<p>I've been reading these forums for a while before joining, and I kept reading about how to pick your "safety schools" based on SAT score averages, or predicted financial aid patterns, or GPA, or a number of other factors.</p>
<p>But I think a real safety school is a school that lets you know you're admitted before your other applications are due.</p>
<p>I applied to two schools with early notification (one was early action, one was rolling admissions), but I would say that neither of them were "safeties" by traditional standards. I really would love to go to either school, and one was even a low reach. </p>
<p>However, I found out I was admitted to both in the beginning of December, before any of my other applications were due, and with financial aid/scholarship information included. They certainly became safety schools, allowing me to abandon some other applications and focus on my dream schools.</p>
<p>My advice to all those who post "Need a safety school! Help me choose" threads, is to just apply to the schools you want to, but early enough that if it doesn't work out, you can implement a back-up plan in the regular decision round.</p>
<p>Yes! Absolutely! This is what I’ve been trying to tell everyone. I applied to the University of Chicago for early action. Chicago is an elite school, and yet it is my effective safety. My plan was to get in (I did), and then not apply to any true safety schools come regular decision. That way, I’d be able to apply only to schools I’d take over Chicago; e.g., Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Even if I’m rejected from all of them, I still have a prestigious school I’d love attending.</p>
<p>My advice: apply everywhere possible early action.</p>
<p>Totally agree with this. I did have a traditional safety (University of Michigan) and applied to it as early as possible- my application was in by late September. I applied to every other school I could Early Action, though, and it was awesome to have a cascade effect of decisions- I got my U of M acceptance right after sending out EA apps, and got the EA decisions right before sending out the regular apps, which allowed me to cut that number down to 1 (Princeton). I’d still recommend having a relative safety that you’re 99% sure you’ll get into and at least enjoy, applying to that early, but also having a number of matches and reaches early as well. It definitely takes a load of stress off of senior year.</p>
<p>It is indeed a very good idea to apply early in a rolling admission process (our plan for our oldest son) or to a college with a nonbinding early action program (which he will also do, if such plans still exist at colleges he likes the year he applies). That lets you reduce the total number of applications you file, if the news is good, or target your applications better, if the early news is not so good.</p>
<p>At lalaloo6: Yeah, and after visiting I’m like 99.999% sure I’m going to MIT (WOOHOO), but I’m still keeping the Princeton app in for school and family reasons.</p>
<p>YES i love early action! being able to call georgetown my safety school has been incredible throughout this application process. im still apprehensive about the rest of my schools’ decisions, but much less so considering that i have a great school as a fallback</p>
<p>“That is why the Early Action system should be abolished. It is used as strategy rather than a genuine want to go to a particular school.” -Elastine</p>
<p>I can see how some people can abuse the system, but I think that in general it actually reduces the amount of excessive applications used as a “strategy.” Here are some examples:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’m sure you can think of someone who applied to 5+ safety schools regular decision. But don’t you think this could have been avoided if they got into just one school early decision?</p></li>
<li><p>I’m sure you can also think of someone that got into their absolute dream school early, and then didn’t apply anywhere else. That’s even less false applications out there to compete with people who really want to go to those schools.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>good strategy, but it prbly wont work in certain circumstances. such as if ppl decide to SCEA their top choice. or if u dont get in ur EA safeties, u’ll still have to do RD safeties</p>