<p>Citymom, one of the best safeties for a great student who doesn't want a small LAC is their state school, especially if there is an attractive honors program.</p>
<p>Why is everyone acting as though the OP's list is a bad list? Why is OSU Honors Program below her standards? Michigan costs a lot more money OOS and she may like the priority registration at OSU Honors that pretty much guarantees she gets the classes and times that she wants and she gets to live in Honors housing with her intellectual peers, Chicago is very hard and maybe she thinks she wouldn't have time to socialize, Georgetown has a lower acceptance rate than Cornell so why apply to a school with a 22% acceptance rate as your 6th choice. If the correlation argument holds, there is a negligible chance that it would be where she goes; she would have to get rejected by the other five AND not get rejected by Georgetown. </p>
<p>Her list seems impressively rational and mature to me as long as she thinks that she would be happy at OSU Honors. Many good students are. Who are we to argue with her. IMO, her dad's the one that needs a little educating.</p>
<p>"she may like the priority registration at OSU Honors that pretty much guarantees she gets the classes and times that she wants "</p>
<p>The honors students that we know do have problems with registration - especially as freshman. OSU is certainly a valid option - but maybe not the best one.</p>
<p>Ohio_mom: I can see them not really getting priority for the first quarter freshman year if others register in the spring, but aren't there 11 other quarters over 4 years that they will get the honors advantage. Are you saying they still get locked out?</p>
<p>CRD -
The problem can occur with course sequencing for major field courses. It can also be a problem if the student has a ton of AP credit, and wants to take 2nd year courses first year. Note the 4 year graduation rate in the following link. I am sure the honors program has a MUCH better graduation rate, but the composite is nothing to write home about.</p>
<p>I think it is extremely misleading to use the anecdotal evidence of prior students posted on College Confidential as a guideline for other students. In addition of "stories" being embellished at will, nobody knows what was contained in the applications nor how the applications were presented, except for the adcoms who made the correct decisions with all the facts at their disposal. For every student who was rejected everywhere, there are many who were accepted everywhere despite top-heavy lists. Depending one's gender and the specific programs selected, it is entirely possible for selective schools such as Cornell to be quasi-safeties, especially for high stats students.</p>
<p>The all-defining element in discussions on CC is the presence of a true safety. However, for many students, once ONE true safety exists, there is little need for a "balanced" list of reaches and likely schools. For many highly qualified students, the definition between a high reach and a likely can indeed be a gigantic blur as they could be in the ballpark at 30 doctoral universities and 20 LACs. </p>
<p>For the record, **if **the OP's friend is completely happy and willing to attend OSU, there is little reason to attack her list as unreasonable, and there are absolutely no reasons to believe that a list that includes more safeties (such as Michigan) would have been of better use for the student. Except for trophy hunting, lists that include more than one true safety simply add to the confusion in April.</p>
<p>"Except for trophy hunting, lists that include more than one true safety simply add to the confusion in April."</p>
<p>Agreed - if the safety is also a financial safety the student won't gag at attending.</p>
<p>Just for the record, I believe that Michigan came up here not in relation to the OP's kid's friend, but because another poster worried somewhat about her own kid's list, which was also somewhat topheavy but included UMich, which then caused a round of discussion that it could, for some high-achieving students who apply early, stand in for a pretty high-ranked near-safety. It wasn't introduced as an alternative to OU for the girl in the first case.</p>
<p>Careful, garland - OU (Ohio University) is not OSU (The Ohio State University) - might rile up some buckeyes ;-)</p>
<p>Oh, OSU is Ohio State. I was thinking Oklahoma. Oops.</p>
<p>If the young lady's father will pay for OSU -- and/or she gets a true full ride there -- then it's a workable safety and the reachiness of the list may be within some folks' level of risk. Dad II, what will this young person do if she strikes out on the rest of her list, dad refuses to pay for OSU, and she doesn't get enough merit $$? </p>
<p>I'll get on my soapbox again about why I like EA and rolling admissions. We knew by mid-December how DS was faring in the applicant pool and he had the option to tinker with his list. That said, for folks who are looking for significant merit rides/FA, more than one safety/target is an excellent strategy, and can be a good reason to send out more apps than others might.</p>
<p>
[quote]
DD told me her best friend only applied to : Princeton, UPenn, Cornell, Stanford, WashU, and OSU (OOS). Her dad is 100% against her even applying for OSU. They regard WashU and UPenn as their safeties.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I just reread the OP, and there must be more to the story. </p>
<p>If the "friend" did not need a penny of financial aid (and did not want to gamble with a binding ED application) why would she not have applied to Stanford via the SCEA? Or at another EA school? The pre-Christmas result would have grealy helped frame the real competitiveness of the applicant correctly.</p>
<p>While the list is not unreasonable, it seems that the strategy here (including what appears to be an OOS safety) was developed without much rhyme or reason. </p>
<p>One has to wonder about the GC at the schools attended by DadII's daughter and her friend.</p>
<p>xiggi -
see post 29 - the only reason the girl has a safety at all is because the OP's D is applying there.</p>
<p>Corranged:
It STRONGLY depends upon the state. In California anyone can choose an appropriate safety. UMich is a great option, as long as it works as safety. U Wisconsin is also good - a true safety, but still a great school.
Some other states are less lucky. In New York, the best state university campuses are small LACs, and the bigger campusl is OK for some majors but doesn't work as an overall "best safety".</p>
<p>Xiggi,
As usual, you rock with wisdom. :)</p>
<p>I don't want to hijack the thread....but it is worth mentioning that it is not always easy to determine whether or not a school is a safety. </p>
<p>...Is the GPA recalculated by the college, and is it weighted vs unweighted ??
Does the hs use weighted GPA & class rank, etc ??
Is the SAT superscored, does the writing portion count ??
..... Each college makes it really complicated !!</p>
<p>And if the student has unbalanced SATS....My d has 22xx SATS - but her math is "only" a 680. (But she got a 5 on the AP Calc BC exam as a Junior.) So for a lot of high end schools, technically she is not a good candidate. Also, her hs does not provide class rank. We've had a difficult time with the whole concept of safety school.</p>
<p>And yes, we're from NJ, so of course, there's always TNCJ, which we all knew as Trenton State, back in the day.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And yes, we're from NJ, so of course, there's always TNCJ, which we all knew as Trenton State, back in the day.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, there is always a chance that Trenton State pushes the flattery even farther and renames itself TNPNJ (as in The New Princeton of New Jersey.) After all, TCNJ is quite hard to remember. :)</p>
<p>Some students and their families just aren't as insecure over this whole crazy process. My best friend's son is a high school senior - applied to two USNWR top 10s and nothing else. Pretty smart boy with a 3.5 and an SAT that does not put him in the mid-50% range for either school. I'm white knuckle over the situation. Friend is totally serene. Sometimes I think she's the smart one . . . It's only college, after all. Worst case scenario, they live at home and work for a year and apply next year to state U.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My d has 22xx SATS - but her math is "only" a 680. (But she got a 5 on the AP Calc BC exam as a Junior.)
[/quote]
And make sure list/highlight this AP score in the app (some app form leave too little room to list all APs). Was told most colleges use SAT and AP scores to measure students from different schools across the nations.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't want to hijack the thread....but it is worth mentioning that it is not always easy to determine whether or not a school is a safety.
[/quote]
I though RPI was a total safety for my son (and I still believe it was), but it got listed as one of the "25 New Ivies" in Newsweek the fall he applied and the acceptance rate went from about 75% to about 40% in one year!</p>