<p>I have no life, so today I was researching the colleges I want to apply to. I was surprised to see that several of the schools I considered safety schools based on my grades/test scores (and these are mostly large public universities, so they probably aren't terribly holistic with admissions) have acceptance rates below 50%. They reject more people than they accept.</p>
<p>Does this mean I shouldn't consider these schools safeties, or does it just mean they reject a lot of people with lower stats that me?</p>
<p>Can you be more specific?</p>
<p>You can consider them safeties so long as it’s not a school like Berkeley or UVA which truly practices holistic admissions. I presume you’re talking about directionals which tend to reject out of service area students who don’t have high scores, or applicants who just don’t have any scores at all.</p>
<p>A safety is a place where you are flat-out guaranteed admission based on your grades, exam scores and/or some special skill/talent.</p>
<p>So yes, it is entirely possible that YOU could be flat-out guaranteed admission, but a whole bunch of other people aren’t guaranteed admission because they are missing some of whatever it is that guarantees you that admission, and that plenty of those others ultimately don’t make the cut.</p>
<p>Specifics would help us judge this case but it is possible to have a selective school be a safety if you are beyond there stats and they arent highly holistic.</p>
<p>Yes, like someone said, a true safety is a school that will say “If you have an SAT score of X and a GPA of Y, then you will be automatically accepted into this school”. Some schools will guarantee admission if you are a National Merit Semifinalist. And I guess some schools where you fall really far above their middle 50% range for test scores and GPA can be considered a safety, but since admissions is not exactly guaranteed, it’s not really considered a true safety. </p>
<p>And also, if I’m wrong someone please correct me this because I’m not sure if this is still practiced, but I know some schools of middle-high selectivity would reject overly qualified students who they feared were using their school as a safety/fall-back in order to protect their yield. I don’t know if this is still true or not, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are applying to such schools with lower acceptance rates. So for this reason I think it’s important to have at least one true safety on your list, because you never really know.</p>
<p>A not-very-selective school may have a low acceptance rate if it gets a lot of applications from those with weak qualifications.</p>
<p>Re: #6</p>
<p>The way to check whether a school may reject or waitlist an “overqualified” applicant is to check its admissions tab on collegedata.com to see if it uses “level of applicant’s interest” in admissions. If it does, it is not a safety.</p>
<p>First, the Common App folks claim all schools using that agree to be holistic. Of course, that doesn’t mean all put you through an intense review.</p>
<p>Yes, one can be rejected even if their stats exceed. Level of interest includes how you subtly show your match. It’s hard to convey that of you haven’t done the work to understand what that school offers you- and what you offer it. And, it’s show, not tell.</p>
<p>It’s a rare public university that looks at level of interest. The OP was asking if a public university could be used as a safety even if it had a low acceptance rate. With the exception of a few flagships, none of which would qualify as safeties (and I’m sure she knows this) most state schools do not even parse over how likely the applicant is to enroll.</p>
<p>With the exception of Purdue (which accepts a very high percentage of applicants relative to its overall recognition), Michigan and Wisconsin do not qualify as safeties (from her previous postings, the OP understands that a safety should be financially viable which Wisconsin is not). That’s what I meant when I said that the OP wasn’t considering those schools, she’s probably considering a regional one that rejects a huge portion of demonstrably unqualified applicants, not a school like Michigan which can afford to accept basically whoever it wants.</p>
<p>Lets keep this simple. Safety school = your GPA, SAT/ACT are waay higher than college</p>
<p>So if you are wondering whether the certain school is a safety or not for you, then it’s most likely not.
A safety is like “OK theres no way I can get rejected by this piece of x”</p>
<p>halcyonheather, </p>
<p>You have a 35 ACT. You are in state. Ohio State Honors is a total safety for you. There is no possible way for you to be rejected to either Ohio State or their terrific honors program. It’s a great school for math. You really should speak to someone there. They will tell you that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can definitely afford the school.</li>
<li>The school has suitable academics for you.</li>
<li>You like the school.</li>
<li>The school’s overall selectivity does not mask higher selectivity for your major.</li>
<li>The school does not use subjective criteria like essays or especially “level of applicant’s interest” in admissions.</li>
</ul>
<p>Even if the school has an overall 40% acceptance rate, if your GPA and scores are above the mid50 (75%), then you may still consider it a safety particularly if you are an in state student. For oos acceptance rate, the statistics is sometimes lacking and it would be hard to make decision. Some schools would have break down admission stat that show the acceptance rate of each tier level in score or GPA. That is what you should look at, not the overall acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I’ll be more specific. </p>
<p>I’m an Ohio resident with a 3.99 unweighted GPA and a 2340 SAT.
More detailed stats here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1535991-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1535991-chances.html</a></p>
<p>These are the schools I was thinking of.</p>
<p>University of Alabama - 43.5%
University of Minnesota Twin Cities - 46.6%
Northeastern - 34.5% (Possibly more of a match than a safety. I’m not sure.)</p>
<p>Compare with these schools, which are higher-ranked and probably not admissions safeties for me:</p>
<p>UIUC - 67.6%
Case Western Reserve - 51.3%
University of Michigan - 40.6%</p>
<p>Again, I’m not talking about financial aid…only admissions.</p>
<p>The only schools that are not safeties here are Michigan and maybe Minnesota. Michigan because they are holistic and for some reason reject some high stats kids. </p>
<p>Minnesota is just flaky, and I can’t figure out what they do. Minnesota was supposed to be one of my Ds rolling safeties and they just sat on the application for over 4 months and finally admitted her to a school that she didn’t apply for long after all of the other rolling and EA schools admitted her and she deposited at her ED school. When we called to inquire, just for the record, it turned out she’d been waitlisted for Science and Engineering, but they never told her that. I think they misplaced her file or something. </p>
<p>The others are safeties for sure. </p>
<p>I don’t think that you appreciate just how good your stats are. </p>
<p>Also, you should know that all of these schools (plus Ohio State), have early notification dates if you get your application in by Nov 1. Northeastern is a trivial application if you are applying to Michigan through the common app anyway. </p>
<p>You will have acceptances in hand before Christmas.</p>
<p>Alabama has an automatic merit scholarship for your stats, so that is definitely an admissions safety (check affordability net of the scholarship).</p>
<p>HH, are all the schools you have mentioned, over time, ones that you are seriously interested in, where you have vetted their programs- or are you somewhat backing into your list? Finances are a big point in picking colleges. But so is fit. </p>
<p>You need to explore fee waivers. Call the schools, if needed. It’s also good to let your GC explain the larger part of your personal history- you only have so much space on the App. How much is your GC able to help you? </p>
<p>You say here that you’re just focused on the admissions part now- but are you up enough on fin aid? You’ve run net price calculators, etc? If your family financial situation is so tough that it will be hard, even with full tuition, are you looking at schools that meet full need?</p>
<p>I’m asking because your voice on CC is strong, aspects of your maturity come through- and I’m surprised at some of the schools on your list. Apologies if I am misreading.</p>