UMBC. Her very first acceptance and the only state school she applied to. She sort of forgot about it as other acceptances rolled in. She chose it over Case Western which would have been more $ even with a decent merit scholarship.
She chose Case on the day before the deadline, so I told grandparents etc. But then she slept on it, woke up, and said no- I don’t care how it “looks” … UMBC is where I want to go! and changed her mind.
She said she just felt comfortable there- likes the economic and ethnic diversity, found good friends, has excellent teachers who really have supported her/recommended her for internships etc.
Her dad and I were unsure at first- this is REALLY where you want to be? But she knew her own mind and has been very happy there. We should have listened to her from the start, I guess!
We definitely have gotten the looks - like, why there? (She was a high stats applicant with lots going on…) But I got over that pretty quickly. As long as she’s happy!
My DS24 has two ‘safety schools’ that he is really excited about and another that he could get excited about if he needed to. Of course, like every student ever, he prefers the two most selective schools he’s toured so far. I’m more concerned about yield protection than him getting waitlisted or rejected by the more selective schools. He has demonstrated interest to all three, but will it be enough to prevent him from being turned down for YP? I guess we’ll see next admissions cycle.
Not like every student ever! After getting accepted to lots of reaches and targets… it seems like my kid’s safety school is turning out to be his favorite after all.
Do the schools say that they consider level of applicant’s interest in section C7 of their common data sets? If so, then an “overqualified” applicant cannot consider them to be safeties due to potential yield protection.
In that case, try to find actual safeties that are automatic admit for his stats and definitely affordable. (Or accept that the default safety is starting at a community college.)
If you translate that into parent-speak, maybe I can answer you. As I do not work at a university, I have no idea what you’re talking about.
This is exactly why I have a problem with the whole idea of yield protection. If I bothered to take my kid on a tour, I did it because we are interested in learning more. If the school gets an application later, that means the kid liked the school enough to go there. Common data sets and algorithms have nothing to do with it to us.
If you go to section C7, you will see that “level of applicant’s interest” is “very important”. This indicates that American University is likely to practice yield protection against “overqualified” applicants who do not show sufficient interest. This matches up with its reputation on these forums in past admission cycles.
In this case, “level of applicant’s interest” is “not considered”, so an “overqualified” applicant can usually consider Arizona State University a safety for admission (indeed, it posts automatic admission criteria to the campus and most majors on its web site – though a few arts majors that require audition cannot be considered safety for any applicant).
Common Data Sets exist online for every single college. Just Google the college name and Common Data Set. It’s an incredible source of information and every parent should look closely at this data for the schools that their child may be considering.
Not every… some colleges do not make them publicly available on their web sites. A subset of the information (including the admission criteria from section C7) does appear on https://www.collegedata.com , but not everything is there.
I think this means…some schools know they are used as safeties by kids who are “overqualified” and have begun to reject them. Otherwise, the schools get used and dropped by a great deal of those students. I guess if your kid loves a school that puts them in that situation, they’d want to somehow make it clear that they’re serious about wanting to attend.
Adding to this there are plenty of ‘safety’ schools that use test scores and GPAs to accept/reject students that don’t care at all about yield protection. If you want to be accepted because your stats/scores are top - find one of those schools that you’d like. They will happily accept you. Many public state schools follow that type of admission process - at least the ones that aren’t the most selective.
The schools that are accused of yield protection admission choices are schools that are actually quite selective (usually admission rates under 40%, some under 30% or even 20%) that families/students think are actually safeties/matches when they are actually reaches for everyone.
Just because a students stats are in in the upper 50% percentile or even top 25% doesn’t mean that a school is a safety/match…especially if the school practices holistic admission and has a low acceptance rate.
If a student likes a school enough to visit and put in an application, they should also be able to show actual interest beyond those two steps. Schools will tell applicants via their Common Data Set if demonstrated interest is considered in admission decisions. Looking that information up is worthwhile, especially if the family/student has very firm ideas of the prestige level necessary to put an application in at all.
Thank you for starting this important thread about safety schools! It’s true that with the increasing competitiveness of college admissions, having a solid safety school option is crucial for every student. It’s a great reminder for families to approach the college search process from the bottom up.
Regarding safety or best outcome schools, I went to Wright state University in OH. It has been a safety with 96% acceptance rate.
For our DS24, we couldn’t find any good instate 4year public school in FL with that level of acceptance rate.
Some states are more competitive for instate students also.
We are going with FAU as a safety school with 81% acceptance rate last year.
Even then, we are thinking of backup plans just in case. DS24 had a rough freshman year due to the pandemic and working hard to bring up his GPA. He has good SAT scores in 95th percentile.
FAU summer term GPA minimum is a fit for him.
We(parents) like FAU, he prefers FIU (acceptance rate 64%).
In terms of affordability, we can manage any instate FL publics. He is also working on getting the BF scholarship to hopefully graduate debt-free. He wants to pursue Law and it is quite expensive in top schools, if he gets in.
Bottom line: as other posters have said before, safety is a good school that is easy to get in, affordable, likeable and overall a good fit for the family.
D22 (average applicant- average GPA, no ECs but good work experience in the field) applied to one small state school with no essay or LOR needed (although she did do them). It is a great choice for her major, affordable and small enough for her to feel comfortable. A complete safety (I think her GPA and state test scores guaranteed her admission, but acceptance rate is >85%). She just started her 2nd year and loves it. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. The smaller class sizes allow her to know her professors and not be overlooked (as she often was in high school because she won’t fight for “air-time”).
S23’s (exceptional applicant - salutatorian, 3 sport varsity captain/recruitable in 1 sport D1 and other sport D3, academic and school-wide leadership, multiple awards, research in chosen field, outstanding LORs) list was built entirely on safeties with a few matches as he was looking for “fit” over rankings. He got into all of the schools he applied to with great merit awards and is now a month into his first year at a large OOS flagship with close to a 90% acceptance rate and could not be happier. Although his school was a safety, it’s one of the top-ranked in his major, has a great honors program, and is in a location that allows him to spend every weekend hiking and camping. He is in love with his school and so are we.
FAU and FIU are both rolling admission, so it is best to apply as early as possible, since they or their popular majors will get more selective as they fill up.
Getting an early admission through rolling admission at an affordable school turns it into a safety.
When we started the college search process with S24 we started touring schools that were reaches (for all). The unpredictability made his college list long and the stress level high. This summer we shifted his focus to finding one school that was a safety (cost and admittance) that he would be thrilled to attend.
It took several visits before S24 fell in love with one safety school and one target with early rolling admission. He got into the rolling admission already. This cut down his list from around 20 to 7. After stressing about getting into college most of high school, he enters senior year more relaxed about college applications then I could have ever imagined.
That’s nice @Curium245. We heard FAU releases 1st cut on 10/1. Hoping for a positive outcome. If not, we have to apply to our next set of schools before 11/1 early deadline.
S23 Got his first acceptance in July or August ( a school that he would have been happy at, just not in his top three) and into his top 3 choices within a 24-hour period the second week of October while we were visiting the school he ultimately attended. He was able to have a GREAT senior year while also having a lot of time to weigh his choices.
Having some safety schools on your list is important. If they are your top choices and have rolling/early acceptance, even better.