Do you see any safety schools on DD's list? Please help a stressed parent

Parents Forum
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DD is applying to several schools in NC. She will be considered OOS for admission purposes, but in state for tuition purposes (long story). Our current state of residence is Ohio. She is interested in pre-med program. Below is a list of colleges she’s applying to:

UNC-CH (First choice, applied EA)
Wake Forest - love the school
Davidson - really like the school
Duke - did not like it much, but will apply just to see if she can get in
NC State - mixed feelings about this: like the research opportunities, location, but hate the size
UNC-Wilmington - did not visit
Elon - did not visit

Here are her stats:

GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.362 (W, on of a scale of 4.8)
AP Classes: APUSH (5), AP BIO (4), AP Calculus AB (5), AP Government (5), currently enrolled in AP Physics 1, AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP English, AP Spanish
Has taken the toughest classes her high school offers.

ACT: 33 (34 superscored)
SAT: 1520
SAT II: Math - 800, Chemistry - 740, Biology (M) - 750

ECs: Student Government Officer (Senator 7 - 11th, Vice President - 12th)
School Softball (Varsity 9-12th)
Travel Softball (played on several travel teams from age 8 to 16)
NHS (Member - 11th, Secretary - 12th)
Started online school newspaper, currently chief editor
Academic Team (11th - 12th)
Volunteer at a local hospital ~ 200 hours
Is in some other clubs just for fun, nothing worth mentioning.

Awards: AP Scholar with Honor
Scholar Athlete
Top Two in 17 subject areas
Wendy’s Heisman - High School
All Conference Honorable Mention - Softball
All Conference 2nd Team and School MVP- Academic Team

Her essays are decent. Nothing outstanding, but was rated pretty good by a couple of local professors that read them and gave their feedback.

We can afford to pay what the NPC suggests for all the schools, so money is not a big concern.

If you had asked me a couple of months ago, I would have said she’d get in to most of the schools. That was before I discovered this forum, lol. Now, I am just a nervous wreck - worried she will not get into any of them.

Do you see any safety schools on her list? Does she need to apply to more schools? If so, what schools would you suggest? She really wants to go to a school that isn’t more than 2-3 hours away from Raleigh.

Please help!!!

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NC State and Wilmington strike me as pretty safe. Probably Elon too.

Possible safeties in the area - Guilford? It’s a CTCL Quaker school. Early Action deadline is tomorrow. no app fee - she could have that acceptance in hand early. https://www.guilford.edu/admissions/high-school-students

UNC Asheville?

3

NC State is probably a safety for her! But will she be happy there - it’s a lot different than the others on her list…

4

Thank you @OHMomof2!

I will have her look at Asheville and Guilford!

5

NC State, UNC-W and Elon are probably safeties for her. And if she adds Asheville to her list, that may be one as well. Have you looked at Appalachian State? Smaller than NC State.
The other suggestion would be to look at U of Richmond since you have some privates on the list. Not in NC but about 2-3 hours from Raleigh.

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With the exception of Duke, I’d be surprised if she isn’t accepted to all of them on your list.

And even Duke is not a reach. It’s really selective, so you never know, but she’s in the upper end of the middle 50% there on her stats.

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For a pre-med, watch out for grade deflation at Davidson.

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I agree that Elon, UNC-W, and NC State are probably safeties. I think that UNC-A is another good one to add.

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Just thought I’d agree (probably pointlessly :slight_smile: ) with others that NC State and UNC-W can safely be considered safety schools for your daughter. Other things being equal, UNC Chapel Hill looks like a “probable” to me, though not a safety school. I’m not really familiar with Elon or UNC-A.

My general advice for pre-meds is to pick the best school where you can be confident of doing well in terms of GPA. A pre-med will want to be well prepared for the MCAT, so a strong school is good for that. Beyond what is needed to prepare for the MCAT, though, med school admissions appears to be strongly GPA dependent. I would not be surprised if it is difficult to rack up a high GPA at Davidson. But if your daughter is willing to really pour herself into her coursework, it could still be a good choice. For a pre-med, the workload to get a high GPA needs to be considered in light of the time demands of volunteering and physician-shadowing, though.

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Furman in SC is well worth a look, though it’s about 4 hours from Raleigh. Rhodes is even further away, but I highly recommend it for a student who likes Davidson.

I am very fond of my alma mater, but Duke is not at all an easy place to be pre-med. The curves in the science courses at Carolina are not particularly kind either.

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I think UNC is a pretty sure thing. I’d bet on it. Her stats are top 25%.

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If the student was considered instate I would feel more confident about UNC; out of state it is a reach due to the 18% cap for OOS students.

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Add UNCAsheville and hurry due to Honors college (app state’s was Oct 15 so it’s out).
Unc w with honors college (she must submit the application if she hasnt yet) is a given.
Elon and NCSU are pretty safe, but Honors college isn’t sure at NCSU and because NCSU is larger than what she wants and honors college there would really matter to have a more intimate size to some of her classes, she might want to have an extra safety that’s a smaller college(unca?) - why not add Denison or Wooster?

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how interested is she really in Elon? Even if she has not visited, if she reaches out to her rep, that would definately help. They like to see interest. Many schools these days will wait list those that have much higher stats than average if they think the applicant is using it as a safety school. For UNC CH, if instate would be a shoo in, but out of state might an issue.

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Thank you all so much for your advice! Since the consensus is that she has at least a couple safeties, I can breathe a little easier!

She will apply to UNC-Asheville as well.

I will also talk to her about the other colleges that have been suggested. She’s going to hate having to write more essays, lol.

@QuantMech,we have talked about grade deflation at Davidson, I think that’s the only thing keeping the college from being #1 on her list.

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In terms of admission I agree that Elon, UNC-W and NC State are schools she should get into. But IMO a safety is more that a school a student should get admitted to – it should also be a school one is happy to attend. The fact that she has mixed feelings about NC State and hasn’t seen Elon or UNC-W is concerning. If she doesn’t get into UNC EA then I would try to visit the other schools as well as UNC-Asheville to be sure at least one of them would be a happy landing spot for her.

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OP what is your daughter looking for in a school, besides premed? The reason why I ask is because some of these schools differ significantly from one another…

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Elon , Wilmington, NC State should be safeties. Davidson and Wake Forest are good matches but you just never know. She should be competitive there (S is a freshmen at Wake and LOVES it- similar stats and lots of leadership).

UNC CH OOS is a reach. Hard to decipher the scores match for OOS . You should assume admitted OOS are at the very top of the scale as they are vying for far fewer spots with way more applications. Duke is a far reach. It’s amazing how many perfect scores and 4.0s don’t get in.

Make the essays OUTSTANDING!

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Make sure she interviews at Wake - very important!

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I know it’s not all that close…but what about College of Charleston?