The Problem with "Safety Schools" (And Other Things We Should Stop Saying)
- Lynn Hofstad
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
Given my background in academia, you might have noticed that my blog posts skew toward evidence-based, informational content. This post is a bit of an exception. While I would argue it's still informational, it relies more on anecdotal personal observations.
Ask yourself: How do I feel about the various colleges in my state? How would I describe them? My guess is that coming up with feelings about certain colleges is easy, particularly if you know someone who went to a particular college or you yourself attended a certain college.
My advice while you are helping a student/your kid through the college application process is to guard how you talk about colleges, particularly if it is based on personal feelings or the reputation of a college "back in the day." It might ultimately be counterproductive or even detrimental to the college search process.
I can't count the number of times I have heard parents/family members/adults etc. make off-handed remarks about a school being a "party school" or a "safety school" or comment on the student body (often not positive). The problem with this is that it might not be accurate, it might be based on outdated information, or it might cause the kid to feel a certain way about themselves if that is the college they ultimately end up attending. To be clear, there are certainly party schools out there and schools that aren't as academically rigorous, but those are things that should emerge through the search process rather than it being a "fact" that is provided to the kid before they get to rule out the school on their own.
For me the most harmful comments are those that degrade or demean a school. Don't get me wrong, I have strong feelings about certain schools, but just because it isn't/wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean that it isn't the right fit for someone else. Two anecdotes that might help explain what I'm talking about:
Consider a student who applies to over a dozen schools. Some of the schools are added at the last minute as "safety schools." Still others are on the list because someone wants them to apply. Come decision time, the only colleges that accept the student are some of the "safety schools" and the ones they don't really want to attend but applied to out of obligation. The student is now in the position of having to go to a college that isn't a good fit or one they perceive as below them.
There are many aspects to the anecdote worth examining (e.g. no one should apply to a college they don't want to go to), but the most important one for me is how the student's perception was shaped to think that acceptance to a perfectly good college is a failure. "Safety" implies that it's a given, but in today's college admissions landscape, very few things are a given. "Safety" also demeans the value of the college—instead of being a place that fosters the growth and education of students it's viewed as a last resort.
For this reason, I will often talk about colleges as a "fit" or "good match" or "confidence school." This conveys the high probability of being accepted, but doesn't demean its value in the process.
A second anecdote: We were having dinner with the family of one of my son's friends. Somehow we got talking about where we went to college. The dad sheepishly named a public university in the state, and quickly followed it with the proviso that he was accepted to the "more prestigious" state university, but chose his alma mater because it had a better program for his major. This is a smart, successful guy with a great career, yet the perception of the university as a "party school" still causes him to have to explain his choice decades later.
Now consider how this same interaction might be perceived by a student entering the college search process. Repeatedly hearing that a particular college is "less than" might lead them to dismiss a college that could actually be a good fit for them. It also might lead them to perceive themselves in a certain way if they eventually attend that university.
Personally, I still have a hard time stopping myself from thinking of certain colleges as "accepting anyone who fills in their name on the application" or not as good as my alma mater or a party school or the place where that certain high school person I didn't like attended. That said, I am careful how I talk about schools in front of my son (even at 8 years old) and other people in the college process, and try to be open to learning new things about a college that might change my perception of the school. The goal is to find a college that is the right fit for your unique student—and sometimes that requires letting go of decades old perceptions.
