<p>This advice has become a mantra on CC, and it makes a lot of sense to me. </p>
<p>I'm curious, though, as to what parents' actual experiences have been with their children and safeties. For example: Has every kid been able to find one or more safeties they truly love? Are these safeties as safe as expected? Finally, how many kids end up attending their safeties, and how does it ultimately work out for them?</p>
<p>My son will be attending his safety as he only applied to 3 colleges. His reaches rejected him. He's excited, however, and we were impressed with his safety when we visited. However, we wish it were a smaller college.</p>
<p>I hope parents who currently have students attending their safety will weigh in.</p>
<p>I second this mantra.</p>
<p>My oldest fell in love with her safety - a small midwestern college. She visited twice, did an overnight, talked to the coach, and felt completely comfortable there. They gave her a nice merit scholarship that was very difficult to turn down. Had she not been accepted to the school she's attending, I think she would have chosen it over all her other more selective choices. She really felt badly having to say no, because part of her really wanted to go there. Now she hopes to perhaps come back as a professor some day.</p>
<p>My son will be in the app pool next year, and will have a state university as a safety. We feel fortunate to live in California, with so many good state u's.</p>
<p>editrix, I am clearly part of the still learning class here on cc but I do want to share at least one thing I've come to understand. The corollary to "love thy safety" verse is to "build your college list from the bottom up." I am positive that within 2 minutes of looking you can run across several posters, students and parents, who failed to follow this basic rule.</p>
<p>Now -they may have had a "safety" . Some in-state public, usually, that at least the student or the parents or both felt was not a viable option. (Then how is that a safety?) The rest of their choices were matches-schools where their stats placed them well within the accepted range of students and where their stats generally placed them at the 50%-75% level, and reaches where their stats were more or less at or around the 50% level or slightly below.</p>
<p>A lot of the reaches have horrible numbers,and we have all seen the lottery aspect, but folks- 30% 40% 50% and even 60% acceptance rates at these so called matches where your kid is clearly in the top half doesn't mean your kid will get in. Several didn't and it ain't pretty. Go look at the Bucknell board . Those kids got slaughtered.</p>
<p>I think I'm going to view this process very conservatively and for D, matches will be treated like reaches and reaches like buying a lottery ticket, cash option please.</p>
<p>P.S. Taking my own advice D's safeties are USN&WR 8? ranked school with automatic merit calculations for given GPA's and class ranking and an OOS Public Flagship Honor's College that is financially doable without aid of any kind. As long as she doesn't change her mind-or fall madly in love with a stat or $ lottery or reach I'm looking good. :cool:</p>
<p>Another reason to love your safety is time release prestige. My alma mater is a lot better known now than it was when I went there. It was a superb school but was relatively unknown outside of academic circles. I'm not sure I would get in now with the same application contents I had then.</p>
<p>"Now -they made have had a "safety" . Some in-state public, usually, that at least the student or the parents or both felt was not a viable option. "</p>
<p>I think it goes without saying: Don't apply to any school you would not be happy attending. </p>
<p>I'm bewildered when I hear " I only got into X,Y, and Z and I don't really even want to go to any of them."</p>
<p>My son took something of a risk. His "safety" only accepted about 40% of applicants...and while his stats were top 25%ile, it was still something of a risk...he knew it, but he couldn't fall in love with any of the other options(and we looked). IF he gets into the Honors College at the "safety" with merit money(he already has been accepted) it could make for an interesting choice...as the school offers a location that none of the other choices do....He quite likes the school, in fact, it just happens to be the least selective of his options...</p>
<p>I guess that is the important thing, that the kids identify a less selective, but appealing for other reasons option...and then figure out all the reasons they WOULD want to go there!!</p>
<p>In the case of my college search, my safety was actually my number one choice! I'd fallen in love with the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology after visiting and reading all about it. Funny thing is that it's acceptance rate is pretty high relative to the other schools I applied to (Cornell, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, etc.).</p>
