<p>Hi... new here, but reading some of the threads about safety schools and wondering if any of you could weigh in on my son's situation. Currently he has applied to Michigan ED, Naval Academy (has senatorial nomination in hand, still waiting to hear on appointment), USCGA EA I. He will be applying to Webb Institute ED II, Stevens ED II, and Virginia Tech regular. Virginia Tech is his current safety school, we have visited and we all LOVED it so would not be at all unhappy if that's where he ends up. We have visited all of these except for UM (but we did attend an admissions event he was invited to last year), and he has already had his interview (which went VERY well) at Stevens. His goal is to major in Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering, which severely limits his choices. My question, based on this info and his stats, does he need another safety school and what do you think his chances are for that places he is currently applying? I am pretty up on the service academies, but am more curious about the others. He would be automatic for Texas AM, but does NOT want to apply, however they do have Ocean Engineering (not the EXACT major, but workable)... should we make him as another safety option? We are in Texas, so UM and VT would be applying OOS. </p>
<p>Rank 28 of 956, large and very competitive public high school
4.62 wgpa
3.92 uwgpa
Has taken highest level classes offered all 4 years (preAP or AP), (5 AP's last year, 5 this year)
SAT 2040 (640 CR, 640 writing, 760 math)
ACT 34 (35 math, 34 science, 34 english)
Varsity swimming all 4 years
Team Captain 11th and 12th
NHS Vice President 11th and 12th
Officer in school's largest club 11th and 12th (1500 member community service organization)
Will graduate with 200 documented community volunteer hours
Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society) 10th, 11th and 12th
School-wide Citizenship Honor Award 11th
National Merit Commended
Boys State Nominee and attendant
Certified lifeguard, 2 summers of work experience as a lifeguard</p>
<p>We did not read his rec's, but feel they are probably very strong as he chose well from teacher's who know and like him, and his GC LOVES him. Not a clue how strong his essays are, except that we edited them to death, so I know they are extremely grammatically correct, if nothing else. I feel like the content was good, but nothing earth shattering.</p>
<p>I would be stunned if he is not in at VT. The in-state rumor is they are all about the numbers, but he has great ECs on top of solid numbers. A lot of my D’s friends (in-state, current seniors) are applying there and his numbers exceed my understanding of theirs’. Granted they are in-state but he should be more than fine. Good luck!</p>
<p>He should be fine getting in to Virginia Tech. He would be eligible to apply for Honors and they also have a Galileo Enginering Learning Community (kids live together). Son is currently a senior in engineering at VT and he has had a great experience. They have really good Career Services and Career Fairs (Engineering Expo). It’s great you have found a safety everyone likes. Not sure you need another one unless you want to add in a public in Texas. Good luck!</p>
<p>My son, like yours, was an out-of-state student who was National Merit Commended and interested in VT.</p>
<p>He submitted his test scores to VT and then changed his mind about applying and never completed his application. For months after that, he received repeated reminders from VT that his application was incomplete. Clearly, they considered him a desirable candidate and wanted to hear from him. And from our experience (in Maryland, where many kids apply to VT), he would not have had any difficulty getting in to VT if he had chosen to complete his application.</p>
<p>I think VT is an appropriate safety. Of course, there would be nothing wrong with having another one as well. But it doesn’t seem necessary.</p>
<p>You mentioned that your son is applying ED to 3 schools, but ED is a binding plan, and you can’t apply ED to more than one school. I’m not sure if some of those schools are actually EA, in which applying to several EA schools is fine, but you only get one shot for applying to a school ED. I think Michigan is EA, not ED, so maybe it’s that way for Webb and Stevens as well, but keep that in mind!</p>
<p>Marian, VT is not unique with that. S1 submitted scores and started an app to Duke that he didn’t complete. They followed up with him after the app deadline and told him he could still complete the app, even though the deadline had passed.</p>
<p>Oops… my mistake. You are correct, UM is not binding (EA not ED), Stevens is not binding if they don’t offer you a financial package that works, and he’s applying regular to Webb.</p>
