Thank you everyone!!! I appreciate ALL of the information, thoughts, and advice!! We are going to use so much of what you all shared!!! Thank you!!!
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What makes a safety a safety?? <<
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you are 100% sure you will get accepted, 100% sure you can afford it, and 100% sure it has your major.
Adding
You are 100% sure after all of the dust settles, if it the only option standing that you would be happy to attend.
Grinnell is generous with merit with very strong academics. It’s very selective but should be pretty ‘safe’ for your son.
Fit at Grinnell matters, similar to schools like Haverford, Oberlin, Kenyon. I’d hesitate to call it safe for any high stat student. I believe the acceptance rates for class of '20 at Grinnell was reported to be 18%, not a safety for anyone. Back when my older son was applying, Grinnell was the hidden gem, with acceptance rates above 40%. Applications have increased and it is definitely no longer hidden.
I think Grinnell is on the Colleges that Change Lives list : )
Clark in Worcester is a great school and gives merit aid. College of Wooster is another one. Both on CTCL.
I wonder what people are referring to when they write “premed.” Not that many schools have actual premed programs/majors. I think it would be a shame to limit applications to schools that have a premed program, and it looks like your son is not doing that, so that’s good.
He should apply to UMN-TC. Because of tuition reciprocity between MN and WI, it’s a lot less expensive than the other options on your list. Medical school is even more expensive than undergraduate.
Does this mean a true safety should have 100% acceptance rate? How else could you be 100% certain?
So only those in the “auto-acceptance” thread?
A NJ val with NMSF could not count Rutgers (58%) as a safety?
I am genuinely asking, not arguing the opposite.
Some state schools do have automatic acceptances for certain ranges of GPA and standardized test scores. EA and rolling admissions are my favorite safeties, because you do find out from them before word from other colleges are in.
That said, we did not believe a safety had to be 100% safe. If worst had come to worst there would have been a gap year and a new list. But both kids had at least one acceptance by late November/early December.
we applied to a full-tuition automatic merit safety. if they guarantee the scholarship, then by extension they would guarantee admission.
i should have clarified that the 100% certainty of acceptance really comes when you get the letter. until that moment the best you can say is that you are reasonably certain to get accepted. so you should apply to your safety ASAP to get your decision ASAP.
a NJ NMSF val could count Rutgers as a safety but should still apply as soon as the application is open. and even then, i would still keep an eye on deadlines for other safeties until the Rutgers decision comes. but if the student cannot afford Rutgers even as an instate student, it is not a safety.
honestly i would not even put “happy to attend” as a safety requirement. the financial situation of many families dictate that the approach should be, “if this is the best we can afford then you have to make up your mind to be happy there.” being happy to go there before you start is not an iron-clad requirement IMO. acceptance, affordability, and availability of major are.
for many families community college is the safety, so if that’s the case then yes that is pretty much 100% guaranteed admission.
Ok good, that is what I thought… a bit influenced by the safety-definition-banter in another thread. Most important point is that excluding financial constraints, there is some objective relativism in the definition of academic admission safety.
yeah. if you apply to a safety that offers auto-money that makes it affordable, then they will obviously accept you. that was our case and even then, i had him apply in August. i didn’t care that i was reasonably certain, i wanted that acceptance letter + scholarship offer in my hand ASAP.
CWRU in Cleveland is the place to be if pre Med is the track. They will give great merit too. Dont treat it as a safety though as they are very protective of yield.
Again, thank you all so much for your input. I am continuing to read all of the replies and taking notes along the way! This process is daunting!
Perhaps I missed - Have you run any Net Price Calculators for the colleges he is interested in? Do you have a figure in mind for what you can spend per year? You don’t need to tell us what it is, but having that figure can help prioritize colleges in his search.
If he really doesn’t want to go to Madison or Minn because they are too big, there are smaller schools in the Wis system that are very good in certain areas. A UW-Eau Claire student was selected as a Rhodes Scholar a few years ago. Milwaukee has a very good PT program. Superior has good stuff.
DD is also a Wisconsin resident, plans to go to med school, and while we can afford 100% of UW Madison, she needs merit aid to attend an LAC. Her test scores aren’t as high, but her other stats are similar to your son’s. She originally had schools like UNC Chapel Hill and Johns Hopkins on her list, but I convinced her that even if she got admitted, she likely wouldn’t get enough merit aid. Highly selective schools don’t seem to offer as much merit aid because they don’t have to. We concentrated on LAC’s ranked roughly 40-100. She applied to Macalester, Lewis and Clark, Willamette, and U of San Francisco. So far Willamette has offered $23,000 in merit. We are waiting to hear from the others. Oh, and I strongly recommend looking at UM Twin Cities. We liked their College of Biological Sciences and their pre-med advising better than Madison’s. While we toured Madison, we didn’t like their divided biology program (you can major in biology through CALS or L&S), and their pre-med advising didn’t seem as strong. She chose not to apply to Madison.
Willamette is great for kids interested in medical careers – they’re right across the street from a big teaching hospital, and lots of kids intern/work part-time there. And across the street in the other direction is the state capitol building, so lots of future attorneys & legislators, too!
I can only speak to our experience with Rice U. A respected person in admissions told us that they reject close to 1000 valedictorians a year and over 100 students with perfect SATs. That’s how competitive it is…so when you ask about reaches/safeties…you need to be aware that even with perfect scores…a reach is still a reach…for all.
Tulane is a slam dunk with his stats. Likely $32k per year scholarship if not more. Biggest issue with Tulane and Emory will be yield management, but his visit to Tulane combined with good essays should defend against that.