I’m trying grasp some clarification on what sort of college can qualify as a safety in any sense of the word.
Specifically I’m considering University of Washington, more commonly known as U Dub. It’s a fairly large, with a 55% acceptance rate.
Can a college, a fairly good college, with a 55% acceptance rate be considered a safety? Or is it a match? Or what exactly? Credentials aside, (top 25% of their statistics), I’m looking at the numbers only.
A college can only be a safety relative to your profile and affordability.
Are you looking at their Common Data Set (CDS)? You want to be in at or above the 75th percentile in GPA and test scores. It may also depend upon major since many majors at U Dub can be ultra competitive.
Safeties: Affordable without little to no FA, high acceptance rate and a school you are willing to attend no matter what happens.
A site that kind of helped me categorize my schools was admitster.com.
I’m not sure it is completely accurate but it went along with what my guidance counselor thought so it is creditable to an extent.
Looking at the CDS can help (google it for each school). It can only show the percentiles for GPA and test scores but in general, if you are above the 75% it can be considered a safety and if you are above the 50% it can be considered a target/match.
Looking at the acceptance rate alone is not a good measure.
Different majors can be harder to get into so check for each school, esp to check if the major is a LEP.
When choosing safeties make sure that it is affordable (before scholarships/ aid) in addition to being easy to get into. Also make sure this is a school that you like and will not mind going to.
Looking at the acceptance rate alone is not a good measure, particularly when the rate is from 2014.
Here is some information you could use to determine your chances at Washington:
Washington’s most recent Common Data Set, referenced by @Gumbymom, reports the unweighted GPA of enrolled freshmen in 2015 as follows:
3.75 to 4.00: 64.24%
3.50 to 3.74: 27.16%
3.25 to 3.49: 6.52%
3.00 to 3.24: 1.52%
Under 3.00: 0.56%
Thus, you will want to have an unweighted GPA above 3.75 for UW to be a “match.”
The 25/75 ACT range of enrolled freshmen in 2015 was 26-31. You will want to be at the higher end of that scale (29 and up) for UW to be a “match.”
Your chances would be better if you are an instate applicant with these credentials. The Seattle Times just published some admissions data for the 2016 entering class:
“This year, about 62.7 percent of Washington students who applied to be admitted as freshmen got an acceptance letter — down from 65.6 percent in 2015. About 39 percent of out-of-state and international students were admitted, down from 48 percent in 2015.”
http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/uw-freshman-class-more-in-state-students-more-diversity/
If the instate admission rate was 62.7% (est. 7,323/11,680) and the OOS and international admission rate was 39% (est. 12,345/31,654), then the overall admission rate was about 45% this year (est. 19,668/43,334), down from 53% in 2015 and 55% in 2014.
And, for the more competitiv public universites, there usually are tougher admission standards for out of state students, so an out of state student should be at the top of the range.