Yes, also not a fan of ED but think it can be the right choice for the right kid. D20’s ED choice was her first choice school, it looked affordable according to all our research/NPC inputs and she is the kind of kid who wanted certainty asap in her college admission process.
If any of those pieces had been different, we wouldn’t have signed the ED agreement. As it was, she was accepted in early November her senior year, got more merit aid than was projected and never looked back. Made the rest of the year no-stress when it came to college.
Not trying to change your mind about our son’s college list (sounds very thoughtful) - just wanted to make a suggestion for you to choose whether or not to take on board.
Four safeties is a lot. Unless each of those safety applications have super light/non existent supplemental essays requirements, maybe have him pick 2 of those and leave him more time to work on his match/reach applications? Ultimately, he can only go to one school - if he only got into his safeties are there two that are head and shoulders higher than the other two options? How many safety choices will he need?
D23 applied to 4 schools total: all academic safeties (one of them a financial reach). Each safety school had at least one (sometimes up to 3) supplemental essays/short questions. Those can take a lot longer to work on than you think and the shorter the writing space - the harder it can be to write well.
Obviously if this advice unhelpful - feel free to ignore. I just feel for great students who find mid-process the supplemental essays across 10+ applications to be overwhelming and wanted to share our experience.
I am concerned about applying to fewer than 10 because I don’t want him to be shut out.
He wants to attend college, but if he gets shut out, he will lose the motivation to apply again (no interest in a gap year), so he needs to apply widely and to a big enough number to minimize the chance of a shutout.
I think we are using common terminology without agreement on the definitions.
Safety schools (as commonly understood on CC and elsewhere) are schools that basically guarantee admission for the individual student, which are financial affordable, that the student would be content to attend.
By that definition - no one would need 4 safeties to guarantee not being shut out.
While I wanted to clarify that for the thread generally, as I said above - feel free to ignore my advice.
I know nothing about recruitment. If he is recruited for a safety or match school is there any doubt he would get in? Isn’t that the point of recruitment.
Pre reads are actually a formal process by which the coach has the admissions staff review the applicants academic suitability. If a student is supported by a coach for a pre read and is given an academic “likely” the student would typically be asked to commit to apply ED and given a deadline to state their intent.
Is your student and or your family prepared to allow student to apply ED? If not most of the benefit of being recruited will likely be lost as the coach will move his/her support to those prepared to actually commit.
This is a general set of comments and varies a bit depending on NCAA division and sport.
Are you familiar with the recruiting process? If not you may want to seek out the advice of those that have been through it before finalizing your list.
I didn’t provide a list on purpose so that I could avoid feeding the needless criticism. I also didn’t include all of his priorities on purpose for the same reason.
I think this list is right. Doubly true if they colleges haven’t been visited. Second choice majors and other interests may change over the next 10 months that make today’s safety less desirable. Why visit the four safeties now to narrow it down. Spend the time on applications instead and visit after all the variables are known.
My son’s counselor calls these “likelies.” Not guaranteed but an excellent chance. I think 4 isn’t too many. My son has 2 on his list, and his counselor is pushing for a third.
I agree that it makes sense in the current admissions climate to have more safeties/likelies than applicants even 3 or 4 years ago. Advice from current seniors to my daughter’s class was apply to several safeties because it’s absolutely possible to be denied from all matches/reaches. There are several kids she knows of who only got into the one safety they applied to. My D24 will take a similar approach to your son. I think right now she has 4 likelies, 2 matches and 3 reaches on her list, and it may evolve between now and the fall.
I think that one should have as many safeties/likelies on ‘the list’ as you want. If you want more safeties/likelies, then do that. If you’re fine with just 1 safety/likely, then do that.
There’s more than 1 way to skin a cat. And the decision factors for 1 family will be different than what the important factors are for another family.
For example, D24 does not have ANY reaches on her list. I don’t feel bad about that and neither does she. Affordability and ability to get in AND finding the right “fit” are important decision factors for our situation. And we are chasing merit aid, will not qualify for hardly any financial aid, and D24 doesn’t have a perfect GPA.
