<p>My true, total safety was UMich. I’m instate, applied in September, and I probably could have committed a felony and still been accepted.</p>
<p>Other schools that became safeties by virtue of how my applications turned out: Notre Dame and UChicago. I pretty much knew I was into ND early, being a 4th generation legacy (my grandfather called the dean of admissions to get my dad in back in the day, even though my dad could have been accepted with his own merit). And based on how well I felt about my essay, I figured I had a good shot at UChicago.</p>
<p>Total reaches: Princeton and MIT. And I’m still not sure how I got into either.</p>
<p>Your back up schools will vary depending on the type of environment you want and what major you’re looking at. I’m not doing any type of engineering (I think…) so UChicago’s lack of engineering school wasn’t an issue for me. If you’re hard core Course 2, it would be.</p>