<p>What about Vassar?</p>
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<p>Did you actually read my post? I did NOT say the OP’s son should use Holyoke as a safety (duh). I said that private schools CAN be used as safeties, that state universities are not the only options as safeties. I was merely giving examples that my kids (as females) used. </p>
<p>However, I do agree that at this point the OP should not use any schools that consider level of student interest in the admissions process as safeties, since the student apparently has not shown any interest in any school except their reach/top choice. However (as we have debated on other threads in the past couple of months), I believe that if a student does show interest over time in a school, there is nothing wrong with using a school that considers interest as a safety. It probably isn’t appropriate for this student, but routinely dismissing these schools as safety option (as ucb seems to do often) is inappropriate.</p>
<p>I do wonder where the OP has gone… seems pretty tame for a ■■■■■■■■ post, but it is something that would push our buttons. :)</p>
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<p>Actually, that is better than having zero acceptances.</p>
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<p>19% is NJIT’s four year graduation rate; the five and six year rates are 45% and 55%.</p>
<p>Less selective schools generally have lower graduation rates, particularly the four year one, due to more students needing remedial courses or being unable to handle a full college course load.</p>
<p>Yes, there are many valid reasons for NJIT’s graduation rate, but it’s something one might want to look into. It does generally mean that there’s going to be less class cohesion and school spirit. Sometimes it may just mean an engineering program is structured as a five-year program. Sometimes it means a lot of student are attending part-time and working.</p>
<p>Of course zero acceptances is better than one - but I’ve heard of tales of woe from so many kids aiming high who then are miserable in April when the only choice is the state university when they could have been enjoying themselves at the same price with a merit scholarship at some place smaller or better located. My kids didn’t apply to SUNYs at all - they had other safeties that fit their needs better.</p>
<p>“it certainly does not have to be a state university.” - Agreed. But it is late in the game, and they are usually an easy app.</p>
<p>I also like having two safeties, not only for the reasons above. Two of my kids have had their applications lost at schools that should have been safeties (UMd and UCt). When Maryland finally addressed the problem, they said they would review the application which they did <em>after</em> students had already responded to their admissions offers. The class was full and they hastily sent a rejection letter in July. We didn’t even bother telling Ct they had never sent a response. </p>
<p>One of my kids used Case as an admissions safety but it might not be a financial safety. Boston University may be low match for a kid with ivy stats. I like the idea of RPI. Penn State, Purdue and Iowa may be good safeties, if money isn’t an issue. Another option may be to look at Canadian universities-- not sure what the application deadlines are-- they have a more numbers-based admissions process than the US. UToronto comes to mind but I’m not familiar enough to say if it would be a safety.</p>
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<p>Probably because they did not start their application lists with safeties that they liked, rather than just-before-the-deadline throw-ins because the rest of their application lists were reaches.</p>
<p>As noted in some other threads, some students’ first choice schools are safeties, so their application lists just have one school.</p>
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<p>Most schools that would qualify as actual safeties won’t have that good graduation rates because they are less selective by definition. But does that mean that a top student attending a safety with a low four year graduation rate is at any higher risk of needing extra semesters than at a reach school?</p>
<p>My daughter originally sent three college applications…ALL to schools that were safety schools. She happened to like them all. They were all a distance from home, so we asked her to apply to one school closer to home, just in case she changed her mind about going far away. She added one close to home school…another sure thing. But she did ask if she could apply to one reach.</p>
<p>She got accepted at all four safety schools, and rejected at the reach. No surprises. All these safety schools had excellent graduation rates. </p>
<p>Our kid was a top 5% of her class, excellent grades, decent enough SAT scores. There were tons of colleges that were safeties.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, nationally recognized schools aren’t typically safeties. </p>
<p>My daughter’s first choice is an Ivy. What we did throughout summer and fall was nail down what she liked most about this particular Ivy and then searched for a those key traits elsewhere. She ended up with a nice list of schools with qualities she really liked. Not all are name brand schools though. However, once the deferment came, those schools started looking a lot more attractive… particularly the ones she was accepted into and are showing her a lot of attention now.</p>
<p>Act fast. Most cut-offs have either passed or are hitting next week. I agree that you state flagship school may be a good option as long as the deadline hasn’t passed. If you look up top biology programs, many public universities are high on the list.</p>
<p>Yes I read your post, intparent. Don’t you have a sense of humor? Thought that was pretty obvious, but apparently not. </p>
<p>On another vein,
Top schools are not “safeties”. Would consider them matches if scores/stats are in the top 25%. But schools with admit rates in the 20s should not be considered safety schools for anyone.</p>
<p>It was sort of funny once. If you have to tell it twice, it’s time to move on to your “A” material.</p>
<p><a href=“http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/132/thatsthejoke.jpg[/url]”>http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/132/thatsthejoke.jpg</a></p>
![http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/132/thatsthejoke.jpg[/url]](http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/132/thatsthejoke.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Sometimes people don’t read all the posts. So if the first comment is reposted, made the assption the response was overlooked. But agree, it wasn’t a laugh riot. Oh well.</p>
<p>Most of my material bombs even when I’m serious. Hence the low post count.</p>
<p>I was kinda thinkin there was another reason for the low post count…</p>
<p>Clemson continues taking applications into the early spring, or at least they used to a couple of years ago.</p>