<p>Alot of those guys use Tufts as their safety, but personally i visited tufts and absolutely hated it.</p>
<p>A safety, as I understand it, is a school that accepts 50 percent or more of its applicants.</p>
<p>^^^ Hence "Tufts Syndrome"</p>
<p>I would consider UCLA and UC Berkeley safeties.</p>
<p>Oh the whole Tufts issue as a safety or not. It's clearly not a safety however, it's at least a match or slight reach. Granted though that of the four people who applied from our school, three got accepted and two are actually going but I think that these are good odds. Also, i think Tufts is fighting back at those who'll use them as a safety thus Tufts syndrome which had been referred to before.</p>
<p>UCLA and UC Berkeley would only be safeties to instaters, and a majority of ivy applicants aren't California residents, im not saying there arent alot, im from california myself, just most people are out of state.</p>
<p>UCLA/UCB aren't safeties, even to instaters. Best I've seen is a match/low match for really qualified candidates.</p>
<p>And Columbia. Please realize: Columbia had a lower acceptance rate than Princeton this year.</p>
<p>I'd say UCSD/UCD for instate Californians. Berkeley and LA are a bit too competitive to be safeties.</p>
<p>I've never heard the term "Tufts Syndrome" outside of CC and I go to Tufts lol.</p>
<p>More to the point, I think a lot of ivy applicants use state schools as their backups (UT, UCLA, UCBerkley, UMich, UWash) However there's a big difference between a backup and a safety (though UT is a safety for any Texan in the top 10% of their HS class.</p>
<p>It's easy to use your state school as a good safety/financial backup IF your state school is pretty good, and pretty good in the areas you want. Personally, those from California, Virginia, Michigan, Texas, and North Carolina are set as far as really safe yet good safeties (especially with the 10% rule in TX). Sometimes it is possible to have OOS state schools be safeties too, but they aren't always great as financial backups, because OOS tuition can be extremely expensive, coupled with the fact that they don't have as good of financial aid programs as top private schools.</p>
<p>Agreeing with Achilles, Tufts, for the upteenth time, is nowhere near a safety school -- It's one of the top 20 most selective schools in the US, for goodness sake! Outside of CC and PR, I've never heard anyone use the term "Tufts Syndrome." The school, like any other most selective institution, forms a highly picked class that will form a tight community, respective to the mission(s) of the school. Hence, the engineering focus at MIT and Caltech, and the International/Cultural focus at Tufts and Georgetown. Tufts is just highly underranked due to its' hibrid status, btw a LAC and a proper Research University.</p>
<p>What if a state school IS an Ivy (UPenn)? Being from PA, is there any advantage on getting in or not? I'm not sure if Penn even really qualifies as a state school.</p>
<p>UPenn is not an Ivy.</p>
<p>You're thinking of Penn State.</p>
<p>Way to go.</p>
<p>What are you talking about? Penn is definitely an Ivy. Penn State isn't.</p>
<p>i think he meant upenn is not a state school, but penn state is.</p>
<p>Disbelieve in Tufts Syndrome all you like. I read a report by a noted Ivy economist that showed the data that proves it's existence, at least at Princeton. By SAT scores, you would expect a nice upward trend, such that the higher your score, the more likely it is that you will be admitted. At Harvard and MIT, this was the case. But at Princeton, and presumably other places (including WUSTL and Emory which like to have you show "interest" lest they think they are being used as a safety), the curve started at roughly the same levels as MIT and Harvard, but then the probability of admission actually WENT DOWN as the SAT score increased, then went up again as the scores approached perfect. This shows that Princeton does not want to admit applicants that it believes will get into Harvard, as it loses a large majority of the cross-admit battle. This will improve their matriculation yield and hence improve the ranking of the school.</p>
<p>I don't think you can call a school that doesn't accept the majority of their applicants a "safety school".</p>
<p>Anyways, Michigan and Wisconsin are typically used in this fashion.</p>
<p>In my experience, HYP-competitive students tend to get accepted at at least a couple of the Ivies but apply to their State U for a safety.</p>
<p>If you're REALLY talking about people who REALLY have a good chance at HYPS, then I'd say places like Cornell, U Penn, Brown, Northwestern, Duke, Berkeley/UCLA for in-state, UVa, UMich, and the like.</p>
<p>Ah, yes, I'm sorry. The post should have been:</p>
<p>"UPenn is not a a state school. You're thinking of Penn State."</p>
<p>I wouldn't call Tufts a safety school, but many regard it as a backup school to especially Brown and Columbia in the same manner that Colgate and Middlebury would be considered backups to Dartmouth and Williams. I could see Brandeis as a backup to Harvard too, but not so much a financial backup since I would think tuition would be similar at both unless Brandeis grants merit aid.</p>