<p>I wasn't being sarcastic or mean. I was making sure that the many Ivy hopefulls who think that they'll get an Ivy acceptance by applying to all of the Ivies know that playing the odds that way doesn't guarantee an Ivy admission. Unfortunately, each April, there are some heartbroken students who thought the odds were in their favor when they applied to only reach schools.</p>
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Well all of my safety schools don't have deadlines so I'm just waiting till I hear from all of the other schools.I could probably apply to some of the safties in May and still be accepted.
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<p>how can it hurt you to apply to your safeties right now? i don't really see the problem here--except maybe you don't want to/can't pay the fees? if it is a financial problem, see if you can get them waived. and a lot of real "safeties" have pretty cheap fees anyway.</p>
<p>just apply. the apps should be easy now that you've done so many. that's how it turned out to be w/ my safeties. you have nothing to lose, whereas if you wait, you may be running a very high risk.</p>
<p>"how can it hurt you to apply to your safeties right now? i don't really see the problem here--except maybe you don't want to/can't pay the fees?"</p>
<p>And if money is that tight, he shouldn't be applying to all reach schools anyway because he might get acceptances, but may not be able to afford to go to the colleges. That's particularly true since some of those colleges are out of state public universities, which are unlikely to give scholarship money to an out of state student who barely got in.</p>
<p>And if he applies late to safeties and needs money, their financial aid and merit money is likely to be all gone.</p>
<p>Some people on CC have gone thru the admissions cycle before. </p>
<p>Most, the vast majority, of high school students get thru it successfully and are going to schools that may not have necessarily been their first choices but that they are very happy about. A few people on CC will be breaking people's hearts with stories about not being accepted anywhere, having their admission rescinded, or not having enough money.</p>
<p>I only applied to one safety (University of Washington) and 9 reaches/matches. I'm not exactly sure which is which because all are really competitive, it's possible I could get rejected at all 9 of them. But I got accepted to UW a few weeks ago, with a scholarship! So it feels nice to be in somewhere! And it's true, you should "baby your safeties." One of the schools I'm applying to is an LAC that's really competitive, but it's not quite as competitive as my other schools. But I made sure to interview, visit etc. because I didn't want them to THINK they were my backup LAC.</p>
<p>You need to apply to one school nearby that has a rolling admissions and you will still be able to apply. Most state schools will allow this. This ensured you will have a college to go to just incase (and tlets hope not) that you get rejected by your schools.</p>
<p>Rolling admissions is very difficult this late in the game. First come, first served. :eek:</p>
<p>dufus3709: That's funny...I didn't know the Ivy League has a new admissions policy of random probability. :)</p>
<p>With a large sample, it is always involves statistics as to what happens to an individual. Not only is God a mathematician, but he is also a statistician. :)</p>
<p>To be fair, what I said in this case wasn't that admissions is random, but that any individual has an associated probability of being accepted to each college. I will go farther and say that in my opinion, the selection between the very, very, most qualified applicants is pretty much random because they just don't have room for everybody. I personally think that this is why the waitlist is often longer than the list of accepted students. It is psychologically easier for adcoms to waitlist somebody than deny them immediately after they just accepted the guy's virtual clone. College guides typically call it either a "crap shoot" or a "lottery" but I don't like those terms since it makes it sound as if everybody has a chance. In reality, only the extremely qualified do.</p>
<p>Returning to the OP's situation: What state do you live in? Also, would you like to give us a sense of your application's strengths & weaknesses, as well as any particular criteria you're looking for in colleges? There might be people here who can suggest good, cheap safeties that are still accepting applications. </p>
<p>The other big question is: do you have a plan of what you will do if all applications are rejected? How willing are you to consider a gap year? If you would consider a gap year, what types of interests/activities would you like to pursue during that time (maybe posters would have suggestions about that as well)?</p>
<p>And to address your fear of going to an "inferior" college: there are many less prestigious schools that can offer particular students just as good or better experience than the name-brand institutions. Many of the professors at lower-ranked schools graduated from the universities you consider reaches. Don't get paralyzed into thinking that you could only be successful and happy at the small group of schools to which you've applied; the difference between schools you consider reaches and safeties might be much less than you imagine it to be.</p>
<p>Someone already pointed this out... but commonsense.... missing... </p>
<p>You should have at least applied to your state school or find some matches & safeties which you feel that you would be happy if or suit your interests...</p>
<p>There's a great chance, if your stats are competitive, that you will get into some of these reaches.. but I think if you still have a chance, apply to places which have "Rolling Admissions" along with your reaches.</p>
<p>I think everyone should have four tiers:
1) rolling admissions school
2) safeties (i.e. state school, etc.)
3) matches
4) reaches</p>
<p>Needless to say, GO APPLY TO A ROLLING ADMISSIONS SCHOOL THIS INSTANT!</p>
<p>I had 4 out-of-state reaches (Harvard, JHU, Emory, Rice), 2 in-state matches (U.Va and W&M), and 3 in-state safeties (VTECH, JMU, and GMU). I already got into all my safeties so I'm happy with that..</p>
<p>To you, I'd suggest applying to at least one safety school now! That way (if you're concerned about app costs) it won't be too hard on you, and plus, you have a backup.</p>
<p>^^^^
What part of VA do you live in</p>
<p>northern Va</p>
<p>commonsense: have you put in a safety application since starting this thread?</p>
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northen Va
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<p>Do you go to marshal high school?</p>
<p>and yes I started applying to safties already,thanks for the advice.</p>