Safety Schools

[XanthusARES]

So we're right in the midst of application season. Most applicants have completed their school lists, GMAT or GRE, picked out their LOR's, and, hopefully, started, if not finished, their SOPs. So this post is not particularly timely, but, alas, we press on.

 

A common theme amongst my posts as of late has been school selection (I'm way too lazy to post links to previous threads, but believe me they exist). A big reason for this is that I have extremely strong opinions about selecting schools to which you should apply. Secondarily, school selection questions are some of the most asked questions on this site (based on a cursory reading of every post ever written here, when I had much more time than I do now). Tertiarily, school selection is really important. Where you decide that you are going to spend the next 5 years of your life actually determines, to a large extent, where you are going to spend the next 30 years of your life.

 

Today's post is going to be about safety schools. What I'm going to say will definitely offend some people, and will, probably, be a topic of hot discussion. That's good, that's the point of online forums and I welcome dissidence. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions below.

 

To put it bluntly, DO NOT APPLY TO SAFETY SCHOOLS! With the caveat that you should apply to a safety school if you would actually go there if accepted. What many of us don't say is that our acceptance into a program is a rejection for somebody else. That's just the way the system works.

 

First of all, applying to schools you would never go to is a real d^@# move. When you do this you are basically saying that you would rather get an ego boost than allow someone who really wants to go to a school in.

 

Second, if you have done the proper research to find schools that are good fits for you both in relation to your stats and your research interests, you don't need to apply to a safety school. In fact doing so will take away time that could have been spent better tailoring your application to schools you would actually attend.

I understand that applications are a daunting task to us. Having your life's dreams and ambitions hinging on a few pieces of papers is scary. We all get it. I'm not calling you a bad person for adding that safety school to your list, we've all been tempted to do so. I'm simply asking you to think about the consequences of your actions. I'm also asking you to understand the importance and seriousness of selecting the right list of schools. It will honestly pay dividends to start early.

 

Finally, if you only get into your safety school and you do decide to go there are you really going to be happy? What happens in October when you're sitting in class thinking about how awesome it would have been to be at school X? If you have specific problems which can be addressed which would get you into a better program, address those issues, reapply and get into that better program. Trust me the extra year means nothing in the long term. Do it. You'll be much happier.

 

Maybe others disagree. That's fine. In the end you all are going to do what you all are going to anyway, regardless of some random guy's thoughts on the internet. Good luck!

[YaSvoboden]

A few points in reply.

 

1. While applying to a school that you wouldn't attend is a D*$K move, I don't think it will necessarily keep someone else out, unless you apply, get accepted and then wait until April to decline. If you apply you apply to a school and get accepted somewhere that dominates it then remove your application or then tell them that you won't be attending, then that is fine.

 

2. I think the more important point is "why are you applying to schools that you don't want to go to?" You point out that it is a waste of resources, which it is. It just generally doesn't make any sense to me. There is no possible gain from it.

 

If you want an ego boost, take the LSAT. I took that test and never applied to a law school, but I had scholarship offers and emails and packets sent to me for the next year.

 

3. I have never thought of a safety school as somewhere that you wouldn't want to go. I think of it as a school that you would still be happy to attend, and you could still meet your goals there, but you believe that you are likely to get into a higher ranking institution. For example, you think that you have a profile that will end up in a top 20 school, good test scores, exposure to research, etc. You like a lot of the top 20 schools so you apply to 8 of them, including 3 top 10 that you think there is only a very small chance that you will be admitted, but worth applying. However, admissions is a tricky process so you identify schools where you would still fit well in the 20-50 range and apply to 5 more of those. Those last 5 are what I think of as safety schools. I would recommend that people definitely apply to safety schools by that definition.

[myndfood]

 

3. I have never thought of a safety school as somewhere that you wouldn't want to go. I think of it as a school that you would still be happy to attend, and you could still meet your goals there, but you believe that you are likely to get into a higher ranking institution. For example, you think that you have a profile that will end up in a top 20 school, good test scores, exposure to research, etc. You like a lot of the top 20 schools so you apply to 8 of them, including 3 top 10 that you think there is only a very small chance that you will be admitted, but worth applying. However, admissions is a tricky process so you identify schools where you would still fit well in the 20-50 range and apply to 5 more of those. Those last 5 are what I think of as safety schools. I would recommend that people definitely apply to safety schools by that definition.

 

+1 this.

[XanthusARES]

3. I have never thought of a safety school as somewhere that you wouldn't want to go. I think of it as a school that you would still be happy to attend, and you could still meet your goals there, but you believe that you are likely to get into a higher ranking institution. For example, you think that you have a profile that will end up in a top 20 school, good test scores, exposure to research, etc. You like a lot of the top 20 schools so you apply to 8 of them, including 3 top 10 that you think there is only a very small chance that you will be admitted, but worth applying. However, admissions is a tricky process so you identify schools where you would still fit well in the 20-50 range and apply to 5 more of those. Those last 5 are what I think of as safety schools. I would recommend that people definitely apply to safety schools by that definition.

