<p>My D is a high school sophomore. Yes, we have plenty of time. Yes, a lot of the information in this post could change. </p>
<p>Having said all of that, I'm interested in your opinions. </p>
<p>D has a GPA of 3.98. Her high school does not rank, but if I had to guess, she's in the Top 5%, maybe higher. Her ECs are strong, how she gets it all done is beyond me. She was just nominated by her school to attend HOBY in June and her guidance counselor feels she is a strong candidate for the NHS next year. </p>
<p>While she is not 100% decided on a major and/or career path, for the moment she refuses to allow to me look at any school that doesn't have a film program. Her favorite schools thus far in the early stages of our hunt are: </p>
<p>Her other possible interests include French/International studies (dual major), or psychology or neuroscience. </p>
<p>We live in Iowa. The only public university in our state to include a film program is the University of Iowa. Her RAI will probably be more than enough to guarantee admission. It's definitely on her list as a school she would definitely consider attenting, as well as being a "safety." </p>
<p>Given those considerations, is there a reason to have additional "safety" schools? We can't afford OOS tuition without some Merit aid help. If you feel she needs more than one, do you have any recommendations?</p>
<ul>
<li>Must be assured admission.</li>
<li>Must be assured affordable.</li>
<li>Must be academically appropriate (have the majors and courses of interest) and otherwise appropriate for the student (various “fit” considerations).</li>
<li>Must be a school that the student likes and won’t feel as if attending is some kind of let down.</li>
</ul>
<p>While she has great stats, you don’t have her PSAT or SAT/ACT scores yet, so deciding what her safety should be or whether she needs more than one is a decision that can be put off for a while. Who knows, she may end up as a National Merit Scholar and the world will be her oyster! There are so many decisions to be made over the next two and a half years, hold off on stressing this early! As the parent of a college freshman, trust me, it is a long hard haul. Good luck!
ETA–I am responding to the post by ShabaMama, which for some reason is now below me.</p>
<p>If it’s a true safety, yes, it’s fine. Ucbalumnus has a good list of requirements. However, with a lot of kids I’ve seen, it’s not so smart IMO if the list looks like this: HPYS, Ivy, Ivy, Selective LAC, Selective LAC, Selecive U, Selecitive U, Safety. Yes, it is possible to end up rejected from all highly selective school. It’s even possilble to be WLed or not acceped to some Match schools unexpectedly, especially if you only have one or two on that list. Any little thing can go unexpected. So to have a couple of schools along with the Safety that are also highly likely schools to admit your DD such as maybe Marquette, or DePaul, just throwing out some names randomly, where she is hihgly likely to get admitted, gives the kids some choices. Or applying to a school with rolling admission or EA and getting info as the possible place to go. It’s is painful when a kid discounts a school all year as the safety and ends up with it as his only choice. The safety really should be called a likely. It’s where the student is pretty much already in and it’s a go. Alll he has to do is sign on the dotted line. The other schools are all just possibilities.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that it’s good to have two safeties, so that if a student doesn’t get into or can’t afford his or her match/reach schools, there is still a choice to be made. </p>
<p>My D applied to 2 matches and 3 safeties. Her guidance counselor gave her grief because she didn’t have reaches on her list and had “too many” safeties. I disagreed with him. IMO, the only absolute necessity is a good safety. D ended up getting into all of her schools and choosing one of her safeties, and she loves it there.</p>
<p>Beth’s Mom: I tend to agree with you concerning reaches. Unless there is some compelling reason to go to a highly selective lottery school then I think “Matches” mean just that. They are schools that match you childs needs, conditions and qualifications and that they would truly want to attend. Our situation is that finances becomes a big question. The only reason I see to to apply to reaches is if you truly feel the university is the best match if they can get in or perhaps because being extremely selective they may give better financial aid (assuming one needs it) than a less selective school. A safety is a match that you are probably over qualified for but that meets all your needs including affordability. That being said, D has chosen 2 reaches, 3 matches and 1 safety. I would have preferred she chose a reach that she would really want to attend, three matches and a couple of safeties just to give her a choice. It’s her life however.</p>
<p>I would look at a few other safeties, she might like them better than Iowa. You will need OOS public schools that offer merit to good students so they are true safeties…you can afford and be admitted.</p>
