D has not been admitted to HYPS yet, but I think she falls into top student category. Safeties - Wisconsin Madison, u.illinois Urbana, George Washington, u.maryland and case western. Local state flagships and generous merit aid schools
It depends on if you need money or not. If you are an ivy caliber student who can pay, there are any number of suitable safeties. If you need more than what uncle Sam will give, but aren’t completely destitute, the list is cut by about 95% because then you have to find schools that either guarantee to meet need (which are all still very selective) or have guaranteed merit for your stats.
State schools without institutional funds to dole out (SUNY), can be more expensive than some privates.
@neatoburrito - let’s say the candidate is “ivy-caliber” as far as that can be determined, and that the parents feel they could pay up to $25K per year though less is obviously better. Could you recommend some safeties in the category of “research university”? Thank you!
Case Western immediately comes to mind.
@neatoburrito - thanks, any others? potentially with preference for east coast.
Pittsburgh is used as a safety for many high stats kids around where I am. They’re rolling admissions coupled with a really respected research school.
The other problem for high-stat kids looking for safeties is that the schools with a higher acceptance rate, at which they may feel confident of admission, may waitlist or even turn them down, because they assume the kid is using them as a safety. Which means that for those kids, the best safety is a state university, even if it’s not their own state’s. The bummer there is for someone who really has no desire to attend a large state school; a safety you don’t like is not a good backup plan, as so many people have pointed out.
thanks, all. ds will apply to umd, uma, umi. will those be enough? it is hard to know, too, what merit aid might be available oos
There isn’t just one type of college that makes a good safety school for all top students.
It depends on just what features of the “top” colleges you’re trying to replicate. What attracts you to “Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and other top schools” in the first place?
If you’re looking for prestige above all, you won’t get it in a much less selective school. However, you can at least get strong brand recognition from, say, a Big Ten school or other sports powerhouse (e.g.TOSU or Penn State) If you plan to settle down in your home state, then your own state flagship also will be a recognized brand. Whether it’s a true admission and financial safety depends on the state, and on several other factors.
If you’re a low to middle income student looking for a low net cost of attendance, then you usually won’t get equally good need-based aid from a much less selective college. However, you’ll get a relatively low sticker price from a local, public commuter college. You also can get a low net COA from a much less selective college that guarantees merit aid for stats above a certain threshold (such as the University of Alabama).
If money is no object, and you want a school with small classes, traditional campus architecture, and strong focus on academics (not a big D1 sports and Greek scene), then you might find what you want at a less selective LAC (such as one of the “Colleges That Change Lives”).
If you want a reputation for academic excellence in a specific field that has relatively high earnings (such as engineering or CS), then perhaps you should look for a less selective school with a strong STEM focus (such as New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology).
For some very well qualified female applicants, some of the women’s colleges (such as Mt. Holyoke) might qualify as low match schools, if you’re confident you can afford the COA.
A lot of kids I know who applied SCEA or ED to a highly selective school did not have safety schools at the time of that first app. If they did, it was often the state flagship with rolling admissions if the state had one that was a safety or really any other school that had a 50% accept rate. Some would be applying to schools with great merit possibilities. Some would even pick those safeties over their choices at the end of the process if it came down to a number of choices like Wash U, Emory, Colgate at the full $60K+ per year vs free tuition at Fordham, Temple, Denver, or Pitt, for example. Those who were accepted early in the process often were done, so did not need a safety school.
@fretfulmother, for the East Coast, try Northeastern.
“thanks, all. ds will apply to umd, uma, umi. will those be enough?”
Please don’t apply to Michigan as your safety school.
Thanks, everyone, all of this advice is incredibly helpful as DS builds his list. It does appear that UMA could be sufficiently safe (our flagship) and it looks like the in state cost after MCAS scholarship is doable if not pleasant. He will also add many of these others. CRWU is near grandparents and a good place but it seems like even their best merit aid is less than half tuition?
To those who asked I’m a junior international student in Latin America which is why there are “no safeties in my state”. However, I am an American citizen. I’m looking for high safety schools because if I am not accepted in prestigious schools, my parents won’t allow me to study in the US (although I really want to).
The OP asked for those ADMITTED to HPMSM what were their safety schools. They were obviously eminently qualified for HYPSM.
Many students, and parents, feel they are eminentky qualified for HYPSM only to get rejected or the gentle rejection of the waitlist.
@rjkofnovi - ok. I know UMI is very competitive. But I think he’ll still apply there just not as a “safety”. I did think it had EA/rolling so perhaps if he does get it, then it’s “safe” and known in advance. Is this correct?
Absolutely apply to Michigan EA. Make sure he puts in the time and work required to write excellent essays. The university is deferring even the highest caliber applicants these days in EA. I suspect it was because they didn’t put maximum efffort in their essays. If he does get in EA, then of course it would be a safe fallback to his other applications. Michigan doesn’t do ED and would never force a student to attend the school if he/she decided to go elsewhere.
I’m definitely not a top student, but my safety school is sweet briar.
It’s going to be easier to convince your parents that the less competitive schools are “prestigious” than it will be to actually get admitted to the top schools.
@rjkofnovi - Thanks very much for the advice (btw I hope the 2-3 others on this thread who listed UMI as a safety are also paying attention 
to all this).
So, I do think DS can write a good tailored essay about “Why UMI” if that is on the app - my mother is an alumna and so he has been hearing about it forever, and it also combines STEM and Classics and community in a way that would be a really strong fit match for him. However, it is unlikely that we will be able to afford a visit before senior year.