How would you pick safety schools for HYP?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a current junior with fairly competitive stats for the Ivy League. My first choice school is Harvard. Obviously it will be a crapshoot, so I'm really worried about how to pick safety schools.</p>

<p>I know of many people who applied to almost all of the top twenty schools hoping to "get lucky" at one of them. A few had only one safety - the state school or a local private one.</p>

<p>They are now stuck at their backup school, which they didn't put much thought into picking. Not only is it less prestigious than they had hoped, but (more importantly) it's a terrible fit for many of them.</p>

<p>I've heard all sorts of different advice on how to spread applications. I will probably apply to many reach/match schools for options and "luck" as well. I'm wondering, how "safe" should safety schools be? For a (hypothetical) 3.9/2300 high-achieving student, can U Chicago or Georgetown be safeties, or is U. Pittsburgh more sensible?</p>

2

<p>Our kid had 2290 and 4.0/4.4 weighted and got rejected at Ivy and Georgetown and Chicago, coincidentally. Going to State U. Consider mid-rank LAC's, Vanderbilt, BU, etc. in addition to one safe State U.</p>

3

<p>First, the best advice I've received is to put as much effort into finding good safeties as you do looking at your reaches. Make sure it will be a good fit for you, there is nothing worse than being rejected from every school and ending up at your safety - a possibility you never thought possible.</p>

<p>I'm a junior also, I have to start finding my good safeties as well.</p>

<p>I would not consider U Chicago or Georgetown safeties in the least. They are both just below ivy-league level, and their admissions might be just as tricky as the Ivies. </p>

<p>Without knowing more about you or your interests, I can't tell what would be a good safety school for you. Hell, I have no idea what will be a good safety school for me either. </p>

<p>But, I would not shoot as high as U Chicago or Georgetown for a "safety". Maybe a match at best.</p>

4

<p>Where ever you chose to apply, make sure you will be very happy to be there. That can be tough for very competitive kids that aim high, but as you noted, it can happen. For the Ivies in general, the middle ground LACS seem to make sense in size and type of student. For females, the women's colleges can be very good picks. I know many of you don't think you would want to be at an all women's college, but they all have access to guys. Smith and Mt Holyoke are minutes from UMass and Amherst. Wellesley has access to all of the great Boston schools. Tulane and Rice can be matches for some top students, but maybe not safeties. UChicago is probably not safe for anyone. The Claremont colleges might be a good fit if you like the west coast.</p>

5

<p>it all depends on what you want. a 3.9/ 2300 could get you into many top schools. if youre interested in the ivy league, apply to at least one of the "lesser ivy's" along with HYP (perhaps brown or cornell). if you want an undergrad focused education (as you would receive at princeton), apply also to some top LAC's (williams, amherst, swat, wesleyan, w&l, bowdoin, middlebury). while none of the preceeding schools should be considered "safeties" to anyone, they are certainly much more likeley than Harvard or Yale (with an alltime low 8.6% admissions rate this year!), which, as you said, can be crapshoots. if you are still interested in a larger research institution, consider Duke, Georgetown, Notre Dame, U Chicago, Northwestern, JHU, Tufts, Carnegie Melon, Rice, and WUSTL. once again, each school is known for certain areas of study, and it is hard to guage which would be best for you knowing only that you are interested in 'top 20' schools.</p>

6

<p>The schools right below HYPSM are Penn, Brown, Duke, Columbia, Northwestern...all elite schools, and not really safeties at all, but easier to gain admittance to and almost as good as HYPSM</p>

7

<p>U Chicago and Georgetown are never "safeties." Although I would recommend applying if you are interested, you cannot expect to be admitted automatically.</p>

8

<p>Sorry I wasn't clear. Those stats aren't mine. Here is a link to where I posted them previously:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=169981%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=169981&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In sum: 4.0 uw/4.55 w; 2370 SAT; awards in academics/music/debate/writing; several leadership activities; seeking political science, international affairs, or economics.</p>

<p>I was talking about a "typical" solid Ivy applicant to get an idea of the principles for choosing safeties. No one I know with a shot at HYP has ever been stuck at a school lower-ranked than CMU. HOWEVER they have often been liberal-arts seeking students and therefore hate it, though it's a great school.</p>

