<p>I'm an international Gr. 12 student studying in Canada (orignally from S. Korea). I've been doing a ton of research recently to come up with a list of schools that I'd like to apply to, and came across these articles, which talked about the importance of applying to one's 'safety schools'. And that got me wondering, what do they mean by safety schools? </p>
<p>So help me. When people here 'chance' others, how are they doing it? How can they know what's a reach and what's not?</p>
<p>Safety schools are those which:</p>
<p>a. You are certain to be admitted to.
b. You are certain to be able to afford.
c. You will like to attend and be able to study your intended major.</p>
<p>You are an international student. This means that there are no safeties in the US for you, because there is nowhere that will flat-out guarantee admission to an international applicant.</p>
<p>If your family can pay the full cost of attendance and you do not need one cent of financial aid, then your reaches and matches will be roughly the same as those of a US applicant with your grades and exam scores, and what would be a dead-on academic safety for a US applicant will be your closest thing to a safety.</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, you don’t even have any matches here. Just reaches and higher reaches. Sorry. For help dealing with that issue (if it is your issue) spend some time in the International Students Forum. Read anything there by b@r!um who is the resident expert on the topic.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>And chancing on CC is highly subjective. No one here knows for sure what an admissions officer will do with a given application. At best, you can look at the Common Data Set for the school (google it) and compare your stats (Section C) to those who were admitted in the prior year. (Some high schools also collect data on how their students did in admission in prior years so their students can use that information too. Naviance is one of those tools.) Then you have to apply some weights to how important the various factors are going to be in the decision - most schools have a formula but it varies by school. Some schools place more emphasis on grades and less on test scores (some schools are test optional), some are entirely by formula based heavily on grades, test scores and class rank (large state schools for the most part), some do a ‘holistic review’ which means you have to make the academic cut, but if you do, they then read your essays, rec letters and review your ECs to decide who makes the final cut. Each school is different because each is looking to create a certain kind of class, fill certain institutional needs, knows what kind of student fits best for them. Posters on CC sometimes have some insight into a particular school’s way of approaching applicants - but many are just operating off their own experience and that of their friends and neighbors. It’s not worthless - but it’s to be taken with not just a grain, but a massive chunk, of salt.</p>
<p>Where the ‘chance’ threads are most valuable, in my opinion, is in the consensus. If you think something is a safety and everyone says it’s not, you might want to double check. If you have a list with a lot of reaches and not enough matches, CC will point that out.</p>