<p>Look at…
Alabama
Kansas
U MN
Arizona State</p>
<p>If she is really adventurous, you might try…
New Mexico
Montana State</p>
<p>One concern is exactly what is it that constitutes a safety? D has as a safety SUNY Stony Brook, which has an acceptance rate of 38% (not so safe) but her ACT falls into the top 25% (pretty safe) but her class rank does not (not so safe). So is it a safety, or not so much?</p>
<p>For kids like OP’s D, with “high everything” identifying safeties is probably somewhat easier.</p>
<p>A good tool for assessing merit aid in private colleges :
Best Values in Private Colleges, 2011-12=ALL&id=none
Note there are two tables there : LACs and Universities</p>
<p>@sylvan8798 … The University of Iowa has an 80% acceptance rate. Unless she bombs SATs/ACTs or her grades crash and burn, I think she should be fine at Iowa. However, there are considerations that might make it attractive for her to get out of state.</p>
<p>You mentioned film programs, and many of those will have requirements/acceptance in addition to the general university. Which may make them even more selective.</p>
<p>Has she looked at Emerson College in Boston? They have a pretty good merit scholarship (about 1/2 tuition) for high-stat students (and a film program).</p>
<p>I believe in two safeties so every student has a choice in April rather than just a consolation prize. I think it is much more positive to choose Iowa over another safety, than to attend Iowa because it’s the only acceptance.</p>
<p>I just wanted to thank the very nice person who sent me a private message with some great advice. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to reply to it yet because I’m new. I’m already looking into that information, it really helps to have “the inside scoop” as it were. </p>
<p>my-3-sons said it for me…it’s important to have more than one safety so your wonderful student has a choice come spring time! Given what can go wrong in the process–between getting the desired admissions, and getting the desired $$$—it sometimes seems in the spring that there are a lot of excellent students who are devastated at being railroaded into what they now perceive as their last choice…which is a perfectly good school that they might not have minded nearly so much if they felt they were choosing it over other options.</p>
<p>The other nice thing about having a safety school other than big-State U-as-default is that sometimes a student who has worked so hard in high school wants to feel they have earned a chance to do something “different” than their not so hard working classmates. Even when there is an excellent honors program available, sometimes kids just want to go somewhere without a herd of their old classmates…or even just be able to brag about having the option, even if they do choose the State U.</p>
<p>Be careful, however, that many not that selective schools cannot be counted on as safeties, due to considering subjective factors or “level of applicant’s interest” in admissions, or being less than certain on affordability.</p>
<p>I believe in having two safeties so you have choices if the worst happens. If she likes LACs I’d look for ones that offer merit aid and a film program. I’d also look for any college with a good film program that might offer merit aid as well as being a safety. Don’t forget that if you have a school with EA or rolling admissions on your list, even a match or reach can become a safety if you are admitted. My younger son dropped his second safety when he got into a reach school.</p>
<p>You need to think of safety/match/reach in terms of admissions and also cost. Recognize that your “admissions reach” schools will also likely to be your “cost reach” schools.</p>
<p>Based on that thinking, for my most recent kid we did one safety (in-state state U), two reaches and nine matches. Since we were looking for merit money, my matches might have looked somewhat safety-ish to some people – places where my kid was an above-average applicant and therefore likely to get some money.</p>
<p>With the Common App and $50 app fees, why not bulk up on the match category? You’ll wind up with a large group of schools (i) where your kid got in and (ii) which you can afford.</p>
<p>The kiplinger database pasted above is a great tool. So is the NY Times article from this summer. Notice, for example, that of the schools you mention Harvard does zero merit aid, NW does almost none, but USC does a lot (if your kid is an above average applicant at that school).</p>
<p>If your daughter has a safety that she really likes with guaranteed acceptance…that is affordable, then one is enough.</p>
<p>That being said, it’s nice to have choices. If her reach schools don’t pan out, she might want to have another safety Donahue can choose between the two.</p>
<p>As math mom pointed out, the result of early action are important. My son applied to two schools early action, and was accepted at both. After that he only applied to our state flagship (because I made him) and one other school he like as much or more than the ea schools. If he hadn’t been accepted ea, we would have done things differently.</p>