<p>Agree with BBQ. I’m an education snob. I read these boards and, like a lot of you, my daughter works incredibly hard at just about everything she does in the hope of going to an elite university. I fully support her dream. I hope you all get into your top choice. But thru the years I’ve met a lot of incredibly successful, happy people in just about every field of endeavor and very few of them went to these top 20 places, and very few of them took every AP they could or blew the SAT out of the water. College is important, but you don’t want to be defined by your alma mater, and you don’t want your education to end when you graduate. Whether you get into your no. 1 choice or your final safety you’ll likely do well because of your ability to plan and to work hard towards a goal. Good luck.</p>
<p>I kind of wanted to go to my safety, actually. It was University of Washington and I love Seattle/the Pacific Northwest. I just didn’t want to go to a huge school. I think I would have been just fine there, though.</p>
<p>I feel bad about turning down reach schools after meeting with admissions’ counselors. You knew they went out of their way to accept you and then you reject them. In both cases, the least we can do is to fill out their surveys to let them know why we went elsewhere. A lot of factors go into that final decision.</p>
<p>You wouldn’t go to your safety if you couldn’t attend any others?
I, on the other hand, would have no problem going to U of Mass Amherst.
My parents would differ, arguing that name is very important.</p>
<p>I define safety as a school that you will almost certainly be accepted to and do not mind attending if necessary. Under my definition, the only disadvantage of attending a safety is potential overqualification.</p>
<p>One of my friends applied to three reaches – MIT, Caltech, and Carnegie Mellon. His safety was Georgia Tech. He was rejected at all three reaches despite being a high-scoring (>2350) Hispanic male interested in electrical engineering. At Georgia Tech, he’s barely challenged. He studies a few hours week and spends the majority of his time playing World of Warcraft. He has a 3.7 after one year. Two of my other friends tried doing the same thing. The first has a 2.9, and the second has a GPA that is just above 3.0.</p>
<p>Can I just say that I love the ‘safety love’? I really love my safety/ies so much so that I didn’t apply to any matches-only ivies and safeties.</p>
<p>Can you be rejected to a safety because they think you are overqualified and will never attend?</p>
<p>Kind of crazy and I doubt it would, and it won’t happen to me, but I was wondering if this did happen anywhere.</p>
<p>This is why I was only going to apply to a real safety school if my EA stuff fell apart.</p>
<p>hawaiiboy
interesting question, but doubtful. Colleges want highly qualified students. It would do them no good to reject someone who is highly qualified, just on the chance that they might not attend.</p>
<p>hawaiiboy: Tufts Syndrome is just that.</p>
<p>Been reading the boards for long enough now to realize that you have to have safeties, especially while there is this huge bubble of kids moving through high school in the US. You would be crazy (as are some of the kids I know) to have only gone for reaches thinking you will be guaranteed a spot at an Ivy, a UCLA or equivalent. A lot of kids will be sadly disappointed come spring if they didn’t keep their expectations realistic and prepare for a worse case scenario. </p>
<p>DD already has mulitple acceptances with multiple scholarship offers. She is not the typical CC’er (no 2300 scores here) but she is very well rounded and she kept her expectations realistic. One safety has come through w/ a very generous offer and a trip is planned to check out the school in person. I can only hope that the Class of 2009 and rising juniors will remember that college is what you make of it and you should look at all opportunites with an open mind. Best of luck to all!</p>
<p>I felt bad when I applied to like 12 colleges for undergraduate degree. I felt probably about 6 were sure things, and then the other 6 I had an okay to decent shot at. When I only got into 4 of them I was thankful that my mother had encouraged me to apply to a couple more.</p>
<p>Mother knows best Roleyus…glad you listened ;-)</p>
<p>My safety is umass amherst…and I gotta say, the more I think about it, the more appealing it’s becoming. </p>
<p>-free tuition
-40k for 4 years (assuming no aid of any kind) as opposed to 200k for 4 years…effing no brainer.
-honors program
-GUARANTEED 4 years of dorm living (it’s too far away to be convenient, and the rest of my schools are within 20 minutes of my house. it’s inevitable that i will have to live at home eventually)
-who cares about undergrad anyway? Anyone who’s looking to many any real money (minus engineers) today has to go to grad school anyway. That’s what your money should be spent on.</p>
<p>@huang</p>
<p>you are kidding me… 200,000 for 4 years???</p>
<p>^^^That’s what top, middling and even 4th tier private colleges cost these days. Best aid (the ones that meet full need and beyond as determined by your EFC) are found at the top schools both national and LACs. If your parents earn over $150K though, and dont have another kid in school, they can expect to pay 50K at a private.</p>
<p>@Huang</p>
<p>wow…that’s nice…</p>
<p>which means full tuition…lol…</p>
<p>Huang… I guess you are Chinese, right? 
same here</p>
<p>Its quite interesting for me that I have been logging into CC for about one year now and only activated an account a couple of days ago. CC is definitely a platform for knowledge and I am thankful for all the valuable insight and information provided by fellow posters. Unfortunately, CC is a place for cocky teens to reaffirm their big academic egos as well.</p>
<p>As an international student, with good stats (good but not great, really), I am pleased to say that I got into a top notch public school, and although I am still awaiting other decisions, I would be thrilled to attend this university.</p>
<p>I feel that many of the posters here (Im not looking to offend) have become obsessed by this whole college admissions process and have lost sight of what is truly important. All these chance me forums, stats comparisons, formulas for success, are a complete waste of time in my opinion. It seems as though CC has created a prototype of what a student must be in order to be admitted at a top school. Im confident that this may very well be a disadvantage come decision time …</p>
<p>i applied to 14 skls this yr, 2 of which are safeties. The only skl ive heard back so far is my safety, which I was accepted in Dec. However, the more I research about the skl, the more i could see myself going there. </p>
<p>Of course, i have to wait for my 10+ remaining skls (all of which are high matches+reaches)…but since i love my safety so much, should i just send the deposit now?</p>
<p>Always try to fall in love with your safety school. I suggest putting a logo or picture of the school as computer wallpaper, root for their football teams, talk to kids who have graduated from your school who are attending, make sure you visit, read the viewbook, etc.</p>