<p>if your major concern with applying to a "safety" school is that it won't be academically challenging for you, apply to the honors program! i think most schools should have honors programs, and if you really are an exceptional candidate for the school you would be perfect for those programs.. this way you wouldn't feel like you were "compromising" your potential by attending your safety school</p>
<p>Safety does not mean bad. You're talking about compromising, so you have the concept of safety all wrong, as most people do. A safety is a school you would love to go to where your chances of getting in are over 75% based on your stats. If you are a straight A student with perfect SATs and powerful ECs, your safeties are going to be other people's dream schools. A safety should not be a lousy school, it should be a gem. The art is in finding it.</p>
<p>There are schools that are top notch in their fields and have higher acceptance rates. Where would you prefer to study for example advertising, at Harvard or the University of Texas? If you voted Harvard, you lost street cred in your field. That's just one example, there are as many as there are careers.</p>
<p>BTW, read Tokenadults post well. He pretty much sums up what a "safety" is.</p>
<p>What happens if you don't get in the second time around? I'm not saying don't try it, but if you do end up going a second time around, you'll need a safety then.</p>
<p>I know many kids without a true safety. One of my son's friends who is a top student with excellent academic credentials does not. For her, a number of very good colleges, still very selective are her safeties, in that she feels, correctly that it is highly unlikely that she will be rejected from all of them, since she is showing interest, visiting, has some good hooks, has gotten good vibes from those schools. She is hoping to get into one of the most select schools which are a reach or dice roll for anyone, realizing that it is not such a sure thing that to get into any of those, but any of the 3 or 4 other schools on her list are considered very good schools and selective. Also I believe at least one of those schools is EA and if she does not get accepted at that time, she still has time to add other schools on her list.</p>
<p>i didn't have a safety school, and I still got into my top choice school.</p>
<p>same here ............</p>
<p>If you can apply to your target college during the early round, and know the result before the regular action deadline at most other colleges, then perhaps you can relax. Congratulations to those who are in at their target college and know that already. </p>
<p>For everyone else, there is a list </p>
<p>that may help you line up a suitable safety college to add to your application list before the admission deadlines.</p>
<p>My daughter does not have a perfect safety that would satisfy rules 1,2,3 and 4.
Her well-chosen "safety" has the problem with rule # 1 - it's acceptance rate is low, so nobody can take acceptance there for granted. But this is where she will be happy if she is not accepted anywhere else.
Based on the advice from CC members we added three more real safeties to her list. But one may end up being not a good deal financially, the other two - there is no reason to be sure that she will like them.</p>
<p>Debate_addict, congrats on yale :) I guess you won't be needing that safety school after all!</p>