<p>I think it’s nice for a student if come April they have a choice of schools. So I generally like to see two safeties. Of course if one gets accepted somewhere early or via rolling admissions, that early acceptance is one of your safeties. I think it’s fine to have more than two safeties if there are more than two schools that you really like and would be happy to attend. There’s always the chance that come April you may prefer big to small, or that a huge merit offer with a safety may look more tempting than it did in October. The idea is to have good choices in the spring, but I don’t think there has to be a hard and fast rule about numbers. </p>
<p>My younger son didn’t apply to a safety that had originally been on his list after he got into one of his reach colleges. He still applied to the other safety because he really liked it.</p>