<p>Before your kid applies, look up the old thread, “We’re picking up the pieces what went wrong” about a high stat kid who applied to only reaches and was rejected by all.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html</a></p>
<p>That thread came immediately to thought. Here’s the link.</p>
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I found myself like that right when I started thinking about colleges. Well, not because I worked hard in high school, but from just being arrogant. But what may help some of you to get rid of this kind of thinking is to realize that prestige matters very little. Successful people have gone to their state colleges, so can you.</p>
<p>Sometimes it isn’t the result of arrogance but of ignorance. There are families and even college counselors that don’t have the knowledge those of us on this forum have. They see an extremely bright kid and they are SURE he/she will be going to Harvard or Yale. They don’t understand the odds. There is a lot of education and a grasping of reality that needs to be done.</p>
<p>^^^
True…sometimes…</p>
<p>But, we’ve all seen it…kids who have every ivy and elite school on their list because they think, “Well, if I don’t get into one, I’ll surely get into another.” These kids are not then going to add Flagship U to their list because, “OMG, everybody from my school goes there.” (Translation: if it’s accepting everyone from my school, then I’m waaaay too good for that school.)</p>
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<p>There are three rough categories: Reach (within it Super Reach or High Reach), Target or Match, Safety (which could include financial safety. Ivy’s are super reaches for most. JHU/Wash U are in the top 20 and Wash U is often ranked higher than some of the lower Ivy’s. So by definition, they cannot be safety’s for most people, at the very best a target.</p>
<p>Instead of going by what other students do, began with your profile. What are you Stats, your EC’s, your GPA etc. Begin with that and try and develop a list based on what your profile looks like. Then you will not be disappointed.</p>
<p>How about considering schools with rolling admissions? At least if your student is accepted by a school with rolling admissions, the safety will already be in place before those EA/ED deadlines arrive as well as Regular deadlines.</p>
<p>To pick safeties D could live with, we started with the Fiske book. We looked through to find schools that (1) were strong in her intended major, (2) were geographically in her area of preference, (3) where she was in the top 50% in stats, and (4) where the campus/social description/size appealed to her.</p>
<p>We also put a financial safety on her list (flagship at a state with reciprocity with ours where her stats were at about the 50% mark).</p>
<p>We did this at the beginning of our search so we could visit these safeties along with her matches & reaches. As I have mentioned on other threads, she liked one of her safeties a lot when we visited. When her acceptances came in and the safety offered about 1/3 of tuition in merit aid, she decided to go there. She is a rising junior and loving it!</p>
<p>OP, if you do a search of old posts, you will find that I have been saying this for about two years now - safety is way over rated. I have been on this board for quite a few years now. They always bring out the story of one student - Anderson or something like that. I mean for all these years, there has been just one known case.</p>
<p>Of course, this does not mean you going up a 200 meter piece of rock with a safety line. </p>
<p>The best way is to fully understand the ED/EA/Rolling admission process. A strong student should get a couple of “Yes” in the EA/ED round. If not, then your student will have an incentive to look below. You can look for a safety then.</p>
<p>"The best way is to fully understand the ED/EA/Rolling admission process. A strong student should get a couple of “Yes” in the EA/ED round. "</p>
<p>Only apply ED if that’s your kid’s #1 choice and you’re absolutely sure you can afford it.</p>
<p>EA can be a good option if a school your student is interested in offers EA.</p>
<p>Rolling admission is another possibility.</p>
<p>Dad II, That’s exactly what my D said to me the other day.</p>
<p>2boysima…D had a 4.0 UW at a ranked private prep. She had a 2250 SAT I, 790/770/710 SAT II, 12 APs (11 fives; 1 four), NM, 6 x natl. champion / 3 x All American athlete, pres/founder of one school club, pres of another, member of 3 other clubs, founder of charity, great summer internships, voted “Most Likely to Succeed”, etc., etc., etc. I’m not sure if this info really is of use, though. There are kids who have similar/better profiles who didn’t fare as well, and others who had ivy acceptances. Similarly, there were students whose profiles might not appear as impressive and yet they “scored” big time. It’s really hard to find a pattern. Like I said, you just never know. It’ll make parents and students crazy to try and figure it all out. What I do know is that she had 3 schools I would say for her were “safe”: Trinity, Pepperdine, & Wake. Thank goodness for these schools! When these schools recognized her hard work and offered her merit $, it helped cushion the sting of all the waitlists. We never would have imagined she’d wind up being WL at SO many schools (a record maybe), but as cliche as it sounds, it was for a reason. She’s very happy with her choice, and it is a GREAT fit (both academically and socially).</p>
