<p>I think students should apply to 2-3 financial safeties, and this is why.</p>
<p>Scenario: Student applies to ONLY one financial safety PLUS…6-10 reaches, matches, and pricier safeties. </p>
<p>Then…Acceptances/rejections come in. Student realizes he can’t afford any of his accepted reaches/matches/pricier safeties. Then he feels like he’s forced to take “the consolation prize.” He has no choices. That can be very deflating. (two of son’s classmates felt like that last spring.) </p>
<p>I know that you should really like your financial safety, but there’s something psychological that can happen to a student when he feels like he’s been financially railroaded into one school - even if he likes said school. </p>
<p>I always recommend…apply to at least 2-3 financial safeties that you wouldn’t mind attending. :)</p>
<p>And, frankly, from what I’ve seen on CC, there are many kids who are setting themselves up for shock and disappointment come spring when their parents learn what their EFC is and/or when they see F/A packages filled with student loans. There are many kids here who definitely need to apply to 2-3 safeties. Kids whose parents will easily pay full-freight probably don’t need this precaution.</p>
<p>It’s totally relative to the applicant. These are my personal definitions. </p>
<p>A safety is a place that will either automatically accept you based on stats, or a place that you’re 90% sure will accept you. Preferably an in-state public.</p>
<p>A match is a probable acceptance. You meet or surpass their average stats. You’ll most likely get in, but it could go either way. You will most likely attend a match, so match schools are important. </p>
<p>A reach is a place where you probably won’t get in, but have a fighting chance. Note that it’s not just a matter of stats. Even with a 4.0/2350, an unhooked applicant should regard Harvard as a reach school.</p>
<p>A True Safety meets all four requisites (I came up with this model, I get to define it). If admission isn’t guaranteed, or you can’t afford it, or if nothing remotely like your major is offered, or if you would rather throw yourself in front of a freight train than attend it, it can’t be considered a True Safety.</p>
<p>As you point out, some students will not find a True Safety. However, most students can if they loosen up their notions of just exactly how perfect a school has to be to be minimally acceptable. And this is all your TS has to be - minimally acceptable in a worst case scenario. If a student truly, absolutely, can’t come up with a True Safety, they should work hard at coming up with several schools that come as close to meeting the admission, affordability, major field, and relative likability requirements as possible when tracking down their Safety/Likely schools. They also should think long and hard about developing a Plan B, as in “What I’ll do next year if I’m not in college.”</p>
<p>^ Indeed, you get to define a True Safety as however you like. But in that case, I’d like to counterbalance your definition with the following advice: Don’t look for JUST One True Safety, but for several “regular” safeties with which you might be happier than the True Safety. Even many students who COULD find a minimally acceptable True Safety might be happier with just two safeties that they like more.</p>
<p>My issue with the True Safety concept is that it encourages extremist thinking (er, not terrorist-extremist!). 1 safety + tons of reaches is a viable application strategy… but not very palatable if the safety is only “minimally acceptable.” Many students, for instance, have financial safeties that they are willing but not happy to attend (i.e. the True Safety is preferred to a gap year but student will still go off unhappy and grumbling). In that case, instead of just hoping that the safety won’t be the only option, students should look for several low matches and safeties that are well-liked.</p>
<p>I would say that a true safety is a school whose 75th percentile standardized test scores are considerably lower (50-100 points SAT, 2-3 points ACT) than your own scores. Notice that by this definition most top-25 schools are not safeties for anyone.</p>
<p>Also, don’t fail to notice a discrepancy in public schools’ in-state vs. out-of-state student populations. UVA and UNC might have test ranges far lower than Georgetown, Duke, etc., but it will be just as difficult to get into either as a result of their discrimination against out-of-state applicants.</p>