<p>A safety school is one with a pretty high acceptance rate that is also financially affordable for your family so basically one she has close to 100% shot of getting accepted and where if she attends that school you can afford to pay for her schooling. NYU has a 30% acceptance rate with an average ACT score of 29-32 so, if your DD’s scores fall below that, that acceptance rate decreases. From all accounts UCLA has a single digit acceptance rate for in state students right now and is very difficult to get into unless you are a top student, at least according to families on this board. Basically with those 2 choices her back up plan would be to attend a community college and hope she can get in somewhere after she is done there. She needs to find other schools where she has a good shot of getting in that match her GPA and test scores, probably 2 schools like this at least. </p>
<p>Then on the financial side, you need to figure out how much you can pay for college. If you got to the federal financial aid site and run their finacial aid forecaster, it will tell you what your expected family contribution is. You will need your tax returns from last year to get a fairly accurate number. Once you have that number, go to the UCLA and NYU websites and run their net price calculator so see how much those schools will cost you. Can you afford that? If not, find some that you can.</p>