Safety Schools/Advice

[tharpm]

I will be applying to Graduate Schools in the fall and have started researching different schools and trying to decide where I want to apply. I have decided that I am going to apply to about 15 schools to make my odds a little better, knowing it is very competitive! I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for safety schools to put on my list. After reviewing my list, I realized most of my schools are reach schools such as UNC chapel hill & East Carolina University. I live in NJ currently, but am willing to travel for graduate school. I heard mid-west schools are less competitive?

 

I have a 3.85 GPA

148 Verbal 

147 Quantitative

5.0 Writing 

(I plan on taking the GRE's again) 

Edited July 8, 2015 by tharpm

[jpiccolo]

Just my two cents, some of my 'safety' schools weren't really safety ones after all. If you apply to some that are way below your scores, they may be less inclined to accept you just because you'd probably get in somewhere else if you have good scores/grades. (Although it was entertaining for Indiana State to email me a rejection after being waitlisted and saying I should try again when my numbers are higher.) So if you see a school with avg GPA 3.4-3.5, they might not seriously consider your application. Not saying that happens everywhere, but it does happen. 

 

My signature has my stats and schools I got into in the midwest. There are some great ones there - ones that I was very sad to turn down! I think you have great odds, especially if you can up your GREs a bit more. You'll probably have a number of offers with 15 apps. Good luck!

[tharpm]

Thank you for the advice! The more people I talk to, the more say that there really aren't "safety schools", so I will keep that in mind. Just have to bring up the GRE scores. Thanks for all the different school options out west!

[hopefulslp2b]

I agree, there is no such thing as a "safe" school. I got rejected to the schools I thought weren't the most competitive. Just do your research, I used asha's ED find page to look at stats and see if I fit within their ranges and do your SOP for each school, I did a paragraph saying why I wanted to study there and I feel that helped a lot! I didn't do that for the "safety" schools and I feel that hurt me.

[koalalover1]

Just my two cents, some of my 'safety' schools weren't really safety ones after all. If you apply to some that are way below your scores, they may be less inclined to accept you just because you'd probably get in somewhere else if you have good scores/grades. (Although it was entertaining for Indiana State to email me a rejection after being waitlisted and saying I should try again when my numbers are higher.) So if you see a school with avg GPA 3.4-3.5, they might not seriously consider your application. Not saying that happens everywhere, but it does happen. 

 

My signature has my stats and schools I got into in the midwest. There are some great ones there - ones that I was very sad to turn down! I think you have great odds, especially if you can up your GREs a bit more. You'll probably have a number of offers with 15 apps. Good luck!

Okay I am kind of new to this site, and obviously this post wasn't to me, but I don't see a signature with stats. You don't have to answer, but I am curious what your stats are because I am looking at applying to Indiana State and schools in the Midwest myself!  I'm from Wisconsin, and I know Indiana State has a Midwest scholarship that I want to apply for that Wisconsin students are eligible for. My numbers are in line with their average scores for acceptances on their website.  Sorry I am responding a while after this was posted, haha, but I just started using my account a couple of days ago! 

[eggfish]

I suggest going on edfind and looking at schools in your GRE range, not many schools below and maybe 1 or 2 reach schools.  My boyfriend suggested something I think is a good idea.  For schools with stats within your range, calculate the acceptance rate.  For example, if 50 people applied, and 25 people were accepted, then the acceptance rate is .5.  Apply to enough schools that the number adds up to at least 1.0 (but don't include reach schools.  My number adds up to 1.49 if I include my reach school).  Not fool-proof, but it's potentially a good rule-of-thumb.  

[Jolie717]

For some reason ever since the recent forum updates/changes I no longer see anyone's stats either, including my own.  This is when using my iPad - not sure if it's different on a desktop.

[RCtheSS]

For some reason ever since the recent forum updates/changes I no longer see anyone's stats either, including my own.  This is when using my iPad - not sure if it's different on a desktop.

I'm using the desktop version and haven't seen signatures either since the update.

[koalalover1]

Okay good, it's not just me then! I have not seen the signatures either! 

[jpiccolo]

 

Okay I am kind of new to this site, and obviously this post wasn't to me, but I don't see a signature with stats. You don't have to answer, but I am curious what your stats are because I am looking at applying to Indiana State and schools in the Midwest myself!  I'm from Wisconsin, and I know Indiana State has a Midwest scholarship that I want to apply for that Wisconsin students are eligible for. My numbers are in line with their average scores for acceptances on their website.  Sorry I am responding a while after this was posted, haha, but I just started using my account a couple of days ago! 

Sorry they must have deleted the ability to do signatures. I can't find it on the profile settings anymore. Lame! 

Anyway, my overall GPA was 3.76. My ComD GPA was 3.66, and my GRE scores (the second time) were 162V, 155Q, and 5AW. 

The Midwest schools I got into were Northern Illinois, Michigan State, Mizzou. I was waitlisted at Purdue and Indiana State and St. Xavier (in Chicago). Feel free to msg me if you have questions about them!