If a student doesn’t have an acceptance they want in April, they can always check out the NACAC college list that shows which schools are still accepting applications for the following fall term.
Other students may choose to take a gap year and re-apply to different schools the following year.
Others may choose to attend a safety school that they aren’t very excited to attend (it’s one of the reason so many on this board try to get families to create their school lists from the bottom up - making sure that the safety schools applied to are affordable and a school the student would be happy to attend).
I think it is a true safety, but then I read on this forum about a student last year with high stats who got rejected from said school. The speculation on the group was that the school wanted to protect their yield and knew the student was using it for a safety. My daughter’s SAT is higher so now I’m wondering if there is more gamesmanship than I thought. Do they turn away students if they think they won’t go? This is so confusing.
It is all so stressful. Does her state school always or almost always take kids from her HS with her rank/stats? if so then that should be likely admit. Agree w others, it is not too late to add safeties.
EDIT: @Oglebee it looks as though you are in state for VA and may have or be applying to Virginia Tech Rd–if you also applied to UVA EA and she is ranked in the typical acceptance range in her HS, both of those should be a Yes, and they don’t yield -protect. They are much easier to predict for in state, high-stat kids, provided rank/rigor line up. Good Luck!
It’s not too late to find other safeties, there are plenty of schools with deadlines of Jan 15th and Feb 1st.
Start a new thread asking for help, there will be tons of knowledgable people happy to give suggestions. Be sure to give your budget as well as your child’s wish list.
I just checked and from those schools my high stats daughter (a few years ago), got 1 acceptance out of 4 applications to T25 Natl Us (that includes a rejected ED, as in your case, the rest RD), and 2 acceptances out of 2 RD applications to T25 Liberal Arts colleges.
The other RD applications and acceptances were also from very selective schools, but happened to not be on those two USN T25 lists. Those did fall more in the “match” category, while T25s are basically reach to anyone with their 90% rejection rates.
Quite a few additional T25 schools and colleges had been visited, but had not been of interest to her, which is why she hadn’t applied to many. We had not consulted the US News rankings to limit applications to only those.
I’m a little embarrassed to be posting this in mid-January so I’m not going to do a separate thread. I thought I would just sneak it in here, haha. Sounds like I need to help her research safeties that are open with Feb. 1 deadlines. Thank you so much for your kindness, everyone.
There are only so many students who can be accommodated with housing and with classes; having too many accepted students actually enroll is a problem, just like not having admitted enough (after a percentage of students enroll elsewhere).
Having a wait list is a safety buffer to draw upon.
So yes, admission officers will look for clues, if the applicant is likely to enroll, or whether that student looks like someone who likely will get many “more attractive” offers, one of which they might accept instead.
My daughter was rejected from some of her GPA/SAT/ACT “safety” range colleges - and, to be fair, their assumptions about her were correct in the end.
Hi 2Devils, Yes we are in Virginia. I would guess she is in the typical acceptance range in her HS for UVA, but everyone says you can’t count on it based on being from northern Virginia. Every year there are kids who thought they should have gotten in there. Thank you for the comments.
Don’t be embarrassed! This process can be maddening and opaque for those who aren’t up on all the latest developments. People here will love to help you and will save you tons of time zeroing in on 1 or 2 great options your daughter could easily send apps to quickly.
This sounds crazy. A student could get rejected from the top of her list because of the fierce competition, and rejected from the bottom of her list because they think she will have better offers, and end up with 0.
I have no idea where you live or what your child plans to major in, but you’ve got time to put a few more apps out there.
Univ. Michigan RD - 2/1
Univ. Wisconsin RD - 2/1
Lafayette College RD - 1/15
WPI RD - 2/15
Hobart & William Smith RD - 2/1
Univ. New Hampshire RD - 2/1
Gettysburg RD - 1/15
The list could go on and on. Identify 2 or 3 of interest, and send off a couple more “just in case.”
Thank you, 4Gulls. I am going to use this strategy and have her send a few more applications that are hopefully safeties. It’s hard to figure out what is a safety when you factor in that it’s now RD.
Which is why you have a balanced list of several reaches, matches, and safeties - so that some rejections can be “stomached” in either category for “opposing” reasons.
I have no doubt this happens. Hence, gap years. There’s also community college and the transfer pathway, especially if you’re open to in state schools which often have transfer agreements in place. It can be a bitter pill for a high stats kid to swallow, but it does provide a possible pathway (and probably ends up saving a lot money that can be put towards grad school )
Look for schools with very high acceptance rates. If your D knows what she wants to study, she can also check the school’s website to make sure there are no programs that only admit in EA.
I’m also in Northern Virginia - and one of my S23’s soccer teammates had a “high stats” sister who did not get into any school initially. I’m not sure what her stats were and where she applied, but I remember her parents being super stressed out about it in April. However, she applied to VCU in April, got in and had an intention of transferring but instead fell in love with it and is now in her second year of their biomedical engineering program. She got a research opportunity her freshman year and was observing brain surgery…
We’re lucky that Virginia has excellent schools. George Mason has an application deadline of Feb. 1. James Madison’s deadline is Jan. 15th. I know around here there is a lot of prestige competition amongst the kids, particularly for the high stats kids, and going to Mason, JMU, Tech or VCU might seem like a let down compared to UVA or William and Mary – however, they are really excellent schools.
She’s likely to get into her safety (unless it’s Tech engineering which is not a safety, and is really weird with their acceptances), but if you’re nervous she should apply to Mason and or JMU.
Also, the NOVA to UVA or Tech route is a fantastic deal. Guaranteed admissions to UVA/Tech/Mason but at community college prices for the first two years. You do miss out on the “college experience” the first two years, which I do think is important, but as a backup if other things don’t work out, it’s pretty dang good.
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