What's your safety school?

<p>mine are Western Washington U and St. Martin’s U. I like both and could get into both so it works out!</p>

<p>Many of you guys seem to be aiming way too high when it comes to safeties. BU isn’t a safety anymore imo considering that they didn’t provide much good financial aid to anyone except those in the top 3% of my class and they waitlisted many in the top 5% of my class. </p>

<p>As someone who’s been through the college admissions process as well as seen how my peers handled it, the only true safety school unless you’re the indisputable super-star in and out of the classroom (not necessarily the valedictorian) is the closest state college or University of [name of state] that has the major you want. In many states even the flagship state school isn’t really a safety anymore. For example, if you live in Massachusetts, Umass Amherst is still a good safety for most kids in the top 10% of their class (that’s quickly changing and it’s actually harder to get into Umass Amherst as an in-state applicant), however, UVA, UMichigan, a majority UCs, UNC Chapel Hill, and probably a few others aren’t safeties anymore for anyone except for an extremely small number of students. I also have a feeling U Maryland College Park, and U Illinois Champaign-Urbana are nowadays only safeties for a few. </p>

<p>Lower tier and mid-range private schools aren’t always very good safeties because of financial aid money drying up nowadays and the fact that most lower tier private schools aren’t any better than state colleges. Some mid-range schools (schools similar to BU) can also be unpredictable in their admissions policies. Tufts syndrome is apparently not a myth. I actually know someone who had gotten a letter from NYU stating they believed she would get into a better school after she had her guidance counselor request an explanation for her rejection. That person ended up going to UPenn Wharton, so she was obviously a very good student and pretty lucky as well. Often times as well, private colleges would reject people on the basis of low demonstrated interest. So, show some love for your safeties as well.</p>

<p>Ya, many people on here are posting ridiculous schools. ie. Bowdoin.</p>

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<p>Well…I’m in the top 1% of my class with an SAT score in the 99% percentile, multiple meaningful ECs, etc. BU is certainly a safety. My school’s naviance shows that no one with my stats has ever been denied, and that’s not even including my ECs.</p>

<p>Hey, if you say so.</p>

<p>I was really aiming at the general trend towards a lot of people mentioning relatively highly selective schools on this thread. Even for you, it really wouldn’t hurt to throw in a public safety.</p>

<p>New College of Florida, UCF, and UF. I’m banking on admission more towards the first two, as UF seems to be more erratic in terms of admission.</p>

<p>Since everyone here is being slightly ridiculous with safety schools, I’ll throw in a down-to-earth one.</p>

<p>The University of Oklahoma. Automatic admission to those with 26 ACT + 3.5 UW GPA. Done.</p>

<p>iborpastan… read my post. I’m applying to U Pitt as well.</p>

<p>william and mary, loyola (MD), and UMich (more of low match)</p>

<p>University of Hawaii Manoa, BYU, BYU-Hawaii, and probably UM College Park.</p>

<p>My safety school is Brooklyn college. Its pretty much where most people in my school go, and i’m in a private school in Brooklyn. I really want to go to Hunter college in Manhattan, I’m nervous about not getting in. Its a little harder to get into Hunter than Brooklyn, even though their both CUNY. Either way i’m a commuting student, not a dormer.</p>

<p>VCU, Hawaii Pacific University, and University of Alaska Fairbanks.</p>

<p>UNM : / Bama’ or Auburn.</p>

<p>UC Santa Cruz</p>

<p>UC Berkeley; my school has an extremely high acceptance rate there.</p>

<p>^how high is it??</p>

<p>USC, CMU or NYU</p>

<p>THE University of Alabama</p>

<p>Unless you have near perfect stats and amazing EC’s, USC, CMU and NYU are not safeties. Maybe matches, but not safeties.</p>

<p>UNC (i’m in-state, so…)</p>

<p>Susquehanna</p>