Sorry for the late in the game post, but me and my son just came to the realization that we didn’t apply to any schools he is 100% into. He has a 30 ACT and 4.2 GPA (great science extracurriculars and a really good rec from his bio teacher!)
His safeties are:
Tulane (differed EA)
Boston University
George Washington
Wisconsin - Madison
University of California - Davis
The Tulane differal really through him, and he is very nervous he won’t get into college. Would you say he is okay with this list of safeties or should he throw in a last minute app to Indiana/Arizona?
Applying to a some safeties wouldn’t hurt, if he feels Tulane would be a good fit for him he should send updates of his senior year transcript (if they’re good lol) to help with his application decision. I would say Indiana is a better fit considering his list of colleges, but I would definitely visit a few more schools to see if he falls in love with them, maybe even schedule an interview?
High-quality OOS publics typically cannot be referred to as safeties because their OOS admit rates are too low, and the private schools you listed also have admit rates that are too low for them to be considered safeties.
GWU probably comes closest, but you’d need superstar stats for it to approach being a safety. Even for 4.0 unweighted, 36 ACT kids, I wouldn’t call these safeties, unless that kid were in-state for Davis or UW.
@wishiwoulda You don’t want it to be spring with no acceptance anywhere. Scan a few of the 2021 decisions threads of kids who were deferred or rejected EA/ ED to various schools. It’s impossible to make sense of any of it but you should have your son submit apps to a couple of safety schools.
I mean, I think there’s a reasonable chance that OP’s son would get into one or more of those schools if the rest of his app is strong, but these schools are neither a safety as a group, nor safeties individually.
OP, what is your son looking for? Does he care about things like school size, environment (town size/location/weather), having a huge variety of classes and majors, and small classes?
Those aren’t safeties.
A safety is a school where the applicant ranks top 10-25% and has at least a 40% admit rate - and is affordable.
Are you instate for California? Or Arizona?
It’s too late for CA public’s but he can still apply to asu Barrett.
What’s your budget? Can you afford your EFC? Does he know what he’s like to major in? Where are you instate?
I don’t know why you consider these safeties 4.2 weighted gpa is bad for these schools. Indiana and possibly low tier UNC Systems schools can be considered safeties
Don’t agree with @fedmaster a 4.2 is a solid W GPA and competitive for all these schools. I would consider all 4 of these schools matches, but none of them sure fire safeties. I would be surprised if he didn’t get admitted into one of these schools.
I thought deadlines for applications were closed anyway…
Last year my older sister got into Tulane and had a 4.3 and a 31 on the ACT for comparisons sake.
Average UW GPA for Tulane was a 3.51 and a 30 ACT last year though.
Oh come on: a 4.2 means a mix of a’s and b’s in AP classes of it is out of a 6 point scale. This is bad. If this is out of a 5 point scale, then I guess it’s above average
What is a 6 point scale? The valedictorian last year at my daughter’s high school had a 4.71 and got into Harvard, that high of a GPA isn’t even possible just taking classes on campus. I would say anything over a 4.0 is a solid GPA.
If your son has already applied to the U of Oregon, that’s closer to a safety than IU, UW, BU, Tulane, GWU or UCD… and probably similar in difficulty to Arizona and ASU.
In our state public schools, an A in an AP class receives 6 points, an A in an Honors class receives 5 points and an A in a regular class receives 4 points. I believe that may be what is being referred to as a 6 point scale. Conversely, at my kids’ private school, an A in an AP receives 5 points, an A in an Honors class receives 4.5 points and an A in a regular class receives 4 points, so that is most likely a 5 point scale.