<p>It seems easy to select the reaches for S1- basically the ivies/other USNWR top 10s, with some ruled out due to size, location or other issues. But how on earth do you choose safeties? How do you even start when there seem to be dozens of roughly equivalent schools right below that "top" level? So, if your kid is/was aiming for HYP or top LACs, what were their safeties and how did they choose them? Thanks.</p>
<p>Georgetown (enormous legacy, other factors).</p>
<p>Generally the top students from my high school would have Michigan be their safety, and apply to all the HYPSM and some others.</p>
<p>If the student needs a lot of financial aid, then some ivy hopefuls choose schools that give generous merit scholarships as safeties.</p>
<p>If money is no object, then people use other factors such as likely major and internship possibilities, and even non-academic factors like weather, dorms, extra-curriculars, big sports to watch, etc.</p>
<p>For my older son (and any techie) I think safeties are pretty easy. There are tons of great engineering schools with high acceptance rates. (My son chose RPI and WPI because they were conveniently located for us.) </p>
<p>For my younger son, interested in international relations, (and for whom the elite colleges are a reach already), he had American and Syracuse lined up as safeties. If his transcript had been a little stronger GW, U of Rochester or Brandeis could have been safeties. He still finds the internship opportunities at American really tempting.</p>
<p>For many the honors college of their state or another state university may be a good option.</p>
<p>EA acceptances to top schools are the best safeties for these students. If you don’t get those, you still have time to cast a wider net.</p>
<p>Honors programs at Ohio State, Oberlin, NYU, Tufts, Wash U, and the U of Rochester are frequently on the lists of our h.s.'s kids who end up at Ivy League schools. I wouldn’t call this a list of safeties, though.</p>
<p>^^This is also true, and ultimately I didn’t apply to any safeties because Stanford SCEA worked out.</p>
<p>I also know many people who applied to excellent state schools as safeties, or went the EA route with a slightly less selective top school (e.g. Georgetown SFS or the like) if they didn’t want to risk not having early options by applying to S/Y.</p>
<p>Both of my kids took the tack of applying EA or rolling admissions to get a firm, high-quality safety: Pitt (honors) and the University of Chicago in one case, and Michigan in the other. One kid also wanted to give herself an LAC option just in case, and applied to Oberlin – hardly a safety school, but one that was a quantum level less selective than its East Coast equivalents and was very likely to accept her based on stats and geography.</p>
<p>If they hadn’t been satisfied with their early admissions, both of them planned to apply to either University of Toronto or McGill (excellent public Canadian universities in great cities, completely predictable admissions, good economic values) and/or Boston University (attractive honors program and merit scholarships, fairly predictable admission based on stats). One kid might also have applied to Reed, which was a perfect fit but tough to get to. They also thought about Johns Hopkins, which would also have been a great fit for either. It’s not anyone’s safety, but it’s a first-rate university that does accept a lot of kids who look like Harvard or Yale students on paper but who for whatever reason aren’t.</p>
<p>DS: Accepted EA to Chicago and Bard so safeties not necessary, or those were the safeties (especially Bard.)</p>
<p>DD: Safeties: Bard, Drew, Fordham, Binghamton. (Fordham was there in case DD decided that being in NYC trumped all.)</p>
<p>One line that caught my eye in the original post was “there seem to be dozens of roughly equivalent schools right below that “top” level?” That is not really the level of a safety school, even for an Ivy-level candidate. Perhaps I am drawing too much from one statement, but safeties need to be rock-solid choices. Most schools just below the top level would be matches; you are still talking about acceptance rates below 30%. One solid safety is usually enough for these kids, though, and you should concentrate on the matches and low reaches, as those are the schools most likely to be still on the list after April 1.</p>
<p>Many students chose our state flagship as their safety, and many end up attending since the acceptance is straightforward, the notification comes early, and the price is right. Our sons looked at schools that were similar in size and style to their dream schools, and/or had strong departments in their chosen fields of interest. Fortunately, neither son was “undecided;” that would have definitely complicated things! So, for S1: MIT (reach) Cornell (low reach, attended) had Michigan as his safety for its strength in math and early notification. S2, with history and econ as his majors, had Princeton as a reach, Vanderbilt as a high match (attended) and Denison as his safety, where he knew he was in line for a generous scholarship.</p>
