No safety schools??? Or fee waiver

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey, I am not planning on applying to any safety schools. I think I'll just apply to all the Ivies plus Stanford and Duke. And if I get accepted to none of them I'll just kill myself out of overwhelming shame... I do not have stellar credentials, but they are pretty solid (about 2300 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA, numerous APs, lots of leadership EC).
Any feedbacks on this? </p>

<p>I just discovered that fee waiver apply to those with total income < $60,000?
Is it true? I am an only child... Does applying with fee waiver harm or improve your chances at college? Do admission officers see the waiver status anyways?</p>

<p>Also, how do I apply with fee waiver? Do I just check a box on CommonApp or is there a seperate form?</p>

<p>THanks!</p>

2

<p>What's so hard about applying to a Safety? Is it worth the risk?</p>

<p>It happens every year that someone is rejected everywhere. It's sort of a waste to think your college plans were dashed - for a year at least - after for years of hard work just because you didn't feel like researching a safety school?</p>

3

<p>You should definitely apply to safeties...if you're concerned about money schools like Case Western and Tulane have free applications, or a state school. Like magster said don't risk getting universally rejected.</p>

4

<p>Undead Russian: What are you talking about??? Campus fires? Stench of mediocrity? I am not getting the irony if there is one. </p>

<p>I guess you are right about safeties... It's just that if I really do get rejected universally, it would really be a killer. I mean, apply to 10 schools and get rejected UNIVERSALLY? Ah that's worse than getting dumped by everyone on this planet.</p>

5

<p>Its true, applying to no safeties is not a good idea. Even with perfect Sats, perfect gpa, lots of leadership etc does not mean you are guranteed especially to an ivy. In my opinion, just spend that extra 50 bucks for 1 extra college.</p>

6

<p>Go to the parents forum and read the "picking up the pieces" thread. Apply to safeties.</p>

<p>The stench of mediocrity comment would be referring to the fact that your stats, while certainly excellent for you as an individual....are nothing out of the ordinary at the schools you've listed. They will not get you in.</p>

7

<p>Apply to safeties or face the slight possibility of community college. Which I personally don't think is so bad, but around here, a community college is like the plague... and seeing as how you're applying to all ivies and no safeties, I'm willing to bet you feel that way too.</p>

8

<p>Not applying to a safety is a very bad idea. People with outstanding credentials do sometimes not make it into one of their reaches. Your list is pretty much all reaches for everyone except those who are truly extraordinary or have a hook.</p>

<p>A friend of my daughter's applied to all the Ivies plus five other elite schools -- so that is three more schools than you mention. (Her mother talked her into a safety as well.) She had stats every bit as good as yours, if not better. She got into Cornell and her safety and that's it.</p>

<p>My niece had stats similar to yours as well. She applied to fewer schools and only got into her safety and a match (for which she was a legacy). A reach where she was a fifth generation legacy -- and where previous generations of her family had been the most generous givers in the school's history -- did not accept her.</p>

<p>You could find a safety that has a good honors program. A couple match schools would also be warranted.</p>

<p>Have you researched what schools have to offer or are you simply picking a list of what you think are the most prestigious places to go? You haven't discussed why you want to go to any of these particular schools, so it is hard to know why they would want you. Do you have anything that will make your application stand out from the crowd?</p>

9

<p>UndeadRussian: Great sarcasm. I loved it! Maybe I should be bold and write an APP essay with some sarcasm... </p>

<p>Thanks Sheetmusic for the thread. Great morals---apparently everyone should apply to a safety or two. But still, that kid ended up going to MIT so that's a happy ending.</p>

<p>And great stats Diane. I realized that every applicant to Ivies and other top schools are alike. So maybe the chance of admission for these applicants is simply 1/10. And if you apply to 10, you would be expecting 1. And there is a high probability that you get a 0.</p>

<p>In a way, I did and did not pick a list of the most prestigious schools. For me PERSONALLY, location, size, and other "criteria" stundents say are sort of BS (no offense, I'm trying to be frank). I am a huge idiot, but still for me, as long as the school is a great school with great teachers, I don't care if it is on an island, in a desert, or on Mars. </p>

<p>And so far, it would appear that the Ivies and other top schools have the highest endowment, which could mean best teachers and best equipments---in my opinion the most important qualities of a school.</p>

<p>But does any one have cheerful anectotes? I mean, I can't be the only misinformed kid out there.</p>

10

<p>You can't count on cheerful anecdotes. Plan for the worst.</p>

<p>Applying to 10 schools with 10% acceptance rates does not mean you should expect 1 acceptance. If applications were selected randomly, then yes. The application process is not random. If there's something off about one application, it will be denied at all. A wonderful applicant could get into all of them. </p>

<p>I'll also point out that andi's son just got into MIT after taking an unplanned gap year. So things are finally working out fabulously - but is the happy ending worth the year of incomprehensible stress? How will you feel in August if all your friends are leaving for college and you have nowhere to go?</p>

11

<p>I don't think you can go just by endowment. I've certainly heard quite a bit of grumbling about the state of teaching at Harvard. Someone on another thread posted a link to a newpaper article about a study of student satisfaction at a consortium of 33 schools (or so -- it's been a while, so I'm foggy on details). Harvard was near the bottom of the list.</p>

<p>Do you know what you want to study? If so, you can check out course offerings, the qualifications of the professors, special programs, etc. on department's web sites. </p>

<p>Generally, you can check out things like average percentage of courses taught by TAs, student/faculty ratio, and the like. Go to princetonreview and see what the students think of their professors and such. There is also studentsreview and the "what these colleges are like" books at your local book store.</p>

<p>Have you visited any colleges? My kids both thought they didn't have a preference in terms of location, size, setting, and the like. A few visits and they found they did.</p>

<p>Finally, you might go to the college search sites at princetonreview or collegeboard. Input your stats, what you want to study, ECs that are important, etc. and see the list that comes out.</p>

<p>I don't think all applicants to the top schools are alike. There is something that causes some to be picked and others not. It could be a particular passion for a field of study or extracurricular, a different background, unusual courses, something.</p>

<p>Yes, chances are you would get in somewhere on your list. But it seems like there MAY be places on your list that you wouldn't like if you were to investigate them further (they do vary among themselves) and others not on your list you might be as happy if not happier at. And the chance of not making it in anywhere isn't one I would be comfortable taking. If your attitude was, "well, if I don't get in, I'll take a gap year, do this interesting thing and then reapply next year," that would be one thing. But the comment about killing yourself from the shame of not getting in somewhere makes it seem like you aren't taking a "que sera, sera" attitude toward the possibility.</p>