<p>I can tell you that it really bolsters the egos and adds a spoonful of sugar when the response are not what the kids wanted or expected, to have some safety school choices with some low sticker prices and maybe even merit awards. Or if things go south with the finances which has happened a lot lately, it is great to have those alternatives.</p>
<p>My son was not that interested in SUNY Maritime, CUNY Lehman or SUNY Buffalo. But he also knew we are tight in terms of money. When he saw the full ride plus offers from the first two schools and the low sticker price coupled with a merit award for the third as opposed to the $50K+ from HC and BC, it really drove the situation home. Oh what one can do with that extra money in those 4 years. He could get a car, go abroad, put together a nest egg. It was eye opening. And if he had not gotten into any of the other schools, those three offers alone were enticing.</p>
<p>It depends on so many different factors. Of course, love thy safety. But if someone has great stats and will be applying to top schools, their financial safety may be the “reach” school. In other words, because of the FA given by some of the top 20-25 schools, the financial safety may not be the academic safety. Two of my son’s academics safeties would have cost more than his reach (Northwestern) that meets full need. Our overall cost is much less at Northwestern because of the FA package than it would have been at his academic safeties. Because of our financial situation and my sons stats, it was to our benefit that he apply to more reaches than matches and academic safeties. We knew that if he did get into one or more of the “meets full need” schools, the FA package would be excellent. In the end, the strategy worked for us.</p>
<p>Most (15) of the schools on S1’s list are reaches… places he would not gain admittance, without football…but will be able to do well academically, if accepted. Everything depends on results of yesterday’s SAT II’s, next week’s finals at school and ACT’s next weekend. </p>
<p>We should have a clear indication by mid-July, regarding how many coaches are still actively pursuing him. He has a half-dozen less selective schools on his list, as well as 3-4 safety schools - where he is confident he can both gain acceptance, and play football.</p>
<p>Cptofthehouse, I could not agree with you more. In this economy, a school that is a true safety; one where your child will be admitted, if admitted s/he will be happy to attend and is a finacially feasible option for your family are no longer true safeties as they are now filling up so fast that “early” applications are now late.</p>
<p>Just 2 years ago, CUNY had on the spot admissions which meant you could virtually take your diploma and a sealed official transcript, pay the $65 and register for class. This year, students whose applications were not completed by 2/1 (which means everything had to already be at the processing center) were not guaranteed a seat for fall 2010. </p>
<p>As of 2 weeks ago, City College had an 800 person waitlist. Queens college is not instituting a waitlist, nor are they deferring students to January Admissions. They are advising students to contact the processing center to have their application change from fall 2010 to january 2011. </p>
<p>IF your student needs the EOP program at SUNY, Binhamton and Stony Brook EOP were closed on 10/1 of last year (basically 3 weeks after school started in NYC). Other popular programs at popular SUNYs were also shut out very early in the season.</p>
<p>I have already advised my juniors to bite the bullet and save the $65 over the summer (do not wait for a fee waiver) and apply the first day the CUNY Application is up. I also advised them do their essays this term so that their SUNY applications can be uploaded on day one when the application is available (if a fee waiver is needed, I can always fax it on the first day of school).</p>
<p>DS wants his reach school to be one that he is unlikely to get accepted to, and which we would likely not be able to afford (read that very unaffordable) if he did. He knows this, and wants to apply anyways - maybe just to say he did? Any arguments against this plan?</p>
<p>^^ Depends on how unlikely and how very unaffordable. But in general it is a waste of time, money, and most importantly, energy to send an app out to a college that you can neither get into nor afford. That would be the opposite of a safety. </p>
<p>I am a strong believer in applying to a lot of reaches, but thy have to be realistic reaches.</p>
<p>What would be the point in setting himself up for a no win situation. If you have already told him the school is way financially out of reach, unless you hit the powerball or the money fairy is coming to your house, how is the situation going to change? </p>
<p>This would just make him feel worse to know that he was admitted, but cannot afford to attend. Would you feel guilty about him giving up his dream school? Keep in mind a dream school should not be a financial nightmare. He needs to dream a new dream.</p>
<p>You are wise, Sybbie, to be advising your students that way. If you look at the stats for the SUNY and CUNYs, they are not safeties for those kids within the mid range. They are not accepting every warm body that walks into the room. Many have accept rates under that 50% selectivity mark. That was a bit of surprise for me. I could see how the big 4 universities would be that way, but with all of those small SUNYs out there, I would have thought that there would be a seat for everyone, and anyone. Nope. </p>
<p>I know a bunch of families paying big bucks to PACE and some other private schools because their kids did not get into a SUNY or CUNY. In this economic climate, you do have to move fast to get a seat. </p>
<p>Sylvan, I don’t see a problem with that other than if he has some private agenda in his mind that he is not sharing. My son applied to some schools in those categories and a number of scholarships, that were definitely out of his reach. Also some very selective programs where he had hardly a chance of acceptance and he wasn’t all that interested in them. Just wanted to see what they were like. Webb Institute, Deep Springs and the GA Tech Presidential Program are some examples. Got flushed for all of them, though he got into GA Tech as a regular student. Also got into two reach schools at which he really had little or no chance for scholarship money , but as expected did not get a dime in offers there. But he did get into a program that was really a high reach and totally unexpected. He declined it, but it really hurt H and me when he did that. We woulld have liked to have seen him take that offer.</p>
