<p>if your reaches were hades what would be examples of your safeties?</p>
<p>I applied 2 Peddie as my safety school. I got in but there is no way i am going there. I was also accepted to Deerfield and Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>Reaches: HADES
Good shot at: Taft, Choate, St. Georges, Middlesex, Milton, St. Marks, St. Andrews, Westminster, Loomis
Safties: Brooks, Berkshire, Suffield, Hill, Mercerberg</p>
<p>You should apply to a few in each catagory</p>
<p>I only applied to the top boarding schools because I wanted to go to a top school. I didn’t want to apply to a BS just for the sake of it. If I was going to make the sacrifices (financially, leaving my extracurriculars at home, leaving my community, etc.) to go to a BS, I only wanted to make the sacrifices for a top BS.
So, I didn’t apply to any “safety” boarding schools.</p>
<p>This thread is dead on spot. Thanks, Z’petals. </p>
<p>As I have pounded the drum often and elsewhere on CC, there is safety in numbers. With acceptance rates dive-bombing yearly at the HADES schools, an applicant should cast her net long and far if she hopes to attend a good BS. </p>
<p>Because Neato is the CC “Mother of the Year”, let’s look at Mom. This year, she and her son took an app appoach I find near perfection. Her son applied to 10 schools (big target), with six HADES-like schools and four second tiers. Her son was accepted at the four lesser schools (NMH, M’burg, Kent, Blair), and one of the big boys (PEA) offered him the brass ring (although more should have, IMHO). He will attend Exeter this fall. Bingo!</p>
<p>For what it is worth, my son pursued last year the same formula, oddly enough: he applied to four lower tiered school (e.g. Hill, Woodberry Forest, Episcopal, etc.) and six HADES type schools. He was accepted at 3 of the lesser schools and one of bullies (Hotchkiss). He is now at THS. Bingo again.</p>
<p>Will a big target get you into a HADES school? No, but it will clearly increase your odds of getting into a good BS. If Exeter didn’t offer a slot to her son or Hotchkiss didn’t make an offer to my boy, our children still had offers from some very, very fine schools.</p>
<p>So each to their own, of course. But I still think that, when applying to BS’s, the more the merrier.</p>
<p>Well said toombs61.</p>
<p>To some, it’s not that they don’t have a safety school, but rather their safety school is a day school in their area or their public school. In this case, does adding another one or two boarding schools as their safey hurt? Probably not, but why bother? Technically, applying to one or more safety schools doesn’t help you get into a top school. It just provides a back-up you can fall back on. If you already have a day or public school to fall back on, there is no need to apply to more schools than necessary. </p>
<p>Neato has set up a classic example future CC’ers can learn from. However, Neato mentioned on more than one occasion that they don’t have other options AT ALL - no decent public school or viable day schools. In her case, it’s the perfect strategy to apply to a wide range of schools with more than one safety.</p>