<p>Well, this truly is back in the Dark Ages, as I am an older parent - In 1970 I applied to Whitman, Mills, University of Puget Sound, Fairhaven College at Western Washington University, University of Washington and Gonzaga. My parents didn’t go to college, and I didn’t receive any guidance from counselors at my high school on selecting colleges. </p>
<p>I was accepted at all but Whitman, where I was waitlisted. (These acceptances were with a 3.3 (low math grades) GPA, a very high verbal SAT and very very low math SAT.) All of them would be reaches now - Whitman would be a waste of the application fee.</p>
<p>I attended Mills my freshman year (got off the waitlist at Whitman, but didn’t accept) and transferred to Whitman for my sophomore year. </p>
<p>I think I would have been happy at any of them, except Fairhaven which would have been too ‘self-directed’ and possibly the University of Washington which might have been too large. I would have been happy to stay at Mills too - my major reasons for transferring were boyfriend, travel costs, and Whitman gave me more financial aid.</p>
<p>The really stupid part of my decision-making was that I was offered a full scholarship to UPS, which I stuffed in the garbage so my Mom wouldn’t see it. My warped thinking was that if they wanted me that badly, there must be something wrong with the place. </p>
<p>About 10-15% of area private school garduates attend Penn. The percentage gets a little lower if one includes big public high schools. I have yet to see anyone rejected with good stats.</p>
<p>Teenagers (including our teenage selves; though for some people, it extends to adulthood, when they really should know better) aren’t sure yet of their standing in the world and so go off of social cues and what other people think. Also have a poor sense of the importance of money. Also are more driven by emotions. So what is easy to get isn’t valued and what is hard to attain is priceless.</p>
<p>That’s why playing hard-to-get works so often.</p>
<p>I did not apply to my safety school but figured it was there if I needed it (local public where many of my friends went). I was NMF and reasonable talented musically, so I assumed I would get a full ride.</p>
<p>Not sure. My safety was University of Michigan but the other four schools I applied to were all fewer than 8,000 students. I ended up attending a LAC (2,500 students) which was a great fit for me. While I’m sure I would have loved the school spirit at Michigan and probably would have done fine academically, in retrospect I should have worked harder to identify a safety that was more in line with my other top college choices.</p>
<p>There seem to be over 100 private high schools in Philadelphia. Unless they are all both tiny and academically elite, it seems inconceivable that 10-15% of their graduates go to Penn.</p>
<p>I would not have been happy staying in my home state (Maryland). The OOS school I attended (the only school I applied to) was an academic safety, and my parents could afford it, so I guess it was a safety too. For me, living away from home was the key factor. I would have been fine academically at UMBC, to which I could have commuted, but living 600 miles away from my family was so important to me back then. I would have been miserable as a freshman living at home, or even nearby. Interestingly, after freshman year, I actually moved back home and took classes at UMBC for the summer and fall (while working full time), before going back to my OOS school to finish, and that was ok, but at 18 I needed to be on my own for a year</p>
<p>I’l go with “probably not.” I was an odd duck in high school, and U of Chicago, where I ended up, was the right fit. I doubt UIUC would have been as good for me.</p>
<p>Are you asking for answers that take loans/debt into account, or do you want people to answer based purely on what their college experience was like? (My answer would be the same anyway, but I think it makes a difference for others in this thread.)</p>
<p>I went to my safety for undergrad and loved it, had an amazing time, plenty of opportunities, incredible people. Now I’m at my reach, I guess, for grad school, and can’t say I’m having a significantly better time. If anything I’m constantly on the lookout for exactly what my 3x-the-price tuition is going towards, hah. It’s Penn, funnily enough, and the program is directly tied to the Philly school district- I don’t think I’d agree that it’s a safety for many local students…</p>
<p>Cost/loans/debt certainly can be taken into account, although the lower prices of college back then may have meant that fewer students had to chase scholarships and financial aid like students today have to.</p>
<p>This was in the dark ages, but MIT was my dream school. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) was my safety. Those were the only two schools I applied to. I was fortunate enough to get admitted to MIT and that’s where I went (and I enjoyed it a lot although I didn’t always think that way while I was up late at the time doing problem sets). I didn’t think about WPI again until my DD was applying to colleges and then I thought it might be a school for her. She applied, was admitted and just graduated from there. WPI was (and is) a great school. Seeing the experience that she had at WPI, I would have done well to have gone there although I am not sure how I would have reacted to the disappointment of not getting into my dream school.</p>
<p>I believe that a true safety school is one that you can get admitted to but also one in which you would enjoy attending. If you don’t want to be at a particular school, then you probably won’t do well. How can you call a school in which you won’t do well a “safety”?</p>
<p>The stars have to align but it is possible. I believe Penn would still be a safety for my brother because of a few factors:</p>
<p>faculty parent (so it’s definitely affordable and there is an admission bump for faculty kids)
top student at Philly area high school
close to a 4.0 in Penn courses (he started taking them in 11th grade)
faculty wrote his LORs, or at least talked to the admissions office</p>
<p>No, I would not have been happy there. Not at any of my state schools. I could be pretty happy if I went to Illinois today, with an adult’s perspective and experience, but in my teens…no.</p>
<p>But it appears from students posting on these forums that safeties are typically unwanted throw ins, rather than carefully considered schools that the students like.</p>
<p>To be honest, my safety school was an unwanted throw in. My mom told me I should apply there I hadn’t thought of that school for one second. </p>
<p>My safety school was a safety academically and financially. It would be of no additional cost to me. Everything was covered and paid for. The other schools I applied to would’ve COST 47K, 5K, and 2K annually, but my safety GAVE me 8k annually. My mom’s enthusiasm encouraged me to go through with it and hear I am.</p>
<p>I sometimes do wonder how I would’ve been at my other schools, but I think I would be A) working my tail off, B) fighting to find my niche of people or C) fighting for my grades because of a distracting social life. My current school is a nice, tame mash up of the other schools I applied to and, in the end, things really did work out for the best. </p>
<p>I didn’t term it a safety, but St. Mary’s, in the CA East Bay area, would have been my safety. I would have loved it but went to UC Berkeley, where everyone else in my family went. I would not trade the Berkeley experience but it wasn’t a well thought-out choice as much as a family “given” to go to Berkeley. </p>