<p>sylvan, have you checked what your EFC is and checked the financial aid policies of your DS’s school? Could it be that is it is possible and you don’t know it? I would let my kid apply to one unrealistic school if he really wanted to. Maybe he’ll get a fabulous outside scholarship. Maybe his favorite aunt will win the lottery and offer to pay his tuition. Maybe he won’t get in. One school? I would wish he would not do it but I would not try to prevent him from doing it. (At $65 a pop for application fees, I wouldn’t let my kid apply to more than one “completely unrealistic” school.) </p>
<p>I agree with Youdon’tsay on this thread:
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<p>Our hs guidance counselors strongly recommend two safeties for each student. You want your kids to have a choice in April, just in case the safety they thought sounded great in the fall somehow fell out of favor.</p>
<p>I didn’t care where my kids applied to school. Neither did they at first. During the process when I kind of gave them a starting list and pushed to get some info out of them, they began to come up with possibilities and ideas. They also developed aversions to some schools for no good reason that I could see. They also got crazy ideas. As long as we got some good core schools that we could afford, and some safety situations, they could apply to the moon, for all I cared.</p>
<p>Would this be a good safety? I’m applying to Macaulay Honors College at one of the CUNY schools (either Queens college or City College). Its tough to get into the honors program, but if I dont I think I automatically get into the regular college. My GC said this, because if you are even thinking about applying to Macaulay, you are a very strong applicant. Should I have a lot of other safeties too? I was thinking Adelphi, because I might get a lot of money from there</p>
Preliminary estimates indicate our EFC is very high, but it is to some extent due to rental property we own, which we use to generate part of our income. Because we have large assets, we have large EFC, but we don’t have quite the large income that a large EFC usually implies. DS’s stats are such that he would get decent merit aid at many schools, but not likely at this reach one. We also have DD to think about (she’s a rising HS sophomore).</p>
<p>*DS wants his reach school to be one that he is unlikely to get accepted to, and which we would likely not be able to afford (read that very unaffordable) if he did. He knows this, and wants to apply anyways - maybe just to say he did? Any arguments against this plan? *</p>
<p>If your son just wants to do this just to see what happens, then no harm done except time and money (but not a big deal). Some kids do this just so that they aren’t always wondering years later.</p>
<p>However, I wouldn’t waste my time doing this for several schools.</p>
<p>D1 applied to Pitt and S to PSU and since they had a rolling admission and were accepted, they didn’t do any safeties because both felt these choices were quite acceptable. DS had a lot of reaches and either was WL or rejected in every one except the one that he really wanted to go to. DS was similar and made it to her top choice through a waitlist.</p>
I’m thinking we’ll have to let him do it (making the financial picture clear of course), because there is no compelling reason not to. As they say - you regret the things you didn’t do, not the things you did.</p>
<p>Also, want to add, the apps for the “pie in the skies” that my son chose had the most onerous essays of all. What a pain in the neck! He spent a lot of time on those schools because of that. He would not recommend doing this to anyone else. By the time it sank into his head that he still had all of his other college apps to do and that the process for them, though easier, still had to be done, he had done so much on those lottery apps, that he felt he had to send them in. I think one had a really expensive fee too.</p>
<p>Like my friend’s daughter who wanted to audition at Curtis “just for the experience”. It was a very expensive and time consuming experience. I hope she secretly wanted to go there because the audition fee was really high, and she had to spend the night at a Philly hotel for the audition. Not to mention the time preparing for it. And, she did not get accepted. Don’t know if she would have gone had she been accepted because she really wanted a traditional college environment with programs other than just music featured, and this was her only conservatory app. But, oh, what a pain it was to go through the process, and expensive.</p>
<p>FOr Macauley, you can only apply to the honors program at one school. The Macaulay Honors College has a two-step notification process:</p>
<p>1.Students will be notified of their admission decision as General Freshmen (see above.) </p>
<p>2.Students will be notified of their admission decision into the Macaulay Honors College on March 15, 2010. </p>
<p>At worse case, if you have the stats you will be accepted RD CUNY. </p>
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<p>Considering Macauley gets more applicants than spots, it is open to students living both in and outside of NY and there is a subjective component (essays, recommendations), I would not necessarily consider it a safetyas there will be students whose grades, scores fall in the range that will not be picked up.</p>
<p>^ If that was directed at me, yes I know I would only apply to one school (either Queens OR City… dont know which yet) So wouldnt either of these schools be a good safety since they are low-tuition and since like my GC said, if someone is applying to Macaulay they are pretty much guaranteed a spot at the regular school.</p>
<p>It is good to have a variety of safeties (academic and financial) and match and reach. It is hard to predict scholarships and aid. EFC has calculators for ballpark estimates, but not always accurate and mostly related just to govt aid. Many schools use CSS Profile or their own forms.</p>
<p>Considering that neither the City and State are in a good financial position right now, who is to say how many full scholarship seats, if any will be available next year. So far, the state has not released TAP for Fall 2010 as I know many students who do not have the TAP award in their FA package.</p>
<p>Unless you apply at the beginning of the cycle, you are not guaranteed a seat at Queens College, who stopped admitting students earlier this application cycle than previous cycles (got that directly from the source, a good friend of mine from QC admissions).</p>
<p>For CUNY, even though McCauley has a Dec 15th deadline, in order to be safe, apply early.</p>