<p>But those more selective schools didn't have "it," that one thing that really grabbed me and made me love the place. Rose did...there's something about the small community and dedication to teaching that really stuck in my mind.</p>
<p>So I guess I can say that I've been a lucky one...the least selective of the schools I applied to (maybe with the exception of GA. Tech...) was my favorite!</p>
<p>D was accepted at all of her reaches and waitlisted at her safety...I'm not sure there really are safeties anymore unless you are happy with your state U that has to accept all qualified applicants. The Tufts Syndrome seems to be more common now. I think we saw that with several of our board regulars this year.</p>
<p>love thy safety has been our mantra even before we started applying. We took our son to UT, talked to the dean and he even sat in a class. That summer they had a honors weekend and we made sure that he went.</p>
<p>We were going to follow the plan Txdad has outlined in the thread,"How to make your safety a dream school".</p>
<p>Bandit_TX have you hear from Pton?</p>
<p>I'm really appreciating my college counselor after reading results on this site. We are really taught to generate thoughtful and appropriate college lists. I can't believe how many people have huge gaps, they apply to HYP and then a state school they don't even like. Maybe CC can do a page on formulating a list. Or is there one that many just didn't read?</p>
<p>Nothing yet from Pton or Amherst. The packages go to Wyoming address, so it will take longer. I think she's hoping to NOT have any more choices:)</p>
<p>suze ,there are many, many "list making" posts but our little Johnnys and little Janes are invincible and adorable and we parents are proud of them and, well....things just get a little skewed in favor of wishful thinking. The acceptance percentage cards are always going to fall our way if we are talking about our little Johnny. But we'll be just be extra safe and add another reach-y match or two. Guess what? Not going to happen. Little Johnny gets to choose between Y-vonne's School of Cake Decorating and the state school down the road, without the honors program. It happened to a lot of good folks this year with great kids with great stats and it's "a might spooky".</p>
<p>Can I say that this is the ONE thing I wish I knew before I started the college search? I'm a "smart kid" and everyone just recommended Ivies (including my GC) and UW. So, I was out on my own when it came to things, and I tried really hard. I picked schools I thought were a good series of safeties, matches, and reaches and schools that looked good on paper.</p>
<p>But, sweet lord, I didn't know how much I wouldn't want to attend some.</p>
<p>An example is the school my dad fell in love with. It gave me quite a bit of aid and made it about 13k a year to attend. Its a very nice looking school with great sports, but that isn't my thing. I'm an "eccentrically academic" (one of my teacher's words XD) person and this school was not for me. I didn't know that before though. Then I applied to two state schools (that WERE NOT UW [too many friends with bad experiences here]), Lewis & Clark, Reed, and Whitman. </p>
<p>L&C did not give me enough aid to make it a viable option and I was sure I'd be rejected from Reed (and maybe even from Whitman). And I was horrified at the prospects. The thought of attending to LAC my dad loves was almost depressing, and the state schools kind of intimidate me. It was then I realized that I hadn't applied to enough schools that actually made me excited. </p>
<p>Then Reed came with a surprising aid package and I can finally breath easy. However, this is after nearly a month and a half of feeling totally hopeless. I'm still waiting for Whitman, but the knowledge that Reed is there is an absolute relief.</p>
<p>If I'd applied smart to safeties (and esp. financial safeties) life would have been far easier.</p>
<p>So have we experienced a massive overflow effect this year from top tier to second tier which will push the safety tier down to yet another stratum? (Does anyone have an old Joy of Cooking where they show you how to pour a jeroboam of champagne into a pyramid of glasses?) Im statistically challenged and dont really understand why this is happening. I understand that many schools are receiving a greatly increased number of applications. However, the total number of kids attending college has not increased in the same proportion, so isnt it reasonable to expect lower matriculation rates? And more movement on the waitlists? Do schools include waitlist acceptances in their acceptance percentage rates?</p>
