<p>How many safe schools does vary. If the local flagship state university has a simple metric that you know means you are in, and you can afford it, that might be enough, although I see it as still somewhat risky , particularly since there can be big changes before fall and spring of senior year.
I think it is crucial to have a school that you can absolutely afford - and that means factoring in some risk. If your college fund is in the market, for example, you need to consider that it could take a big hit at any time. Sure, it will probably come back, but that doesn’t matter - you have to sell when you have to sell.
There is also the hard truth that all the elite schools are hard to predict AND not at all the same. You cannot just apply to all the Ivies + MIT + Stanford and assume that since you are a top student, one of them will take you. They may all reject you. And, they are not all the same. Few students would actually fit at all of them.
Finally, students who can’t see themselves at a safety school need to rein in their egos or risk considerable unhappiness.</p>
<p>I did one safety, but only applied to 5 schools.
I liked my safety, would have happily gone there, and could afford it no problem, so I saw no need to do another</p>
<p>@BTAverage…I must agree with RobD. Our D was accepted at Northwestern but waitlisted at Vandy and WUST. It’s quite likely (I might venture to say probable) that your child might not gain acceptance at all three or any for that matter; you simply never know at super-selective schools. When looking at Naviance, our D would appear to be a lock at Vandy. Her stats surpassed the kids from her school who had previously been admitted (all As, 2250 SAT, 12 APs – all 5s, NM, nationally recognized athlete, president of 2 school clubs and member of others, varsity capt, started her own charity, etc., etc.) Several kids from her school applied this year, but only one was accepted. Her stats were comparable; however, she applied to a different college within Vandy that most would argue is a bit easier to get into. Perhaps this had something to do with it, perhaps not; there’s no way to know. Like RobD said, Vandy’s RD rate dropped considerably this year. Although she was very disappointed for a few weeks, she had some great options because she applied to numerous schools. (BTW…she had 2 safeties with $ from each). My advice would be:</p>
<p>A) apply ED if at all possible
B) apply to NUMEROUS schools if app/test score fees aren’t a concern</p>
<p>By numerous: do you mean that students should apply to about 10-14 schools? A student at our school applied to over 30 schools last year–I thought that was absurd. He had many reach schools on his list and got into none of them. </p>
<p>I agree with everything that has been said on this thread, but I think it can be hard to sell very strong students with high hopes on the idea of safety/financial safety schools as necessary as it is to have such schools on the list.</p>
<p>I would mst definitely agree with you that 30 is indeed absurd not to mention ridiculously expensive. So many of the schools our D had applied to were what we considered to be reach schools. For her it was not about the name; she had researched them all thoroughly and argued why each would be a good fit; hence, we didn’t have a problem paying for the fees because we knew how fiercly competitive the process has become. She applied to fewer than 20 and had 3 flat rejections and the rest were waitlists and acceptances. She ultimately chose a school that initially was not very high on her list. This school might possibly not had made the list at all had she applied to 10 schools like many in her class did. For her, it was a good stategy to apply to many because she had other low reaches to fall back on when Vandy didn’t pan out. The month of April brought many surprises for us – we never would have expected so many waitlists nor would we had expected her to choose the school she did. As for safeties, our daughter’s second safety, Pepperdine, actually made the final 4 because of the very generous scholarship they offered, and yes, she would have been happy to have gone there.</p>
<p>BTAverage - My daughter was admitted to Yale and Dartmouth but waitlisted at Northwestern. When you’re dealing with this level of school there are no safeties or matches, it’s all a crap shoot! BTW, she was admitted to and attends Northwestern where she is the first Freshman ever to win a particular award and admitted to their Musical Theatre program and is the only Freshman Theatre major to take a year of junior level math classes. Not to brag but to show that there is no prediction of what can happen with the very top schools!</p>
<p>“A) apply ED if at all possible”–not early decision (binding), but early action (not the one-choice one) or apply early to a rolling admission school, so that the student has an early acceptance.</p>
<p>*but I think it can be hard to sell very strong students with high hopes on the idea of safety/financial safety schools as necessary as it is to have such schools on the list. *</p>
<p>Very strong students don’t always have very strong financial situations, so every year there are kids here on CC with strong stats who can’t afford the schools that they’ve gotten into. (then they mistakenly think applying to a bunch of private scholarships will save them…which, they won’t.)</p>
<p>And, three are the kids with strong stats who didn’t get into their top schools. </p>
<p>And, there are the kids whose parents have told them that they CAN afford their top choices, but then reality sets in or a financial fall-out occurs (loss of job, divorce, etc) sometime between Fall and Spring, and suddenly those top schools are no longer affordable.</p>
<p>So, everyone needs to have a couple of financial safety schools…just in case. :)</p>
<p>My daughter applied to 10 schools. As amtc said, “it’s a crapshoot”. My daughter was rejected at Wesleyan but offered a substantial scholarship at Oberlin. These two schools are very similar. She was also waitlisted at WUSTL, Rice & Brown, where she was a legacy. She’s going to Princeton which was the last school we toured. My daughter said her advice to juniors would be to apply to at least 8 schools.</p>
<p>Financial fall-out–the economy tanks. Don’t forget that one.</p>
<p>Mine will probably apply to 6 to 10 schools, with one absolutely certain acceptance that we can afford, one to four other schools that are very likely (one is overseas, so we will know early) and the rest elites with hard to predict chances. Mine has a current ED (binding form) choice, but will spend the summer and early fall ruminating on that.</p>
<p>I worked with someone this year who applied to ten schools, accpeted to seven – but only three had do-able FA packages (and this was someone who got merit at every school that offered it).</p>
<p>BTA – accepted at Cornell w/a likely letter, rejected at McGill. Still scratching my head over that one! Schools that take <30% of applicants are a crapshoot for nearly everyone. I would not consider WashU, Northwestern or Vandy safeties. I know of one individual who didn’t get into WashU and the place should have been embarrassed. Will not post more details here because it would be identifying, but suffice it to say the student got hosed.</p>
<p>
This may be true, but every student needs a “Plan B” to follow if they don’t get into the reaches or matches. It could be a gap year–but if it is, the next year’s list should include different schools, including safer ones.</p>
<p>i’ve seen some odd results too. Young man rejected from Swarthmore, his first choice school but accepted at Amherst,Williams, Princeton and Columbia. And he really wanted to go to Swarthmore for a number of pretty good reasons. A Siemans Westinghouse finalist deferred at Cornell while another kid with similar stats, but not as selective accepted. I’ve known several turned down at Macalester, Carleton, and another school out there–the name escapes me, and accepted at more selective LACs in the NE. You would have thought the opposite would have happened,given geographic issues.</p>
<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>
<p>I agree that there isn’t any hard and fast rule about how many safeties. Doesn’t even have to be any, if you have a safety plan in mind. What I want families to avoid is the situation where the student has only alternatives that s/he absolutely abhors and is miserable. By talking about alternatives, looking at some safety situations and not making a highly selective school an “end of the world if you don’t get in” scenario can make life so much easier and happier.</p>
<p>S1 had one safety, the flagship, where he would have been happy to attend, we could afford, and where he had a good shot at merit $$.</p>
<p>S2, with an excellent but somewhat uneven profile, had two – the flagship (though he had reservations about its size) and a private school that was the size he wanted and where he had a shot for merit.</p>
<p>EA and rolling admissions has provided our kids with safeties. Also keeping them aware of local options.</p>
<p>Both mine applied to EA schools, too. They made darned fine safeties once those acceptance letters came in!</p>