<p>I know Ive seen this discussed here many times, but I cannot for the life of me find it by searching this forum.</p>
<p>Im looking for a process that looks for schools where your SAT and/or GPA falls within a safety zone for those particular schools. Then, you might look at the acceptance rates to give you a further indication of how you might fare if you applied.</p>
<p>Does this sound familiar? This is not complicated and I may not be explaining myself well, but I hope someone will see this and understand what Im seeking.</p>
<p>BTW, my DS has very few criteria for his college search. He claims hes willing to go anywhere in the country, he doesnt know his major, he doesnt care about big or small schools, big cities or small towns, etc. We do have a list of about sixty schools that I painstakingly compiled using his guidance counselors list and some other criteria. Id like to narrow the list down and determine which ones are safeties, matches and reaches.</p>
<p>Also, I realize that we have to determine if a school is a financial safety, but that would come after narrowing the list down to admission safeties.</p>
<p>Here’s a method that I’ve seen described on here, and what we’ve been using, but I’m sure others will chime in with their methods:</p>
<p>safety (good bet) = 40% or higher acceptance rate with SAT scores in the top 25%
match (50-50 chance) = 20-40% acceptance rate with SAT scores in top 25%
reach (long shot) = any school with less than 20% acceptance rate</p>
<p>bettzke has I think the right idea though I also have been looking at what percentage of kids are in the top 10 or 25% - which is important I think if your child is not in the top 10%. I just found out that my son probably squeaked into the top 10% so I’m considerably less worried even though he has a lot of B’s.</p>
<p>Safety: A school with a 40% a more acceptance rate where your GPA AND SAT scores also put you in the top 25%.
Match: A school with a 20% or better acceptance rate with your scores in the top 25%, or a school with a 35% or better acceptance rate with your scores and grades in the middle 50% (remember a match is no guarantee - you should expect to be rejected from some matches) or a school where either your grades or GPA are in the top 25%.
Reach: A school where your stats are in the bottom 25%, or a selective school (say around a 20-35% acceptance rate)where either your GPA or SAT fall short, but not both and not by much.
Super reach: One of those schools where the acceptance rate is under 20%.</p>
<p>Sybbie is also right that a safety is not a safety if your child doesn’t like the school. Find something about the location, the dorms, the programs that is attractive about the school.</p>
<p>I think PayFor is looking for the mechanics of finding schools that match bettzke’s formula… yes?</p>
<p>We used my son’s CollegeBoard account. He had more specific requirements as to size, geographic location, and the like. I ran searches based on his criteria, then added them to his list (I could do this because we shared the password for his account). Then he visited those colleges’ Web sites and whittled the list down to size.</p>
<p><a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;
Check out the “Admission” and “Cost and Financial Aid” categories, but don’t limit the price range right away. You can search for colleges based on SAT scores, admission rates, and what kind of aid they offer (among a whole host of other things). Then check the search results individually to see whether they would qualify as an admissions safety (admission rate around 40%, your kid’s SAT/GPA at or above the 75th %ile).</p>
<p>I’ll suggest a few other considerations.
Rolling admissions deadline. Having your safety admissions in the bag *early<a href=“say,%20at%20the%20beginning%20of%20October”>/I</a> takes the pressure off the rest of the admission process.
Offers merit aid based on stats, and your kid’s stats qualify. This means they want students of your kid’s caliber. For best results in this area, get the application in as early as possible.
Has reasonable depth in the majors your kid might find interesting… or at least a broad enough offering that there will be good choices once he starts to decide.
