<p>I am a upcoming sophmore in high school and I am new to the whole searching for college thing. I was just wondering what do they mean by a safety school?</p>
<p>It's a school that you are almost 100% sure that you can get into no matter what. It's probably not an amazing school, but it's somewhere that you wouldn't mind going if you got rejected from every other school you applied to.</p>
<p>Thanks dvlfnfv5</p>
<p>rule of thumb: a school where your SATs are in the top 25%. Other things have to be taken into account, of course, such as out-of-state, ECs, and so on.</p>
<p>
[quote]
dvlfnfv5 writes: it's somewhere that you wouldn't mind going if you got rejected from every other school you applied to.
[/quote]
Actually I'd make it stronger than that. A safety should be a school you'd be happy to attend; maybe its not as intriguing as your reaches, but it should still be a school you'd have no qualms about attending.</p>
<p>A lot of people spend hours researching Ivy's and similar schools where the odds of acceptance are 10% or less, but they send in an app to State without much thinking about it. Statistically a bunch of people are bound to end up with only a choice among their safeties, and just read the board every spring to read the anguish when people realize they don't even like those schools!</p>
<p>My recommendation is that you should spend a lot of time finding a true safety, meaning a school you want to attend. Search the forum for threads such as "love your safety" to find more tips and advice. And since a safety is a school for which you're a strong candidate, often this means significant merit money as well. It's not unknown for kids to decide the package offered by their safety outweighs the $40K+ expense of other schools.</p>
<p>^^ Very true. My response was made in haste.</p>
<p>Everyone has their own definition of "safety school". However, Harvard is the only school exempt from "safety school" status. One of my friends is truly brilliant, and this is what he likes to say. He got into Harvard, Princeton, & Yale. He chose Harvard. It was his 1st choice all along. He described the other 2 as his "safety" schools (LOL).</p>
<p>Thank you everyone</p>