Is there a link that list the various abbreviations and commonly used terms on College Confidential?
Just recently figured out that “OP” means original poster. Still learning the meanings behind "safety’’ and “reaches”.
A safety is a college where your child’s stats put them squarely in the 25%ile of admitted applicants, which has the program or major your child wants, which your family can afford AND which your child is willing to attend. A reach is a school where your child is not necessarily in the top quartile of applicants but which s/he has somewhat of a chance of being accepted to, maybe because they have strong EC’s (extracurricular activities), they play a desired sport or have some other talent, ability or “hook” to get them admitted. Some schools, like the Ivies, are reaches for everyone and others are reaches for a particular student depending on their personal profile.
There’s an Abbreviations thread in the pinned threads in this forum.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52585-abbreviation-thread.html#latest
For the one page summary:
http://www.collegeconfidential.com/common-acronyms-abbreviations-used-college-confidential-forums/
@techmom99, @patsmom, and @skieurope - Thank you!! I should have asked this question months ago!
Oh, I almost forgot, what’s the meaning of “bump” on a post reply?
It “bumps” (“bring up my post”) up the thread to the top of the “latest posts” list.
@jym626 - Thank you!!
Just note, that the moderators consider excessive bumps to be tantamount to spam and will act accordingly. The Original Poster needs to give people time to answer. 
Especially on the Parents Forum where many people only check in once a day! Not me sadly.
BTW there are a lot of definitions of safeties. Some insist that you have a 100% chance of getting in - so according to them, you need a school that admits solely by stats or that has rolling admissions or some other form of early admission. I used to joke that U of Chicago was my younger son’s safety after he got in EA, even though it was a super-reach for him. His original list had two safeties. He dropped one safety from his list after that acceptance, but kept the other one which was strong in his major and likely to give him merit aid.
There’s a pinned post right here on the parent forum.
Once a college delivers an admission and FA/scholarship decision, its classification changes, regardless of what its pre-application reach/match/likely/safety estimate was:
- Admit, affordable => becomes a safety.
- Admit, too expensive => becomes out of reach.
- Reject => becomes out of reach.
- Waitlist => becomes super-reach.