I’m not supposed to reveal specific posts here so sorry for being fairly vague.
It can be realistic.
Who gets to decide when it is “pretentious”?
Full disclosure: my kid’s safety was a top 40 school.
^ Do you know what their acceptance rate was, Consolation? Or did they have some sort of automatic acceptance program for certain stats?
I feel like “Why didn’t I get into my safety, (very good school)?” can often be answered with “They have a 20% acceptance rate, so it’s hardly safe.”
@consolation Just because your kid got into his top 40 safety school doesn’t mean the school was safety. It was most likely a match and he lucked out. It was still risky if that was his only “safety”.
What makes a safety safe “enough”?
No, they did not have an automatic acceptance program. Their acceptance rate that year was 41.1% His scores (2300+) were well above their top third. He had maximum rigor with a 3.9 or 4.0 unweighted GPA, depending how you translate it from a 100 pt scale, solid ECs, state level awards, and excellent recs (I assume, knowing the teachers in question).
IMHO, it was a safety, and we weren’t being “pretentious” to think so, and he didn’t “luck out.” He did apply to a range of Us and LACs, so it wasn’t as if it was HYP or this, with nothing in between.
I don’t know what’s safe enough. It seems this year was particularly brutal on a lot of kids and I’m not sure “long time poster” advice is all that relevant any more. Acceptance rates are down-- a school that had a 40% acceptance rate a couple of years ago might be at 20% now. The whole world is shaky like a snow globe and you can only wait to see where the snowflakes fall, sometimes. Hopefully it’s not in a ditch by the dumptster.
I believe that school is at roughly 35% now.
The ones that get sidetracked by picayune definitions…lol!
@Consolation What school?
@redpoodles, U of Rochester.
@HRSMom , when people are being called “pretentious” for using a top 40 as a safety, seems to me reasonable to ask what constitutes a safety. I’m not the one hurling insults.
@redpoodles wrote
This should be a sticky; it’s so dead on.
Um…it was a joke @Consolation
Can we find a term other than snowflakes?
Feel free to find it amusing when it is directed at you.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
OK, time to move on please. Take it to PM if needed. Because having to wade through OT sidebar conversations is, well, annoying.
^^ Puddin’ Pops?
Tender cherubs?
Sweet dumplings?