<p>Stanford
UCLA
UC Berkeley
College of William and Mary
USC</p>
<p>6 MATCHES</p>
<p>UCSB
UC Davis
UCSD
Pepperdine
Boston College
Syracuse</p>
<p>1 SAFETY</p>
<p>UCSC</p>
<p>GRAND TOTAL: 12 schools
I'm pretty sure that I can get into some of my matches too and don't think I need more than that one safety, but maybe I am being a tad stupid. I think that UC Davis would have been a safety if it wasn't for CA's recent budget cuts so I don't know how the cuts will affect me.</p>
<p>If so, you need to find a rock-solid financial safety. That is, a place that you can afford without any financial aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid. This will be a CCC, CalState, or UC depending on your income.</p>
<p>Whether or not you need financial aid, you need to be very clear about your academic safety school(s). Are you guaranteed admission anywhere because of your HS coursework, grades, and ACT/SAT scores? If not, you have only found matches. You need to locate a place that has to admit you.</p>
<p>If you can’t find a place that you can afford, that has to admit you, that offers the major you want, and that you are willing to attend if everything else goes wrong, then you need to think up a Plan B. What will you do next year if you aren’t in college because you didn’t get into any school(s) that you like that you can afford?</p>
<p>Well, the UC’s are my financial safety. While I am not guaranteed to get in anywhere, UC Statfinder says I have a 97% chance at UCSC and a 90% chance at UC Davis.</p>
<p>All the schools you are applying to are great. No worries there. I guess you could say you applied to too many, but all that really means is more application fees. I must ask though. Which one is your #1 choice?</p>
<p>I can’t say that I honestly have a first choice, but I do have schools I simply love and adore and they all feel like my number one choice. The rest I definitely like.</p>
<p>Pepperdine, UCSC, UCSB, and Stanford are all beautiful and are definitely the environments I love. UCLA seems to be the exact opposite of what I want on paper, but after practically being forced to see it I realized it was a great fit (besides the city around it.) However, I have only visited 9/12 of these schools.</p>
<p>IF I had to pick one at this very moment, I would probably choose Pepperdine. However, if I got into them all I would probably choose Stanford (not because of its name.)</p>
<p>^ I’d say you have your answer. Add a financial safety (which BTW should also virtually eliminate that 3% chance that you’ll have no acceptances next April). If that additional school is rolling admissions, so much the better.</p>
<p>Okay. Well thanks for clearing that up I guess. I was just confused as to why people were saying that when I stated the UC’s were financial safeties for me. Oh well. No big deal.</p>
<p>Well you really have no problems. My only advice is pick the place that’s best for you. That sounds really obvious but after listening to a lot of people tell me what they think of a school, it didn’t always match up to what I thought of it. Trust me though, don’t expect the decision to be easy. It took me a while running it through my head, but when I knew, I knew I knew.</p>