Offers something that your kid really, truly finds exciting and drool-worthy – whether it’s an Honors program, Study Abroad opportunities, campus life, or even :eek: terrific dorms and food. As sybbie indicated, if the safety is his only admission, it should be a place he really looks forward to attending and will be happy to matriculate.</p>
<p>Oh… and based on my own experience, I do suggest finding those safeties first – before looking at other colleges and discovering a “dream college” that is more reach-y. It’s not a safety if the kid doesn’t want to go there, and I think it’s harder to gin up real enthusiasm for a safety after settling on a #1 reach. Safeties give you the security to reach further; imho it’s best to have them first.</p>
<p>Not knowing the stats of the OP’s student, I’d caution against using 40% and above admit rates as safeties. Student may be in the top SAT quartile, but that does NOT guarantee acceptance, particularly in these strange admissions times.</p>
<p>cpeltz, I’ll amend my list to say that it’s for a B+ to A- student with SAT scores of 1800/2400 or better. And probably one ought to add the caveat that for full pay students things may have gotten easier, and for public or less expensive colleges, or colleges with great need based aid things may have gotten harder. In addition girls applying to engineering schools generally can have stats somewhat lower than the published ones, while boys applying to former girls schools also get a bit of an edge.</p>
<p>Finally the best safety is the one that you get into early. Rolling admissions, priority applications and EA (though the notifications tend to be pretty late) are all great options. If you get into a good school early you might not even need your safer safeties.</p>
Student may be in the top SAT quartile, but that does NOT guarantee acceptance
[/quote]
Agreed, and this is the argument for applying early to those rolling-deadline safeties. An application submitted at the beginning of the season is the best insurance against “these strange admissions times.” I think that too many students, considering the safety a “sure thing,” put safety applications off for too long. And then they’re shocked if they don’t gain admission or merit aid – but schools do fill up and money does run out! I’ve seen several threads on CC from students (or their parents) expressing indignation or confusion that they didn’t get admitted to a no-brainer safety, when some classmate whose record they think is inferior in every way did. It’s not all about stats; timing is a factor too!</p>
<p>Edit: Second cross-post with mathmom. I agree with her!</p>
<p>"So what percentage would be OK given the uncertainty of the times? "
3 years ago, we figured that those colleges where Son’s sat scores were in the 75% or above of accepted students , AND accepted 40% of applicants were safeties.
He was accepted at all his safeties, so I think the formula worked.</p>
<p>Edit, rereading various posts I see that the %'s Geek_mom used were exactly the same. We also used the Collegeboard search functions to find colleges that were similar to the few he started with.</p>
<p>Thank you for the informative thread.
Two questions…</p>
<p>1 - How accurate do you think the “how do I stack up” feature of the college board website is? </p>
<p>2 - If D is above the “middle 50% bar” in all areas on the “how do I stack up” tool, then that indicates that she’s in the top 25%, right? Her Math score is so low (550 - retook in June - cross fingers, start novenas) that, when I look at that “middle 50% bar” she’s frequently below in Math but fine/above in CR and W. I guess my question is - do all three areas need to be in the top 25% range in order to be considered either a match or a safety (depending on the criteria being used)?</p>
<p>This isn’t the most creative method around, but sometimes you can identify safeties by (a) folklore at your school, or (b) its scientific equivalent, scattergrams of acceptances/rejections in recent years. It doesn’t work for super-selective colleges, but lots of publics and large privates, and a fair number of LACs, may have a linear GPA/SAT function for a particular school, and if you are northeast of the line you may have a 90%+ chance of admission. Of course, this method isn’t as satisfying as some others, but it can be as easy as asking a guidance counselor “What are some safeties for me?”</p>
<p>I’d say M and CR need to be in the top 25% to be considered to be a safety. I don’t know how many colleges are using the W element of the SAT yet.</p>
<p>I will third (or fourth or whatever) the advice to apply early to the rolling-admissions options. There is no “safety” compared to having an early acceptance in your pocket while filling out the applications for other schools.</p>
<p>Yes, thank you everyone! bettzke spelled out the process I was looking for, and I can tweak it according to DSs situation. I agree that acceptance rates considerably higher than 40% are better for safety schools.</p>
<p>Like some others around here, DSs SAT scores are a bit higher than his GPA.</p>
<p>SAT = 1440/1600, 750 CR & 690 Math
GPA = 3.7 W, 3.3 UW (approximate, might have slipped this year)</p>
<p>So, if I take American University as an example:
Middle 50% SAT Scores – SAT CR = 580-700, SAT Math = 570-670
Percent admitted = 53%</p>
<p>American looks like a safety, which agrees with what his GC told him. And it has some possibilities for merit money, which helps make it a financial safety. Most importantly, DS has an interest in international studies and Arabic and likes the idea of being in DC.</p>
<p>DSs GPA is the one factor that drags his admittance chances down the most, although Im also concerned about his recommendation letters since hes something of a slacker in school.</p>
<p>Okay, now I just have to look at the other 59 schools on his list.</p>
<p>"now I just have to look at the other59 schools on his list. "
59! yikes! time for a cut down.
I agree American would be a safety.
But be sure to tell your son CC’s mantra- Love thy Safety!</p>
<p>My safeties both accept more than 50% of applicants. I’m in the 75th percentile or above. They are also both Affirmative Action institutions, which can’t hurt for a safety (I’m black). One of them has rolling admissions. The other does not, but has good financial aid. According to their financial aid matrix, I’m looking at a healthy scholarship. Even the bottom 25% of students in my range on that matrix get a pretty good scholarship, so I’m satisfied.</p>