<p>In looking at the list of schools that my son is interested in, we find that he does not have a safety school. We live in NJ (hence the name NewJerseyMom) and although my son has a high GPA and SAT scores, you can never be sure where you will get in. The only safety school on his list is the University of Delaware, and I've been told that Delaware is getting more competitive especially in light of the large numbers of NJ students applying there. Can anyone recommend a school that is highly regarded that may qualify as safe? </p>
<p>By the way, I just found this site last night and I have to say that everyone who answered my last post is awesome. Thank you all.</p>
<p>Safety schools are relative to each applicant. One person's safety is another's reach. I could not recommend a safety school to anyone without a complete profile.</p>
<p>The whole concept of "safety school" sort of depends on the kid. Delaware may be getting more competitive, but like a lot of state universities, especially from small states where the local demand does not put pressure on to restrict out-of-state admissions, I think it is still pretty predictable based on standardized tests and GPA. If your son's school tracks its results with scattergrams, you can look at those and get a pretty good sense of how safe any particular school is for him. If not, do some searches on this site and find one of the many threads that has links to other high schools' scattergrams.</p>
<p>There are also thousands of schools that accept virtually all applicants. Few of them may be "highly regarded", but many of them offer excellent educational opportunities. For that matter, I think there are fewer than 50 colleges that accept less than half of the people who apply, and Delaware isn't among them.</p>
<p>I agree with others that it's hard to identify a "safety" because that is unique to the student overall profile. However, having said that...you are residents of NJ. What about Rutgers and College of New Jersey? Aren't both of those in-state publics? You might also want to look at some of the other public universities in NJ (I know there are a few, but I can't remember the names...).</p>
<p>It is important to really like one's safety. While one's state U can be a good option for a safety....I see too many just tack on the state U to cover their safety bases and it is not a school that fits them or they don't even care much for it and in some cases, that's the only school they were admitted to. A better plan is to research and visit viable safeties that meet the student's college criteria and ones they actually like and are willing to attend, even if not their most favorite school on the list. Tacking on safeties you don't really like is a bad plan, in my view. The state U MAY be a safety for the applicant and MAY be one they truly like enough to attend. But all applicants should look beyond the state U at all safety possibillties, particularly if they don't really like the state U or it doesn't fit their college search criteria.</p>
<p>By the way, thumper...you may be thinking of College of New Jersey, but that is not that easy of a school to get into. I have no clue the qualifications of the OP's son but just saying in general. For some it may be a safety and for others, not (which I realize you agree with overall).</p>
<p>Penn State has rolling admissions. They also do not have higher standards for out-of-staters than in-staters. They are happy to take the higher tuition paid by the out-of-staters.</p>
<p>The appeal of rolling admissions is one of the reasons why vast numbers of kids from all over the mid-Atlantic states apply there, and a fair number, both from your state of New Jersey and my state of Maryland, end up going there.</p>
<p>As for Delaware, if it is getting more competitive, that must be a recent development. My son (now about to start his senior year in college) used Delaware as his safety. He had a 1360 on the old SAT and a 3.5 unweighted GPA, with only about half honors courses. He not only got in; they offered him a merit scholarship. (He chose to go elsewhere, but that's another story.) But perhaps things have changed.</p>
<p>Not sure how far away your son is willing to go, but there are some neat state schools that a lot of kids love- like Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee. These make good safeties- Indiana is rolling admissions.</p>
<p>What kind of schools is your son looking at? Big or small? Urban or rural? Major? Any particular atmosphere he wants? Weather? What are his current schools? What do his stats look like (I think a 2100 SAT is high; others would think "high" means 2350)?</p>
<p>My girls and I found the Princeton Review website Counselor-o-Matic to be really helpful. You plug in your data and your preferences and it gives you a list of safeties, matches and reaches. There are no guarantees of course but they do point you in a direction and help you narrow the field. A word of caution, we found that when we specified more than region, size and personal stats that it only returned a limited number of hits so keep the search as general as possible for the greatest number of results. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I'd really caution using the Princeton Review Counselor-O-Matic it often tells people that Yale/Princeton/etc is a match or that colleges which are truly safeties are in fact matches/reaches.</p>
<p>Plugging your info into a search at Collegeboard.com is a good preliminary tool.</p>
<p>collegedata.com is another as is petersons.com. ses is right in that any can give you a skewed idea of you chances. They should be used as a tool to give you direction only.</p>
<p>What about Pitt? My daughter will be attending in September as a freshman. Pitt is one of the few schools that give generous scholarships to OOS. We were more than happy with what she was offered. Pitt has an urban location in a great area of Pittsburgh right next to Carnegie Mellon. But unlike NYU or BU, Pitt has a real campus with green spaces. </p>
<p>What is your son interested in studying? </p>
<p>I also second the idea of SUNY as a safety. Tuition is very reasonable for OOS, unlike most state schools. You might want to post his ballpark stats so we can advise him more accurately. I'm thinking Delaware would take him, no problem. Best of luck to your son!</p>