<p>Can a school be considered a safety if you're at the 75 percentile or above? Assuming that you don't have like a 2.5 GPA? And I don't mean financially, i mean purely admissions safe</p>
<p>Depends on the school.</p>
<p>Some schools are need aware. So you can discount finances when discussing admissions. </p>
<p>Not if it’s an top school. Many of the applicants above that percentile are rejected. Stanford, for example, rejects 65% of 2400s (I believe I saw this somewhere, though I may be wrong).</p>
<p>Lower caliber schools might still reject a standout student if they don’t think they’ll attend.</p>
<p>It depends on how “holistic” the schools admissions process is. For example, it sounds like UF looks at much more than test scores and its Common Data Set shows that. Same with schools like Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc. Other schools like University of Kansas that have number-driven admissions could be considered safeties.</p>
<p>The key is what your chances of being admitted are - not how you compare to the mean or 75%ile. So a large state school that accepts most applicants above a certain threshold, would be a safety. While an elite, like HYPS, that rejects a majority of applicants over their 75%ile would not.</p>
<p>If the admitted %age is low, no.</p>
<p>These are all really helpful answers! what % would you consider too low for it to be a safety @"Erin’s Dad" ? obviously not top 20 schools but schools ranking 30-100?</p>
<p>Also, if “level of applicant’s interest” is considered and you do not show sufficient interest, you may be waitlisted or rejected if you are “overqualified”.</p>
<p>In addition, many schools have different levels of selectivity for different majors or divisions. If you use the overall admission stats for the school to assume that it is a “safety”, but you are applying for a popular oversubscribed major or division, your “safety” may not be an actual safety (or you may be admitted to the school but not the major, and transferring to a popular major typically requires another competitive admissions process after enrolling and taking prerequisite courses with a high enough GPA).</p>
<p>If it’s a very selective school, then NO. The very selective schools (w the exception of Caltech, I believe) admit via holistic admissions. They can reject kids w 2400 SAT if they don’t like the essay, or if the kid is from Dallas and the admissions reader hates the Cowboys.</p>
<p>It is the admission rate at a particular score/GPA that determine the chance. For many top schools, the admission rate for applicants with 75% of admission stat is still only around 20%, far from calling it a high match. That is why some schools are reach for almost everybody.</p>