I’m planning to apply to some of the top colleges here in the US, but i need some safeties in case i don’t get in to my top schools. Here are the safeties I am considering:
-College of William and Mary
-University of Miami
-University of Washington
-UNC Chapel Hill (how is that a safety? i don’t get it?)
-UCSD
-UC Irvine
Any suggestions for good safeties?
*into
I’m presuming that your academic credentials are stellar if you consider any of those colleges, apart from Irvine and, possibly, Miami, safeties. What do you plan to study. UW and UCSD can be extremely selective for STEM majors. Are you a CA resident? If not, will your family be able to pay out-of-state tuition at a UC?
UCSD/UCI are not safeties since UC admissions can be unpredictable, maybe UCR/UCR and even UCSC. According to your other threads, you are a HS freshman, so there is no way to predict your chances at any of these schools until end of Junior year. Making a list of safeties is presumptuous on your part. Enjoy HS, work hard and then come back in a few years with your questions.
Yes, my family will be able to pay tuition but they are hoping that i will get scholarships.
I am planning to do a major in Global Economics or International Business and hopefully go into law or business school.
I agree with Gumbymom. This is a meaningless conversation at this stage in your high school career.
You’re a rising freshman in high school and you’re asking about safeties???
come back and see us in 3 years 
In the meanwhile- do great in HS.
At this point, a safety for you is a college with 50%+ acceptance rate or automatic admission criteria (such as FIU’s or Iowa’s).
As a rule of thumb, consider any college with a 20% acceptance rate or less a reach regardless of stats, and up to 30% it’s a reach if you aren’t a serious Ivy contender. 30-50% acceptance rate will be your matches, with variations depending on state flagships, honors colleges, and stats.
Since you’re a rising freshman, make sure you have good grades, don’t overdo it with the AP’s (colleges don’t like the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to APs and 8 over the course of HS is fine), and cultivate your interests through ECs.
If you truly are starting high school, then take a deep breath and enjoy your high school experience.
At the same tim, there is nothing wrong with educating yourself and your family about college finances so that you can plan effectively. If your family wants/needs merit money because your family will not qualify for significant financial aid or cannot afford to pay what colleges will say you can pay (ask your parents to complete the Net Price Calculator on some schools’ websites to see what the predicted cost of attendance will be for you) – then you should think about merit strategies.
High PSAT scores can lead to National Merit recognition which means automatic substantial merit awards at some public universities such as Alabama. If you are a good standardized test taker, then prepping for the PSAT in 11th grade can be a worthwhile use of time. The score required for National Merit recognition varies by state, so you could educate yourself on what a “qualifying score” in your home state it. If you are in boarding school, you might find out whether your “home” state for National Merit is where your family lives or where your school is located.
Generally, top tier public universities do not give substantial merit awards, especially not to out of state students. The Ivies do not give merit awards at all, only financial aid. Broadly speaking, schools award merit aid to students who are well above the school’s midrange in order to improve the school’s admission stats.
What schools would award merit to a particular student will shift as a student’s record evolves. My own kid has a great gpa but is not a strong standardized test taker so he is looking at schools which give merit awards without requiring high test scores. Another student might have a different portfolio of choices, depending on what they bring to the process.
At this stage in the process, you can educate yourself and your family about the broad financial parameters, but a lot changes during high school, so give yourself a break and enjoy what is right in front of you.