If you are a long-time reader of our blog, you know that we don’t think you need to visit every school on your list. However no many how many times we say, “you don’t need to visit this many schools!” we get students who try to visit 20-some schools anyways. For those students, the only question that comes up around school visits is, “are safeties worth visiting?”
When it comes to safeties, we aren’t against you visiting them, but we have some parameters that we think are important to consider when it comes to planning safety school visits.
Are you already going to be around there anyway?
We always advise on visiting schools close to where you live first so if you live close to one of your safeties, it isn’t a bad idea. Our rule of thumb is kind of like Dominos Pizza, 30 minutes or less. If you live under 30 minutes away from a safety that might be on your list, go check it out!
Similarly, if you are visiting a school in the same city as one of your safety schools and have the time, go for it. This works especially well in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, or Chicago. These cities have a lot of colleges. Let’s say you are in Chicago specifically to see your dream school, Northwestern, while you are there why not see DePaul? They are 20 minutes away from each other.
Seeing safety schools where you already are might not be as exciting as seeing your dream schools, but it will give you more insight into what you might be interested in. These schools can serve as functional data points on metrics like size or location. Seeing schools that differ on metrics like size will help you craft the list of schools that you want to apply to.
Are you likely going to go to the safety school?
No one can really fully answer this question until they have all their acceptances in their hands, but use your best judgment. Do you really think that you are going to one of your safeties? If the answer is yes, then seeing them isn’t a bad idea, but most of our students know deep down that their perfect grades, good scores, and interesting extracurriculars won’t land them at a school at the way bottom of their list.
If you are pretty sure that you aren’t going to go to your safety schools, don’t waste your time.
Does demonstrated interest count?
Demonstrated interest is when a school notes if candidates have looked into them before applying and marks that as a positive. Not all schools do demonstrated interest and let’s be real, for the last two years, the pandemic has shut this down. However, some schools still collect data on demonstrated interest. It’s worth checking if schools on your list track demonstrated interest.
This isn’t to say that demonstrated interest is something that will make or break your application. It is just a cherry on top for these schools. If you have schools on your list that do demonstrated interest, even if they are safeties, consider visiting them.
That being said, there are other ways to demonstrate interest that are pandemic friendly and don’t include visiting the school. If you can’t fly out to see a safety, but still want to demonstrate interest, connect with an admissions counselor over email, take a virtual tour, request info online, or connect on social. While visiting is the most traditional way to demonstrate interest, it isn’t the only way.
Prioritize
Your time is a limited resource. Between all your studies and extracurriculars and everything else, you are going to need to visit some colleges. You should prioritize the right ones and safety schools don’t need to be on that list. Applying for college takes a ton of time and effort, be realistic about what you will have time to do.
Almost every student will have a safety school or two on their list. They are good to have, but make sure you keep them in perspective. Most students don’t go to their safeties. It’s ok to not visit them if they are out of your way. It’s certainly ok to deprioritize them. So is it worth it? TLDR depends, but we won’t be mad at you if you don’t visit your safeties.
Need help figuring out which schools are safeties? We can help with that! Contact us here.