<p>Say you apply to 9-10 top colleges, what if you get rejected by all of them except, of course, your safety school? Is that possible? Or will the odds be in your favor and receive admittance to one of them?</p>
<p>I'd like to think you'd be accepted to at least one of the top 10, but that's why your safety school is there, for safety.</p>
<p>It's definitely possible, depending on your stats and the type of schools you apply to.</p>
<p>Of course, you could be rejected by every school to which you apply, including that safety. Not too likely, but it can happen. Apply to all the ivies with a 900/2400 SAT and you're pretty sure to be rejected.</p>
<p>It can happen. Just because you apply to all the ivies, that doesn't increase your chances of getting into any of them. Whether you get into one won't affect if you get into another, so it could happen that you could get rejected by all. That's why you have a back-up school, though. If you're not 100% sure you'll get into your safety, then it's not a safety.</p>
<p>It is actually possible even if you apply to all Ivies with a 2300 SAT, good essay and good ECs. This is about statistics.
Say you have a 10% chance in 4 reaches. a 50% chance in 3 matches and 80% chance in your safety. Then your chance of being rejected everywhere is 0.9x0.9x0.9x0.9x0.5x0.5x0.5, which is between 5 and 10%. That is 1 in 10 or 20 kids is just unlucky. The chance that you will be simultaneously rejected from you safety is under 2%, but it happens every year to someone in avery class of a 100 or more. The way out is to have more than one safety (this works statistically) and to show your essay to GC (to exclude that all colleges dislike you due to the same reason)</p>
<p>It can happen, if you apply to schools that are all way out of your reach. I mean, hopefully, no one makes a mistake that is as stupid as that, but sure, it can happen.</p>
<p>I've actually seen it happen.</p>
<p>It happened you a wonderful young man, Andison, here on CC- so don't assume anything</p>
<p>There's a good chance of this happening to me, actually. But I don't really mind. I'm pretty much positive I'll get into my safety and I'd be happy there. For the other 8 schools, I'm just going to give it a shot and see what happens. I don't want to pay out of state tuition unless I get into a really amazing school.</p>
<p>I've seen it happen. I knew a kid that got rejected by ~20 of the best colleges in the country (Ivies, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, NU, UC, WashU, Hopkins, Duke, Berkeley, a smattering of LAC's...). I didn't believe him when he told me, until he showed me a a pile of rejection letters. I was amazed. His dad had made him apply to all these schools, but I know the guy still had the pride to try and want to get in (at least to some of them). He ended up at UIUC engineering, and then transferred to Columbia this year, so I guess he's doing fine despite it...</p>
<p>there's this thing called luck..</p>
<p>Every year on this sight there is one or more with excellent stats who get rejected by all the colleges they apply to. Moreover, they all believed they had a "safety" which also rejected them. The error in their belief: they did not understand that ANY college that admits less than 50% of its applicants should never be considered a safety.</p>
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It happened you a wonderful young man, Andison, here on CC- so don't assume anything
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<p>Wow, really? That must have crushed him.</p>
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There's a good chance of this happening to me, actually. But I don't really mind. I'm pretty much positive I'll get into my safety and I'd be happy there. For the other 8 schools, I'm just going to give it a shot and see what happens. I don't want to pay out of state tuition unless I get into a really amazing school.
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<p>Same here. I don't mind going to my safety, but the way I see it, it's not worth going out of state unless I can go somewhere I'm super excited about.</p>
<p>I applied to 11 schools and was rejected by all but those my counselor called my safeties. Albeit, my "safeties" (his suggestion of term, not mine) included Emory and NU. And I WAS wait listed at 3 schools. But still. don't assume more applications increases your chances.</p>
<p>Andison's story is well worth revisiting - <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html?highlight=love+safety+andison%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html?highlight=love+safety+andison</a></p>
<p>Reach, Match, Safety. Just like Location, Location, Location in real estate. For some, going to a dream school is essential for their psyche. For others, they blow it off and laugh and then go to a state school.</p>