I loved occidental, although my engineering kid questioned why we were there. Thought it was a lovely school and had a fantastic tour with a bright and engaged senior. Enjoy!
Our counselor uses this term, too. They say that there aren’t really many true safeties left (just the guaranteed admissions programs in-state count as safeties). We don’t have guaranteed admissions in-state programs where I live, so only likelies, matches, and reaches.
Just an FYI pre reads typically all have the same level of detail so your experience sounds a bit odd. The process is fairly standardized requiring…
Your high school transcript, including final year grades for junior year.
Your senior year classes.
Your standardized test scores (if you have them!).
This information is passed along to the athletics liaison within the college’s admissions office who will typically tell the coach thumbs up, down, or on the fence. The coach will then adjust their recruiting targets accordingly.
I only share this so that you properly asses the level of interest you are getting and the actual impact and benefit it might have for your son. A “less detailed” interaction with a coach is not tantamount to being recruited and will likely be meaningless in the application process. Being recruited is a very specific process that has benefits but also places some requirements on the student athlete that should be considered when constructing a list of schools.
I know you say you are aware of this process so I offer this for those less informed so as not to be confused by your nomenclature.
Already been through this twice now, but perhaps other people reading can benefit from your description.
I would add the caveat to your comments that even after all of your bullet lists occurs, for parents reading, things can still derail the acceptance. Injuries can happen, coaches can focus on another athlete for another reason (usually a fit one, particularly if your scholar/athlete is still developing), etc. Going through the pre-read/official visit process successfully is not a guarantee of admission until the acceptance contract is signed by both parties.
I have been fortunate to have easy access to people who know this process far better than I do, and this has been their advice.
I feel like S24 is a bit of a late bloomer, and the pandemic precautions we’ve had to take combined with homeschooling (not the ideal learning environment for him, but we were unable to switch to something else freshman year as we had planned because of Covid) haven’t helped.
The past few months, though, he’s started exploring some new hobbies. It really is great to see him pursing new skills and activities!
However… his latest kick is the tin whistle. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is the instrument that plays the Shire theme in the Lord of the Rings movies. When played by a novice, however, it sounds like a cross between a recorder and a police whistle.
It is funny, though, because my 10-year-old son (who is non-verbal, and has pretty severe autism, and usually struggles with sensory issues) LOVES it. When S24 starts playing the whistle (quite badly) younger S laughs and claps and dances. So, I can’t complain about it too much; it is positive for both of them. (But maybe I’ll invest in some good earplugs…)
Super helpful to understand now that your son’s list doesn’t contain any true safeties as they are defined on CC. My advice upthread completely unhelpful in this case.
I would strongly disagree with this counselor. There are plenty of safeties out there in the college admission landscape - unless you are only looking at schools in the Top 50-75 or so.
There are literally over 3.5k colleges/universities in the US - and most schools, including ones ‘ranked’ 76 and higher accept more applicants than they reject. The average acceptance rate across schools is something like 70% or higher.
Now - schools ranked outside the Top 50-75 schools may hold absolutely no interest to an applicant. Fair enough. But that doesn’t make the statement “There are no safeties outside of in-state, rack and stack admitting publics” true.
And for the record - this isn’t directed towards you @anon87843660. You are comfortable with your list of schools, you have a clear plan, you believe you have all the information you need. This post is for people coming to this thread in the future so that they don’t misunderstand and think that counselor information is accurate.
If he ends up with multiple “safety” admissions, then he’ll have the ability to visit those next Spring, consider what he might have learned about them in the many months since applying, how his own perceptions might have changed after learning more about colleges,… and choose the best fit.
If reaches/likelies don’t work out for whatever reason - then it’s important not to feel “stuck” with unnecessarily limited safety options.
So, I can’t complain about it too much; it is positive for both of them. (But maybe I’ll invest in some good earplugs…)
My advice upthread completely unhelpful in this case.