<p>I agree EA acceptances are the best safeties! Even for my older son, though he didn’t get into his two EA schools, he had heard from RPI by Thanksgiving thanks to some priority application thing they had.</p>
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<p>It depends on the school and the student. At mine, for example, a 2200+ SAT and a good GPA essentially guaranteed you a spot at top non-Ivy colleges. Historically, everyone got in. You can claim that it’s still somewhat uncertain, and I can’t fully disagree with that. But the probability of a sweep of rejections given several EA applications was not even worth considering.</p>
<p>this kind of discussion is exactly why I posted my question - which schools are safeties or close-enough for an Ivy level applicant? So far it has been very helpful although the spread of schools viewed as safeties seems tremendous - some are near-Ivies, some would probably be safeties for almost any solid applicant…</p>
<p>Find a school that your kid would be assured of admittance and that he would be happy to attend. The spread is wide because kids are all different. One of my kid’s safeties was Grinnell, the other had UC Santa Barbara. A little research into the stats of accepted students, perhaps with the help of the high school counselor, will give you an idea of the “assured admittance” answer. But it’s very important that the school is an acceptable alternative. My kids loved their safeties - there was even some regret in not going because of the merit offers. That’s another clue, btw. If you child is very likely to get merit aid of one kind or another from the college, it might work as a safety.</p>
<p>Re #14: That’s why the “early” element can be so important. Chicago or Georgetown aren’t remotely appropriate to think of as safeties . . . unless you have already been accepted, in which case they are perfect safeties.</p>
<p>I would take Baelor’s comment with a big ol’ grain of salt, however. I don’t think there are many “top non-Ivy colleges” where 2200 SATs and a good GPA guarantee admission, no matter what high school you are coming from, unless maybe you apply Early Decision (i.e., committed to attend if accepted), and not even then for most of them. To me, “top non-Ivy colleges” means places like Stanford, MIT, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Tufts, WashU, Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, CMU, Caltech . . . and top LACs. None of them is a solid safety for anyone, although some of them may be solid matches for really top-rank students. They can certainly be part of the application mix regular decision, but not as safeties.</p>
<p>In California, if your child attends a public high school, and they are in the top 4%(I think that stills holds true-it was in place when my DD was in high school), then that student is offered guaranteed acceptances to a couple of UCs. When my daughter graduated in 2007 she was offered: UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside and UC Merced. She then could choose which one/s she wanted as her “safety”. It REALLY helped reduce the anxiety! Maybe your state offers the same type of program.</p>
<p>It may depend on what your student wants from his safety. You are right in that many strong students would be admitted to the safety, but a the question is would your Ivy/elite candidate thrive at the safety school? If there is a strong department in a not-as-strong school, or a big scholarship, or graduate level opportunities at the undergrad level, these can be the determining factors. So can a less-competitive environment, which can make a strong student stand out. So could an intimate size and nurturing culture, not often found at elites. While this is rarely on parents’ minds at application time, you should read some of the “flame-out” threads on CC from disappointed parents. Not everyone is ready for the pressures of elite college work.</p>
<p>APOL, when did you get the word which UCs were offering guaranteed admission to your daughter?</p>
<p>My son’s safeties were U Michigan and Brandeis. Michigan was chosen because it’s a great school that practices rolling admissions. Having a solid acceptance in pocket in October was a real stress-reliever. Brandeis was chosen because it had many of the qualities he was looking for in a college, just not as reach-y. And that’s the key to identifying safety schools. Figure out the characteristics that make the reach schools appealing, then look for those same characteristics in less selective schools.</p>