<p>For my son, the safety was the state flagship, which offered him a merit scholarship to enroll the honors college. In reality, it was probably #2 or #3 on his list because of his focus on life-style and intellectual style as much as strictly academic opportunities. He did not stress about his applications at all, and we the didn’t stress because he had that guaranteed admission. He got into an outstanding university.</p>
<p>For out daughter, there wasn’t a satisfactory safety from our perspective. There were a couple of art school throw-ins, but we were very uncertain about the odds of admission. In the end, she got into all the colleges she applied to. More stress in this case than for our son, but the outcome was fine. She got into one of the top art schools.</p>