<p>In other words, why cant these kids get into Bucknell or Kenyon or Skidmore or any one of a number of schools that were respectable less selectives 2 years ago? Perhaps its the manipulation of the waitlist that is causing a disproportionate upside bubble and when the deposits start getting sent and spaces open up, offers trickle down to the next tier.</p>
<p>I would predict that the students will counter this phenomena is to apply to more and more maybe 12-15 instead of 6-8, thus spiraling the whole percentage rate system totally out of control. Maybe its time for a clearing house to control the number of applications submitted by each student. </p>
<p>I would also like to add my corollary to Love Thy Safety. Aim High. The resulting list may just lack a middle nothing in between very safe and very selective.</p>
<p>D. is in at Oberlin, and, while she likes it a lot, is still seriously considering her safety (and it's a TRUE safety: > 70% admit rate), UVM Honors College. She loves Burlington, the proximity to skiing, the liberal student body, etc. What she doesn't like about Oberlin is the lack of a college town.</p>
<p>So, she may well be one who actually goes to her safety. We are out of state for UVM, but it'll still be somewhat less than the other schools on her list (Skidmore, Pitzer, Rochester, Occidental and Oberlin), and, she got a small scholarship.</p>
<p>I also am amazed at the number of colleges the CCers have applied to this year. They are making schools like Pitzer and occidental MUCH more competitive than in the past, with lower acceptance rates. I'm sure the same thing is true for the "near Ivies." So, Momrath, I'm thinking that the waitlists will eventually have to yield more acceptances?? (D. is also waitlisted at Tufts, Brandeis, and Vassar!)</p>
<p>Morals here? LOVE YOUR SAFETY! And, maybe, don't give up on the waitlist, even if the school has traditionally taken only a few?</p>
<p>I would like to see schools publishing a different set of data for acceptance rates. </p>
<p>Our process went about as planned, didn't get in to the reach got into all but one match where she was waitlisted, got into all safeties, the one she likes best she got good fin aid and their honors college.</p>
<p>But what would have been more useful was data saying students with 1500+ had 100% acceptance rate, 1400-1500 80% etc. I saw something on one of the California threads that makes me think the California schools publish these statistics. When you see your child is at the top of those published stats you tend to think safety, seeing that they accept 60% of the applicants with those numbers gives you a more realistic understanding.</p>
<p>I will throw out DD's word on this:</p>
<p>She would say not "Love thy Safety", rather "Don't love any school until you get in". The safeties are the schools (plural, I actually think they are should be plural) that you spend the most thought and time on during the process, not the least time. Build the list from the safeties upward, if that works for the student, but however it is done, more thought should be put into the safeties than any other schools.</p>
<p>Whitney touched on something that we emphasized - finances and indirectly distance. We were happy to send our daughter off 1300 miles for a special experience, schools that met most or all her criteria. But for her safeties, we suggested closer to home (still a 7 hour drive, so not that close), and generous with merit aid.
DD added "disaster" safeties, schools she wasn't overly excited about, but could swing even if I lost my job, or her Dad got sick, or she was in an accident and needed to be closer - I thought that showed great maturity and good sense.</p>
<p>cangel, you have been and remain my parent hero on this board. I'm trying to morph myself into you for at least this next year, at least on this college stuff (you can keep the DRE's :eek: , and anything to do with catheters). I'm slow but I am learning. With me, and I think the majority of the CC parents of juniors this year, I don't think we would have ever believed that the system was "as it is" without witnessing this in real time. Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall with rejection, deferral then acceptance, then sorry aid ,then surprise a reach comes in ,then more pain when the aid package leaves a bill owing that at first glance you thought was the gross national debt of Brazil , and not your bill-it has taught me more than I can put into words. Today anyway. LOL.</p>
<p>I want to thank all of you for sharing the lessons you've learned. My youngest S is a high school junior and different than my other two
(#1S was teacher's dream and into all top schools; #2 had a passion which pushed him into his ED school). #3 is a great student with great extracurriculars but uninterested in college search (but more interested in girls to our dismay) and no passions. He is not applying to HYPS but he will need to find several safeties. I can't wait for third and youngest to be done and into college.</p>