Help with figuring out "match" vs "safety" schools...Scripps, UCs, Fordham, Occidental

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I’m helping my senior narrow down a list of schools to apply to, and we want to make sure she has some good matches and safeties along with a couple of reaches. Without a SAT score (yet?), I’m finding it a bit difficult to know how to advise her.

Here’s her stats:

Unweighted GPA 4.00
Weighted GPA 4.38
Weighted GPA for UCs: 4.58

School doesn’t rank outside of deciles, but she is among the top 6 or 7 students (class of 300)
Has taken the most rigorous course load her school (rural, small) allows.

4 APs so far, with 3 5s and one 4. Is taking 5 more APs as a senior. .

Has taken 3 dual enrollment courses – two at the local JC (Physics and Psychology) and one at U Berkeley over the summer.

Is a national merit semifinalist.

ECS are decent, nothing extraordinary.

Editor of school newspaper and heavily involved all 4 years
Bassoonist and Saxophonist (played with local youth symphony and community bands ever since middle school. )
Math and Science tutor at local library
She’s also in the middle of a three year modelling contract with a top LA agency.

She is going to apply to Barnard ED as a dream ‘reach’ school.
She is also going to apply to UCB, UCLA (also reaches?)

Matches we think are Scripps, CAL Poly SLO, Smith, maybe Vassar?

Safeties are Fordham, Occidental, UC Santa Cruz

Are we on the right track?

2

What major will she apply to at the UC schools?

Fordham, Oxy, and UCSC really aren’t safeties. Has she been demonstrating interest at Fordham and Oxy (and other schools on the list that considerate that in the admission decision)? Are these schools affordable?

3

Yes, affordability is fine. She wants Cognitive Science.

So what kind of admissions stats should we be looking at for a safety school? I think we may be confused on the whole concept. Fordham admits about 45% which I thought would make it a safety. As I say, I could be very confused about this concept.

No, she hasn’t demonstrated interest in any of these places except Scripps yet.

4

Different people look at safeties in different ways, there is no one right way.

Technically a safety is an assured admit based on stats, so U Texas for in-state residents, U Iowa, Iowa State, ASU to name just a few. And a true safety is affordable, but sounds like that’s not an issue here.

Sometimes I use a concept of highly likely…and that would be schools with high admit rates 70%-80%+, the student is above average in stats, and the school doesn’t consider demonstrated interest.

Oxy and Fordham still reject over half of applicants. And those candidates that have never interacted with them, no matter how strong the stats are, can sometimes receive an unexpected denial.

I will call @gumbymom for her help on cog sci in the UCs and CSPLO. Perhaps UCR or another CSU would be a safety for cog sci.

Have you looked at ASU or U Arizona?

Does your D’s school use Naviance? That might help categorize Oxy in particular.

5

She has a perfect GPA, she’s from CA, she’s heavily involved in newspaper, and she’s full pay. I think that gives here a pretty good chance at Barnard if she can demonstrate in her essay why it’s a good fit for her.

If she likes women’s colleges, look at Mount Holyoke too. I think Fordham is a low match. I’d be pretty surprised if she didn’t get in there. If you consider that a safety has to be a slam dunk, look at a few of your CSUs. I also think Sarah Lawrence would be a good safety for her. It has a high acceptance rate, but it punches way above its weight. Also look at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.

Vassar is not a match. It’s a low reach.

6

I’m not so familiar with the CA colleges but I’d call Fordham a safety. I’d suggest she apply non-binding early action so you have a definitive admissions decision by December.

Vassar I’d call a reach/low reach for any unhooked applicant. It is a highly competitive LAC and admission will not be predictable. Also the acceptance rate will be lower for RD compared to ED and for a female versus a male. Smith is probably more of a match.

As a bit of unsolicited advice I’d recommend that your D show some “demonstrated interest” especially for the smaller schools. It doesn’t have to be a physical visit (given the pandemic, your location etc.) but your D should get on the school’s mailing list and do whatever type of virtual tour/information session the schools offer. There is probably information on the admission page of each school’s website.

