<p>* Michigan had rolling admissions (still does, as far as I know), and late in the application season, it becomes virtually impossible to get in. *</p>
<p>This is very true about schools that either have rolling admissions. Towards the end of the app season, if the school is popular, then it can only accept those that they really want to.</p>
<p>My D was accepted into Honors Programs at Michigan, Delaware, BU, and other places, most with significant merit money (very high SAT and 4.0 GPA). But though Rutgers (our state school) accepted her, they turned her down for Honors. Obviously, they didn’t really want her. The rest of the schools wooed her big time. Still can’t figure that one out.</p>
<p>My daughter got waitlisted from a school that we definately considered a safety (she’s at Yale now, and was accepted by Princeton, Brown, U Chicago, Swarthmore, Cal Tech, … you get the picture). We figure that they figured she wasn’t going to go there. But she really did like that school.</p>
<p>My S has been deferred at an OOS public school that definitely should have been a safety. His stats were way above their average, and he applied to one of their schools where all of his interests and EC’s correlated. He was not using it as a safety though… REALLY liked it. It was a shock to say the least. He WAS admitted to another OOS public with the same acceptance rate, with a personal call fron the admissions stating he was one of their top applicants and offered him full COA schoalrship… so who the heck knows??? I think that when a “perceived” safety defers you, it kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth and I’m sure my S will pick another school because of it.</p>
<p>D’s friend was rejected at an OOS public that was thought to be absolutely a safety for her. D said friend figured she applied too late. Well before the official deadline, but the freshman class was more or less “full.”</p>
<p>One thing to note is that public schools may admit students by division or major, so that a student who applies to a more selective division or major faces a higher entrance bar than what is generally assumed for the school. So a public school whose overall stats may appear to make it a safety may not really be a safety for a specific division or major.</p>
<p>For example, here are the entrance standards for fall 2011 admissions to a mid-level public university: [url=<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html]SJSU</a> Admission<a href=“calculate%20the%20index%20as%20described%20here%20%5Burl=Cal State Apply | CSU”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>Not all schools with rolling admissions operate like Michigan. U of Wisconsin- Madison, for example. There are many frustrated students (and parents) posting on the UW CC forum because although they applied months ago they are still waiting for a decision, even a “postponed” one ( UW recently started promising an answer by the end of Jan for those who applied by the end of Oct with a Feb 1st application deadline- postponed means a final decision by late March). UW saves room for good applicants who apply by the deadline. Those in the middle of the pack might have had a slight advantage by applying earlier but I think they have put more into the postponed pile recently. There was a student last year who was OOS and rejected by UW with good stats who stated he didn’t show his interest in his essays. The UW website does state that the essays matter. Every school, public or private, will have different policies. You need to read the websites’ information and learn what they do.</p>