 

 

100% if this is what people are referring to when they say safety school, then by all means please apply to these schools.

[AppInfo]

Agree with the above. I think of a safety school as one you are relatively confident you will get into and would actually attend but there are other better schools higher on your list. Of course one can question if there is really any such thing as a safety school for PhD applications given how random the admissions processes seems to be.

 

I think what you are really saying is don't apply to a school you wouldn't be happy attending. Some people might argue but my guess is that most people here are going to agree with that.

[doingfine]

You guys have totally confused a gaggle of potential applicants now :(

[PhDPlease]

IMO of course don't apply to a school that you are 100% sure you wouldn't attend as that's a waste of time for everyone, if you think you reasonably MIGHT attend (but aren't 100% sure), it is fine to go ahead and apply. Schools have admitted students visits and are much more willing to answer your questions and provide you with information once you've been admitted. Yes of course you should think carefully about where you want to go and apply to a reasonable list of schools, but at the same time if you still have a little bit of uncertainty there is nothing wrong with throwing in a few extra applications if you can afford to do so. (Of course this is just my opinion, and I can understand that others may disagree.)

[myndfood]

Perhaps it's worth differentiating between safety schools and schools lower on the "depth chart"? Here's how I'd define these:

 

Safety school: a school you apply to ONLY because you are certain you'll get it (but which you have no intention of attending one way or the other). As many have already said, this makes no sense. But I'd also like to point out that the data suggests that there are rarely any certainties when it comes to doctoral admissions. All of the schools are pretty selective, and they all have their own calculus when it comes to selecting students--and it's nearly impossible to know if you meet the bill (even if, on paper, you look like a shoe-in). Basically, don't do this (which is what, I think, Xanth was trying to say).

 

Schools lower on the "depth chart": schools that you'd play, happily, if all the schools above them were out of the game for some reason. That might be a bad metaphor, so I'll abandon it. But basically, these are the schools that you'd attend if none of the more preferable schools (to you) worked out for you. And the answer here is, yes: obviously apply to these. And be happy if you get into one (or more) of them!

 

One other note about the term, "Safety School": if you're in the habit of thinking about one of the schools you're applying to as a "Safety School", you probably shouldn't apply. Imagine you got in there, and only there. How would you feel about telling other students and faculty there that it was your "safety school"? It just seems like an arrogant (and unnecessarily harsh) term that you'd never say to the school's "face".

[PhDPlease]

I think it also depends on whether you will be a bit disappointed that you didn't get into Dream School but then ultimately be happy with the "safety" once you got over the initial disappointment, versus if you will be unhappy the entire time you are attending the "safety." Personally I'd lean toward applying and then seeing how you feel when the results come in and you've visited and talked to students/faculty there if you think there's a reasonable chance you'd attend even if you aren't 100% certain.

 

Personally I had a classmate who said that my undergrad (very competitive school although not as competitive as Harvard) was his safety and how he thought he belonged at Harvard. However he got over it pretty soon and enjoyed his experience there. Although I think it would have been better if maybe he kept that sentiment to himself, things worked out for him and he ended up being happy.

 

Anyway my overall advice would be that what one considers a safety really depends on one's personal preferences and I don't think there's really a one-size-fits-all solution.

[AppInfo]

I think it also depends on whether you will be a bit disappointed that you didn't get into Dream School but then ultimately be happy with the "safety" once you got over the initial disappointment, versus if you will be unhappy the entire time you are attending the "safety." Personally I'd lean toward applying and then seeing how you feel when the results come in and you've visited and talked to students/faculty there if you think there's a reasonable chance you'd attend even if you aren't 100% certain.

 

Personally I had a classmate who said that my undergrad (very competitive school although not as competitive as Harvard) was his safety and how he thought he belonged at Harvard. However he got over it pretty soon and enjoyed his experience there. Although I think it would have been better if maybe he kept that sentiment to himself, things worked out for him and he ended up being happy.

 

Anyway my overall advice would be that what one considers a safety really depends on one's personal preferences and I don't think there's really a one-size-fits-all solution.

 

I think you have a fair point here. Throughout the process I found that schools at the bottom of my list moved up and schools at the top moved down. So it is certainly possible that a school you considered marginal may at the very least become desirable to you over the course of the application process. The program I ended up at was in the bottom half of my initial list but was at the very top of my list by the time I received an offer.

 

I agree that there is probably little generic advice that can be given here, other than a call for introspection. Each candidate ultimately has to make their own decisions about how to spend their time and resources when applying. The one thing I think I can say is that if you enroll at a school it should be with the intent to complete the PhD there and seek an academic posting afterward (i.e. enrolling with the intent to transfer is not a good plan). That sounds obvious enough but if you only have one acceptance from a school you don't want to go to it maybe hard to turn it down and try again next year, which is something to consider when deciding where to apply.