7

Thanks all for your input! We’ll move Vassar to the “reach” column and I’ll have her start doing the online tours/webinars, etc.

I like the idea of non-binding early action for Fordham so I’ll advise her to pursue that.

Mt. Holyoke and Sarah Lawrence are both places on her longlist…so we’ll take a closer look at those now.

She would like a small LAC, ideally. And she’d prefer to be in an urban setting or at least a train ride away from a city. She’s leaning heavily toward a woman’s college.

Again, thanks all.

8

Sarah Lawrence is a very lopsided school in terms of breadth/depth of academic offerings in various departments. Offerings are extensive in psychology, arts, literature, writing, and history, but can be very limited in some other subjects.
https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/undergraduate/areas-of-study/

9

Cal Poly SLO would be a Match but they do not offer Cognitive Science/Neuroscience as majors and as far as I am aware, none of the Cal States offer these majors.

For Safeties, UC Riverside and possibly Santa Cruz. UCLA and UCB should always be considered Reach schools but attainable. UC San Diego has a top rated Neuroscience/Cognitive science program so it might be worth considering along with UC Davis which would be a Match school.

The UC’s (unless something changes) and CSU’s are test blind this admission cycle, so GPA will be a major factor in her favor.

10

Thank you for the this. I’ll have her look over the curriculum with this in mind.

This is all so helpful, thank you.

11

@socowonder Based on this post, I would add Bryn Mawr, probably a low match with your D’s stats. It’s about 30 minutes by train to Philadelphia. Bard would be another likely to consider, and they offer Early Action. It’s about the same distance from NYC as Vassar.

12

Thank you. I will have a look at both of these.

13

My D was very conservative with her choices of safety schools. 70%+ acceptance rate and her stats well over the 75th percentile.

IMO, you lose nothing having a true safety that is loved with the flip side being zero acceptances if you shoot too high.

14

Thank you, that’s helpful. We haven’t looked at anywhere with an over 70% acceptance rate. I think doing a couple years at the local JC and then transferring to a UC would be another option for us if, worst case, everything else flamed out.

15

The UCs rank applicants within a high school and even UCB/UCLA are quite predictable compared to top privates for instate L&S applicants since they have no yield protection (Engineering and CS are a different level of competitiveness though). Look at the past admission stats for your high school: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school

If UCB or UCLA make offers to 15 students from your school per year then you would be on fairly solid ground being 6th in the class, assuming ECs to match, which it looks like you have. If they make fewer than 5 offers then your chances are not as strong.

I agree that UCSC should be regarded as a safety with your stats, while UCSB and UCSD should be a match.

16

Using Fordham EA can reduce your need for a traditional safety. Since they do have restrictions, you can apply to your ED school and Fordham. If you don’t get an acceptance in December, then you have to go looking for a true safety quickly. You just do want to go into January without An acceptance or an application at a true safety.

17

Sound advice from @Eeyore123. I’d be reluctant to class Fordham as a “safety” though I do think it’s a highly likely admit. EA would quickly make clear if she needs another safety school.

18

Apply to any EA* or rolling admission colleges early. Any that admit and are affordable then become safeties, so that you can drop applications to any colleges less desirable to them. If none deliver affordable admissions early, it may be necessary to re-evaluate the list.

*If they do not have restrictions on other applications that you do not want to have to abide by.

19

So useful. Had no idea this info was available anywhere. Thanks so much for sharing this!

20

Great advice. Thanks to you and @SJ2727 and @ucbalumnus for great advice.

Barnard for “moonshot” and then the new plan is Fordham and Sarah Lawrence for EA and seeing how it goes. If rejected, then we’ll have a back up plan in place to implement.

Fingers crossed for the UCs as it looks like she has a shot at UCLA and UCB, with UCSC as safety.

We’ll apply to some CSUs too, but have to figure out a major given no cognitive sciences. Maybe Psych and Chem or Psych and Math.

I hesitated over whether to post this question this morning but have been overwhelmed by the great info and insight.

Thank you all!