9

<p>I would focus intensely on the Duke, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, Amherst range as lesser reaches and then use places like Northwestern, Chicago, Gtown, etc as hgih matches/ matches, then place like Emory, Vassar, Michigan, etc as low matches or safeties. </p>

<p>I was in the same boat as you and I focused really heavily on the schools right below HYP and applied to Michigan early in the process so I didn't need safeties. As I expected I got into some of the schools in the blow HYPS range but not all of them.</p>

<p>I think the biggest mistake in college admissions is applying to HYPS and then having a big gap and having alot of safeties. those are the kids who end up going to safeties, and we had a few of those even in my high school. Don't think short term, a extra $65 app could change your life, if I were applying now with a 3.9/ 2300 my list would be:</p>

<p>Super Reach (lucky to get into one):
HYPS</p>

<p>Reasonable Reach (get into 1/2-3 hopefully):
Duke, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, Amherst, Williams</p>

<p>Lesser Reach (get into 1/2 or more):
Northwestern, Rice, Cornell, WUSTL, Gtown</p>

<p>Match (get into 75%):
Middlebury, Emory</p>

<p>Safety:
Michigan (apply in October) </p>

<p>If my list were a Tree it would look like this (for 12 schools):</p>

<hr>

<hr>

<hr>

<p>-</p>

10

<p>I know some kids got rejected by Georgetown, UChicago, JHU... But accepted by H/Y/P/S/M. I mean, it's not impossible for one to be accepted by any top 20 schools while be rejected by any top 20 schools. Too many instances to list. </p>

<p>One suggestion from me: why don't you try University of Michigan's rolling admission ? Not saying Michigan is a "safety" ( at least Alexsandre would not agree), it is just because Michigan rolling admission is not bounded and you can apply as early as in september, in that way, you can even apply your ED/EA after you know if you are in Michigan already - considering Michigan is an elite school (better than Pitt, I guess). My $0.02 though.</p>

11

<p>Yeah, you are right, CMU may be a safety for you since you are in Pitt area. But you didn't say you like computer science that much. So, I understand you pick Gtown/UChicago as your safety since you like political science/Economics. I think you have very good chance to get in those two schools, but these two are NOT safeties, I know kinds who rejected by Gtown or UChicago got admitted by HYP.</p>

12

<p>But how many got rejected from all of Gtown, Chicago, Northwestern and then got into ONE of HYPS. The point is these things happen but apply to three in that lower range and there's a 95% chance you'll get into one, 85% you'll get into two, and a 70% chance you'll get into all thress.</p>

13

<p>USC, William and Mary, George Washington, Michigan, Lehigh, Brandeis, Rochester, Wisconsin, Case Western, NYU</p>

14

<p>I wouldn't consider any of these a safety--or even a firm match--for anyone:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ivywise.com/Students_stats.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ivywise.com/Students_stats.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

15

<p>have you seen this thread from parent's forum? everyone should read is about the importance of carefully choosing your "safety":
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=192395%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=192395&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

16

<p>Slipper, I think those numbers would be much closer to 60%, 50%, and 40%.</p>

17

<p>I think the schools that I listed there are all safeties. acceptance rates can be deceiving.</p>

18

<p>Andi had a HORRIBLE strategy and learned the WRONG lessons! (responding to a link). Leave it to parents to learn the wrong lesson and then be adament about their misinterpretation.</p>

<p>Apply to enough realistic reaches and matches and chances are you won't even need to ever worry about your safety. Conversely apply to you "dream schools," only a few matches/ realistic reaches, and then a ton of safeties and you're finished. Great, you "have your pick" of safeties.</p>

<p>Focus where it matters! You're getting into one of the "good schools" but you need to apply.</p>

19

<p>his story is definetely eye opening, but slipper is right, what happened to him doesn't usually turn out so well, i think the kid ended up at MIT</p>

<p>there are so many like him that end up at a state school....even if they take a year off....what i did last year...very smart</p>

<p>if u live on the east coast....DEF apply to at least 1 midwestern school such as a U of Chicago/Northwestern/WUSTL/Michigan, ur bound to hit 1, i hit 3 out of 4, and the 1 being a waitlist at wustl</p>

20

<p>a lot of people make the mistake of applying to all 8 ivies just for the name. however, the 8 schools are vastly different from one another. if you tell us what you are looking for in a school, we can suggest some safeties that you might be happy at.</p>