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<p>Impressive stats. I only wonder if 100 points more on SAT I & SAT II would make any difference. Most people would say NO, I guess.</p>
<p>^^ She wasn’t recruited?</p>
<p>lake42ks…maybe if she might have made a 2300+ (50 more pts) on the SAT I, it might have changed the outcome; who knows? She couldn’t have done any better really on the SAT IIs though. (I doubt straight 800s are seen that often, and if so, I can’t help but think a 790 or 770 is viewed pretty much the same.)</p>
<p>jersey13…the schools that recruit for her sport (cheerleading), didn’t spark her interest much. There aren’t that many schools that recruit. That being said, she is receiving a small scholarship at her new school for participating at the collegiate level.</p>
<p>Although it might seem bizarre that out of 18 schools she had 3 rejections and 8 waitlists, we really are very thankful for those 7 schools who took note of what a fabulous applicant she was. Again, although some would disagree, for her, casting that wide net was the right decision. In fact, when her GC asked if she were to narrow her list what school(s) would she consider cutting, the school she ultimately selected, might well have been eliminated. When she went to visit, she simply felt it was the best “fit” and selected it even though it wasn’t ranked quite as high as another acceptance.</p>
<p>The andison example is the one that people refer to time and again on CC because the parent was a CC poster who was very open in reporting what happened. That made it memorable. The young man took a gap year and ended up attending a wonderful school, with his parent documenting exactly what steps the student took to get to that outcome. There just aren’t a lot of posters who will take the time to do that in real time. That’s like rubbing salt in open emotional wounds.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove…I agree; that is a very compelling story. Although the outcome for them was VERY unsettling, taking a gap year, teaching piano, etc. all allowed her son to gain acceptance into MIT and a host of other incredible schools. So in the end, it all worked out “for the best”. When you’re in the midst of it all, it may seem like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, but for most students, it all falls together.</p>
<p>There were several threads about posters who didn’t get in anywhere, or who had to plead with schools to reconsider their wait list placement when they had no acceptances. Unfortunately they aren’t as memorable as the andison story, so its hard to pull them up. EVERY college counselor will advise you to choose a safety. Even if that safety selected is an EA or rolling admissions school. A safety doesn’t have to be a lower tier school-- just one that you have a very high probability or guaranteed admission. Some posters may find the notion or the term “safety” unpalatable as it may imply that the student is choosing a school that is beneath them, but that is not at all true. My s chose to attend what would by this definition be considered his “safety” (got his acceptance in October of his sr yr of HS) and is enjoying it very much. He chose it over other (higher ranked) schools but is happy with his decision.</p>
<p>Dad II, we could have ignored the advice on safeties. It would have cost us an extra $60,000 to send D1 to college, though. Maybe you have that kind of cash to throw around, but most of us don’t.</p>
<p>As jym626 said in post 58, andison’s story is by no means the “one known case” of a student being denied admission everywhere. His story is especially memorable because he was an exceptional applicant (as can be seen in the fact that he entered MIT after a second go-round of applications), and because the poster shared generously in the hope that other students would avoid the same initial disappointment. </p>
<p>And there are multiple threads every year about kids whose only option is one of their safeties, but they don’t want to go because they did not put an adequate amount of effort into selecting safeties. Dad II, it’s lovely that your children were admitted to schools higher on their lists - that does not mean that the concept of having a safety school is “way overrated.” </p>
<p>Personally, I like the word safety.</p>