<p>Although one's interests should dictate where one should apply, what are the average safeties that Harvard applicants apply to? (yes, that grammar was horrible)</p>
<p>safeties do not depend on where people apply, safeties depend on their stats.</p>
<p>EXACTLY - and their application Harvard VERY much depends on their stats. Let's rephrase the question (just for you), what kind of safety schools do students with Harvard caliber stats apply to?</p>
<p>Definitely University of Chicago or maybe Northwestern. Chicagos the greatest.</p>
<p>northwestern is not a safety. I was admitted to Harvard and waitlisted by northwestern.</p>
<p>hmmm, i sorta used Northwestern as a match school, rather than as a safety.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.safetyschool.org%5B/url%5D">www.safetyschool.org</a></p>
<p>(Somewhat old, but always amusing)</p>
<p>The top "back up" schools for Andover students:</p>
<p>These are some good schools that obviously serve as "back ups" for students hoping to attend the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, etc, in that, of those admitted, relatively few enrolled:</p>
<p>Apps/ Admits/ Matriculants, for the Class of 2010:</p>
<p>WUStL: 21/10/1
Tufts/50/20/3
Wisconsin: 8/7/1
Trinity: 40/30/9
Vandy: 36/18/7
BC: 50/22/3
BU: 51/31/5
GWU: 36/21/2
Emory: 39/15/2
JHU: 46/22/2
U of Michigan: 22/8/0
U of Rochester: 13/10/2
St. Andrews: 11/9/3
USC: 32/15/3
Amherst: 29/7/0
American Univ: 15/11/0</p>
<p>I used WashU and JHU as matches too. My only real safeties were Spelman, OSU, Miami (Ohio), and UIUC. My matches were Northwestern, WashU, JHU, Williams, and Pomona. My reaches were Harvard, Yale, and Columbia.</p>
<p>So yeah, maybe "safety" isn't the right term for Northwestern, JHU, WashU or UChicago.</p>
<p>No one can call a place like U Chicago or Northwestern a Safety, even if you are a Valedictorian with a 36...Any school with like a 35% or lower admission rate should not be considered a safety, even if your stats are above the 75th percentile...</p>
<p>"No one can call a place like U Chicago or Northwestern a Safety, even if you are a Valedictorian with a 36...Any school with like a 35% or lower admission rate should not be considered a safety, even if your stats are above the 75th percentile..." Exactly.
These are the schools I applied to, with an "S" meaning that I considered them a "safety":
Harvard
Yale
Rice
Michigan State University (S)
Washington State University (S)
Whitman College (S)
Boston College (S)
University of Chicago (S--ish)
Princeton
Cornell (S)
Washington University in St. Louis (S)
St. Olaf College (S)</p>
<p>I don't know...I KNEW I was going to get into Harvard and Yale, so I guess even those could be considered "safety schools", oddly enough...I know random things and I knew I wouldn't be accepted to Princeton or Cornell; I wasn't, and I didn't care. Honestly, the only application I spent time freaking out over was the first one, to MSU. That sounds very strange. I guess I didn't have a normal application process...???
I'd consider them all safeties (Princeton and Cornell aside, though Cornell for its stats) because I knew I was going to get in. Take that as you like...<em>sees huge amounts of comments about how arrogant and horrible she is</em>...I don't mean it in an arrogant way...it's just how it happened. (Actually, those comments might be entertaining...:D)</p>
<p>I also do not advise applying to 12 schools, by the way. Too much hassle and stress. Gah.</p>
<p>I don't understand how you thought Cornell was a safety and you didn't get in...</p>
<p>Oh...lol. Yeah...so they lost my essays and then I had to resubmit the essays about 2 days before the due date because they didn't inform me...after that I just didn't care, haha. Actually I only applied because my mom made me...
Sorry for the confusion...if that even made sense :)</p>
<p>LOL! I think you got into Harvard because you are such a funny person. :) </p>
<p>J/K!</p>
<p>TRUE SAFETIES i think are lower on the list than what has been suggested. Most of those, like chicago, should be matches or reaches (i've known some perfect scorers, talented people get rejected from UChicago, you kinda never know how your essay may help or hurt you in the uncommon app). I think SAFETIES are schools like Tulane, maybe Emory, BYU, Mills, et al. schools that you kind of can take for granted but are schools that people would still be pleased to get into.</p>
<p>IMHO, the concept of a "safety school" is outmoded. Rather, it is a matter of a "first choice" school or schools, vs a "backup" or "second choice" school or schools, based on yield/matriculation rate.</p>
<p>If a school is a "backup" school there will be evidence that those with a choice are very likely to prefer another school or schools further up the academic foodchain. </p>
<p>The pecking order near the top can be fairly rigid, so that the "second choice" school can do little except utilize "Tufts Syndrome" to protect its yield rate. Research will often show with a high degree of certainty that applicants with certain characteristics will almost invariably fail to matriculate at school X if they are admitted to a "higher ranking" school Y. In such cases, school X may resent (in advance) the likelihood that cartain applicants view it as a "backup", and reject or waitlist the applicants before suffering rejection themselves.</p>
<p>Sometimes, scattergrams can graphically demonstrate this phenomenon.</p>
<p>Of course one person's "backup" school may be another person's "first choice" school.</p>
<p>"If a school is a "backup" school there will be evidence that those with a choice are very likely to prefer another school or schools further up the academic foodchain. "</p>
<p>If Harvard is your first love, and if you truly have the credentials that make you a viable candidate ... this is something to be very careful of. A poorly executed or unenthusiastic application is not a wise move at competitive colleges.</p>
<p>Hahaha thanks! I try...;) jk</p>
<p>
[quote]
If Harvard is your first love, and if you truly have the credentials that make you a viable candidate ... this is something to be very careful of. A poorly executed or unenthusiastic application is not a wise move at competitive colleges.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, this is even more true at "uncompetitive" colleges. With regards to going somewhere higher on the food chain, well, you can't really go that much higher that HYP. On the other hand, LACs and other schools typically used as "backups" would tend to exhibit "Tuft's Syndrome" and reject applicants qualified for HYP that don't demonstrate - one way or another - enough interest in their school. I've seen it happen countless times.</p>
<p>That said, you definitely shouldn't wing your application to Harvard either. :p</p>
<p>"Well, this is even more true at "uncompetitive" colleges."</p>
<p>How are you defining 'uncompetitive' ? Examples?</p>