<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>D1 and son used state Us with rolling admisisons as safety schools.</p>
<p>Does anyone know schools with less holistic admissions, i.e., a regular kid with solid test scores and grades will likely make into? By “regular” I mean he/she does whatever the vast majority of kids do and by “solid” I mean you can take them out of consideration.</p>
<p>^I had Reed and Oberlin in the matchy area of my younger son’s list. (He was a step below HYMS material.) My main concern with them was that they had a pretty high percentage of students in the top 10% of the class. (67 and 68% the year I made my spreadsheet.) Like every college he applied to his CR was in the top 75% his math was in the middle 50%.</p>
<p>Lake42ks I have no idea what you mean by solid, but I considered U of Vermont, Syracuse, American, Boston U., Trinity and the SUNYs pretty safe bets for my B+/A- kid.</p>
<p>In stats, do you also include class rankings as well as SAT’s and GPA’s? What else should we consider? If the kid is in the 75% in tests scores, GPA, class ranking and the college has at least 35% admission rate could it be a safety? Unfortunately, we don’t have a godd state U to consider.</p>
<p>“Does anyone know schools with less holistic admissions, i.e., a regular kid with solid test scores and grades will likely make into? By “regular” I mean he/she does whatever the vast majority of kids do and by “solid” I mean you can take them out of consideration”</p>
<p>My impression is that once you get below the top twenty or so (on the ranking list that must not be named) the role of grades/scores increases, and the role of ECs/essays/“feel” decreases. And that the most formulaic admissions, often including rank as well as GPA and test scores, are found at State U’s. Though most State Us still ask about EC’s, essays, etc, as of course do the lower ranked privates.</p>
<p>In certain majors such as nursing and architecture, state u’s are begining to become very difficult to get in to. If there are less than 100 seats in a program, the competition is tough especially if you are out of state. It is easier to get into these programs in the privates ranked 25-75 than many of the big state u’s. So, I would say it depends on the major if you could consider state u a safety. Sometimes state u’s have the better program…</p>
<p>safeties is always a dilemma. we had a bit of a challenge coming up with reaches that were realistic enough to be worth applying too, and where we felt DD would be successful. We were able to find a bunch of “match” schools that fit most of her criteria. But we wrestled for a long time with safeties. Each one I suggested DD or DW had some objection to. I finally, in exasperation said “Thats WHY they are safety schools” Now obviously I realize a kid COULD have a school thats a safety that really turns them on - as we repeat often here, difficulty/prestige/ranking are different from fit. But for most kids they are not completely divorced. And for some kids, who need to be with their intellectual peers, and on a campus whose mood is set by their intellectual peers, a school where they are among the best academically, is going to present issues. </p>
<p>We looked at our state schools - We considered Vtech and W&M more matchy than safety (and each had other disadvantages anyway) and the next tier - JMU, VCU etc - did not have teh right programs, had other disadvantages etc. I suggested Syracuse, which we had visited, neither DD nor DW liked it. Drexel, DW really, really was down on. Most of the out of state publics, were vetoed either by DD, on one criterion or another. </p>
<p>We finally picked Temple, of all places. DD would have been at the very top of the class in stats, BUT it had all the programs she was even vaguely interested in (including a center in Tokyo), it was the right size, and for a safety it had a better vibe than most - more scrappy inner city than frat dominated football school. Not that we were sure of that, we never visited. But it gave DD and me some peace of mind. Not DW though - although she liked it more than Drexel or JMU, she was still thinking if it came down to Temple or nothing, DD would be better off taking a year off and reapplying. </p>
<p>As it was DD got into 3 match schools, before the Temple app deadline, so she never did send in an app to them.</p>
<p>“In certain majors such as nursing and architecture, state u’s are begining to become very difficult to get in to. If there are less than 100 seats in a program, the competition is tough especially if you are out of state. It is easier to get into these programs in the privates ranked 25-75 than many of the big state u’s”</p>
<p>Im not sure. Vtech here is the best ranked public B ARch program in the country, and some years the best ranked BARch program period. DD didnt apply to Vtech, did apply to and got into RPI. We are under the vague impression that she would have made into VTech, but again its not certain.</p>
<p>I would also strongly suggest that kids mobbing the lower ranked BArch programs, public or private, think long and hard. Arch isnt nursing. Even after the recession ends, I think the total number of arch grads (barch and m arch) right now is somewhat above the sustainable level.</p>
<p>mathmom, by “solid” I mean they meet anyone’s standard, whatever that is. I guess what Brooklynborndad said is close to what I tried to get, i.e., below top 20. I’m trying to id schools with high certainty of admissions. I know a community college is 100% certain for a student with straight As, a perfect SAT, 18 APs with all 5s, but 2000 hours of ECs with no gold medals (a hypothetical example). But where to stop when you move up from the community college, top 50, top 20?</p>
<p>its not binary lake - its not “above rank 18, its a lottery even if you have a 4.4 gpa and perfect SATS, and from 19 down only numbers count”</p>
<p>among her matches, our DD was accepted at Lehigh, RPI, and Case Western, and WLed at Rochester and Lafayette, and rejected by Tulane.</p>
<p>Now UR being "harder than her three acceptance made sense. Tulane, and Lafayette, based on average scores, etc didnt. </p>
<p>She admitted afterwards that her essays for Tulane was lame, and for Lafayette not much better. At Lehigh she had befriended the Admissions counselor via email, at RPI she had put a big effort in. </p>
<p>and those are schools below the top 20. One issue is that schools that see your numbers that are TOO solid, may want to avoid being used as a safety school. You need to go out of your way to demonstrate interest for those.</p>
<p>^^ That means pick 8-12 schools that you really want to go and tell them so.</p>
<p>This is why Naviance is great data for schools that offer it (ours does not subscribe). You need to really look at the CDS to see how schools evaluate the students. DD1 was a NMF, 2230 SAT, 3.92 UW GPA and was waitlisted at Reed, her first choice (must have been the essay but she is a great writer). DD2 was also NMF, 2280 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA and was waitlisted at Carleton, her first choice. Fortunately both got into all their other application schools and we were able to find affordable schools.</p>
<p>In that case Reed or Carleton is hardly a safety.</p>
<p>“Reed with 40% acceptance rate or Oberlin with 35%, Can they be safeties or alomst if stats are in the 75% or up?”</p>
<p>Not Reed; GPA + test scores + rank together are only 20% of admittance criteria.</p>