Can any top 25 college really be considered a match/safety for you?

Applying to College
1

<p>YES.</p>

<p>I see posts here and there left by people angrily complaining that "BU is a safety for no one" or "how dare you say Columbia is a match for him".</p>

<p>Posts like that make me laugh. The naivete is simply unbearable.</p>

<p>Of course top college admittance is not guaranteed for anyone. But safety does not mean 100%. I define safety as a school for which you have a 90+% chance of getting in. Match school = 50+% chance.</p>

<p>In some cases, an applicant is strong enough that he or she in fact has the luxury of considering a top college as a match or even safety school, provided that nothing stupid happens, such as sounding cocky in the essays, offend the interviewer, or get recommendations that do not recommend.</p>

<p>For example, Harvard rejects one out of four 2400s (<a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liaply1029,0,3352874.story?page=1&coll=ny-main-bigpix%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liaply1029,0,3352874.story?page=1&coll=ny-main-bigpix&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>Grossly simplified, you have a 75% chance into Harvard if you are an average 2400 scorer in terms of grades, ECs, recs, etc. In that case, Harvard is at most a solid match for you. (Recall that match = 50+% chances)</p>

<p>If you are an URM with 2300 SATs, 4.0 UW GPA, 3~4 devoted extracurriculars with leadership posts, and an application without aforementioned stupid mistakes, then you may consider HYPSM as match schools. If you are that URM and have a 2400 instead, then HYPSM becomes safety schools. Recall that I define safety as 90+% chance.</p>

<p>Therefore, please do not be bitter that some people are almost guaranteed in at even the most elite colleges in the world.</p>

2

<p>Safety? No. Match? Sure.</p>

3

<p>Yes, the lower end of the top 25 can be considered safeties for students who are "matches" for the top 5. Also (this may just be a technicality), the numerical top half or so of in-state students at the public ones had approximately zero chance of being rejected.</p>

4

<p>WUSTL, Hopkins, Rice, Vandy, Emory, Notre Dame, and CMU can all be match level, even safety, especially if you are a very competitive candidate for the top 10 USNWR colleges. The trick with these is to show interest in the college. They want to generate Harvard level marticulation rates, so unless you show interst, they will probably weight list you in favor of a weaker candidate who will actually marticulate.</p>

<p>UMich, UVA, UCB, UCLA, and UNC (acutally 26 and 27 respectively) can all be safety schools if you have high GPA and high SAT (even more so if you are instate).</p>

<p>Ivys cannot be a safety for most (not even Cornell, but it could be a match). Ivys can be safeties if you have a 2400, 4.0, recurited athlete, legacy (but only for two at most), URM, and big donor (mostly for one, but if your parents are rich enough they can start giving millions to another college).</p>

5

<p>"they will probably weight list you in favor of a weaker candidate who will actually marticulate."</p>

<p>They might even put you on the wait list.</p>

6

<p>Ooh, you're so marticulate.</p>