<p>I'm just curious. Did any of your children get rejected from one of their safeties? Mine did. There is no such thing as a sure thing these days, LOL.</p>
<p>My son did some transfer applications his freshman year at Penn (ultimately stayed at Penn). He applied to his safety again- U of Georgia- and was rejected. He thought I was kidding when I called and told him. I guess they didn’t like that he turned them down the first time! :)</p>
<p>I have been accepted to all of my safeties but I know that some often reject over-qualified applicants that did not demonstrate (enough) interest. Could your child be one of these?</p>
<p>For colleges, the percentage of students that agree to attend/accept admissions offers is very important and they do not want to waste a spot on students that most likely do not plan on attending.</p>
<p>She showed interest, but as you say, perhaps not enough. I’d like to think that – that they thought she was overqualified. Yeah, we’ll go with that. 
She seems happy where she is, though, at one of her <em>matches</em>. We’ll find out the full scoop soon, she’ll be home for the holidays this weekend.</p>
<p>S applied to a few schools where he had hoped to get significant merit aid – he didn’t even get accepted at a few of them, even tho his stats were far above their “average” accepted students. He was happy where he attended & graduated on significant merit awards, so that is all that matters. Most kids can only attend one school at a time anyway. :)</p>
<p>OP, the school was probably protecting its “yield” and most likely did think that the probability of your D selecting that college was very low due to her higher stats.</p>
<p>Is this for a transfer (“She seems happy where she is”)? I think that puts a different light on it.</p>
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<p>This certainly does happen, though some schools will just waitlist overqualified applicants, then just wait & see what happens. If the applicant accepts a place on the waitlist, it signals some interest. If the applicant stays on the waitlist, it probably means that applicant didn’t get into schools s/he finds more desirable. At that point they can contact the applicant, ask if s/he would accept a place in the entering class if offered, and if the answer is “yes,” make the offer. It’s a more precise yield management tool than simply rejecting the overqualified.</p>
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Merit aid doesn’t always go to the kids with the highest stats. Lots of schools give only “merit” aid because they don’t have enough money to meet 100% of need; so they parcel out the available money to kids they want & whom they calculate are likely to attend if offered the merit award, but are probably unable to attend for financial reasons without the “merit” award. That’s really a form of need-based aid, allocated on the basis of “merit” as modified by likelihood of attendance. </p>
<p>Other schools use merit aid to tweak their SAT medians so as to bolster their US News rankings. It may not be worth it to them to go after the highest-stats kids, who might need big merit awards to reel them in. Why spend $20K (X 4 years = $80K) to attract one applicant whose combined SAT CR+M scores are 150 points above your 75th percentile, if you can get 2 applicants with SAT scores 20 points above your 75th percentile by offering each of them $10K (X 4 years)? The latter helps your SAT medians more. This is not widely understood, but the kid who is just over the 75th percentile is just as valuable to the school from the perspective of managing its entering class stats as the kid who is well over the 75th percentile.</p>
<p>Guess they weren’t safeties then, were they?</p>
<p>OK…so this was a long, long time ago… my DH was accepted by MIT and rejected by UCONN. I still find that funny. </p>
<p>BTW, he graduated from MIT with a Math degree too, so the MIT acceptance wasn’t inappropriate.</p>
<p>My sister’s step son got rejected at SUNY Binghamton in 2009. He had a 34 ACT and was a double legacy (both his parents went there.) He’s a junior at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>S’s lab partner was rejected from USC but accepted at UPenn. He graduated from Boston U. USC was his 1st choice.</p>
<p>Don’t think state schools consider legacies at all. Glad that step son is at Vanderbilt–have read & heard great things about that U.</p>
<p>HImom, actually Binghamton does consider legacy. They are even put in a separate pile. </p>
<p>He wasn’t disappointed at all as he had his heart set on Vandy. Very happy there and they gave him buckets of $$$$, too.</p>
<p>Life is so fascinating! Must be he wasn’t meant for that path! Wonder if he did anything different for that application so he wouldn’t be accepted? I know that my S didn’t turn in many parts of many of his apps, which jeopardized many of his apps.</p>
<p>A school that lists “level of applicant’s interest” as an admissions criterion (see section C7 of the common data set) probably does not like being used as a safety.</p>
<p>Public schools are more likely to disregard “level of applicant’s interest” than private schools.</p>
<p>It’s not really a safety college </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/493318-dont-forget-apply-safety-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/493318-dont-forget-apply-safety-college.html</a> </p>
<p>for that applicant if the applicant can be rejected. Yes, I have heard of applicants being rejected by colleges that they thought they could get into–I hear about that every year here on CC–but I haven’t heard of anyone being rejected by a college that was carefully checked out for its admission safety before the application season began. It’s always a good idea to anchor a college application list with a college that is a sure-bet admission prospect, offers desirable programs, is affordable, and is likable to the applicant. Different applicants have different safety colleges, and many applicants will be admitted by colleges that are somewhat a reach for them, but it should be possible for every applicant to find a sure-bet safety.</p>
<p>On that note – I see many threads here on CC where people (including parents) call schools safeties that should never be called safeties. A friend of mine just told me that she considers USC a safety for her daughter. I’m sorry, I don’t care how good your stats are, but a school with an acceptance rate of 23% is not a safety (or a match) for anyone. mstee, I’m sorry about your kid’s rejection, and I don’t know what his/her situation is, but I do think that students should be uber conservative when it comes to selecting a safety.</p>
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<p>Acceptance rates may be misleading. USNWR lists CSU East Bay as having a 22% acceptance rate, but it is a non-impacted CSU which admits everyone who meets CSU eligibility criteria (which is easy to determine before applying (so you know if it is a safety or out-of-reach), though obviously many applicants do not do so).</p>
<p>My sister’s step son got rejected at SUNY Binghamton in 2009</p>
<p>I didn’t think state schools (except maybe the top ones like Cal or UVA) care that much about yield. They seem to know that they’re going to get a lot of apps, they accept a lot, and then end up with about the number they need.</p>
<p>I wonder if the timing of the app makes/made the difference?</p>
<p>I think mom2collegekids is right about timing. I have encountered on CC some hyper-qualified students who were rejected by the University of Michigan, out-of-state. Michigan had rolling admissions (still does, as far as I know), and late in the application season, it becomes virtually impossible to get in. I’d advise anyone who is planning to use such a school as a safety, and still waiting around, to submit the application as soon as possible. September would have been better.</p>