<p>I know of schools that encourage specific students to apply after the normal deadlines have passed. Not common, but not as rare as most would think. With respect to partially completed apps, I suspect that it happens quite often.</p>
<p>Every single student needs ONE place on his/her list that meets these four criteria:</p>
<p>1) Admission is flat-out guaranteed based on grades and/or exam scores. Notice that I wrote flat-out guaranteed. Not “pretty much guaranteed” or even “everyone from our school who has ever applied there with grades/scores like yours got in”. TAMU meets this standard for your son. What about the other Texas publics? What about a community college that has transfer agreements with the Texas publics?</p>
<p>2) Your family can pay the full cost of attendance (COA) with nothing more than guaranteed state aid, FAFSA-based federal aid, and aid guaranteed by the college/university itself based on the student’s grades/scores. Can you pay the full OOS cost of U VA for all four years? Yes, it is pretty generous with aid for OOS students, but that doesn’t mean it will be in your son’s case.</p>
<p>3) The major is offered (or in the case of a rare major, a close equivalent).</p>
<p>4) The student will be happy to attend if come April 1 there are no other affordable options on the table.</p>
<p>Right now your kid doesn’t want to attend TAMU. If he doesn’t get in anywhere at all that your family can afford, what is he going to do come September 2013? Ask him what his back-up plan is. TAMU may not look so bad after all.</p>
<p>I think he’ll be fine with the list you have. This is an easy time of year to panic. :)</p>
<p>I disagree that you need a numbers only safety, but I realize not everyone agrees. Both my kids got into at least one school early so that was their automatic safety.</p>
<p>I do realize that some students with very specific career goals cannot find numbers-based guaranteed admission anywhere. However, general intro. engineering coursework can be covered at just about any public U or community college in the country, so this particular student does have numbers-based options open to him. He just might not like any of them.</p>
<p>sevmom -</p>
<p>My bad about U VA vs VT. But VT is still OOS for this family, so the money questions would apply.</p>
<p>All good and solid advice… he has had his scores sent to TAMU, just in case. He is automatic there, and would probably get some money. We can afford to send him to any of his options with whatever basic aid he is offered. He is not willing to budge much on his major, and if I weren’t so sure it is an excellent fit for him, I would make him branch out. As for the Academies, it’s just an ENTIRELY other ballgame… but he will not have to make any decisions if he is offered appointments until after he hears from all his other schools. We have diligently researched the timing on all of it… I just got a little worried that VT was not “safe” enough being OOS to be his only safety. We can always go regular admit at TAMU if he needs to, he’s still got plenty of time.</p>
<p>So Steven’s provides his ED II decision by Feb. 15. Typically colleges give a pretty short window if you want to decline the ED slot because you can’t pay the cost after financial aid info is received (the only reason he can decline). Looks like that date is March 12 at Stevens. Are you saying he will have heard back from his other schools by then? He can’t just put off the Steven’s decision until he hears from the service academies. For example, the Naval Academy does not commit to notify everyone until April 15.</p>
<p>happymom, it can have nothing to do with career goals or majors. My S could not find such a school because he had very high stats and very low income. He would not have been “happy” to attend any of the schools that give automatic scholarships, and in any case unless that was automatically a real full ride–not just full tuition–we could not have afforded it. Our state university was not a suitable choice for him, and probably would have cost us more than we could afford anyway. He had to get into one of the schools that actually meet full need, and luckily for him, he did.</p>
<p>You can’t MAKE someone be “happy” to go to Alabama or Arizona or whatever.</p>
<p>OP, what intparent describes is precisely what I was worrying about. I really think that your S should convert his ED application at Stevens to RD, pronto.</p>
<p>My kids did not use “automatic admissions” schools as safeties. But they did pick schools where their stats where above the 50% mark (all SAT scores, not just one “side”), that had a strong major in the area they were interested in, and they showed interest to make sure they didn’t get rejected due to the schools thinking they were just safeties. Also they were schools that had a reputation for good merit aid and accepted a higher percentage of sutdents. And both of them had two of these schools on their lists.</p>