<p>One of D’s safeties was her EA school (Lewis & Clark). The fact that this was the first application she completed, and she had to write a supplement about why L&C appealed to her, etc., meant that she had to consider whether or not she really wanted to attend. If she secretly hadn’t wanted to go there, I don’t think she ever would have finished that application.</p>
<p>She has one guaranteed-admit in UC Riverside (she applied to all UCs except Merced and Irvine) but that’s one that I really don’t think she would ever want to attend. I almost didn’t send in the form for the guaranteed admission over the summer because it seemed a bit silly. She really doesn’t want to attend a big state school in the first place; it’s highly unlikely that she would really get shut out of every other school she applied to (7 UCs and 6 private LACs); and if she were, depending on why that was, I might recommend a gap year to her rather than have her attend UC Riverside – there’s really nothing about the school or the campus that seems like it might appeal to her. However, I ended up sending in the form because in the end it’s not my decision, and if she really did get rejected everywhere else, it certainly would be better for her to have that option rather than not have it. It was a “no reason not to” decision.</p>