Every college applicant wants to get accepted. When you apply to safety schools, you boost your chances of getting into colleges that are the right fit for you. But what is a safety school, and how do you decide which ones to apply to?
In this guide, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step process for how to find safety schools. We’ll also give you tips for narrowing down your list of safety schools so you can apply to the right ones for you!
What Is a Safety School?
A safety school is a college that you have a really strong chance of getting accepted into.
If your high school GPA and standardized test scores are above the 75th percentile for accepted students at a given school, you should have at least an 80 percent chance of acceptance. In college admissions, the odds don’t get much better than that!
Unlike reach schools, which have a low acceptance rate and are extremely competitive, and match schools, which are a good fit for you but not a guaranteed lock, safety schools are colleges whose admissions requirements you exceed.
Safety schools are called that because they’re like a safety net: if you don’t get into the more competitive schools you apply to, there’s a good chance your safety schools will come through with the acceptances you’re hoping for. That’s why it’s worth your time to make a list of multiple safety schools and put together strong applications for each one!
Even though safety schools feel like a slam dunk, it’s important for you to choose them wisely. The goal is for you to select schools that meet your needs and you’d be happy going to, not just any old college! Keep reading for info from our admissions experts about how to find great safety schools for your college list.
No need to stress about your college list! We can help.
How to Find Safety Schools in 4 Easy Steps
Follow the four steps below on how to find safety schools that are right for you!
Step #1: Define What You Want in a School
When it comes to how to find a good safety school, it all starts with knowing what you’re looking for in a college. You don’t want to apply to a safety school just because you’re confident you’ll get accepted. Instead, you should apply to safety schools that match your needs, interests, and goals.
To get started, make a list of the things you want in a college. You can use the list below to get you started:
- School size
- Majors offered
- Location
- Extracurricular activities
- Campus life and student involvement
- Campus culture
- Campus diversity
- Scholarships and financial aid options
- Career services and internship opportunities
Remember: this isn’t a quiz! There are no right or wrong answers. As long as you’re being honest with yourself about what you want and need, you’ll be on the right track!
With that said, how you answer these questions will shape the kinds of colleges you consider. For example, maybe you want to go to a big school with lots of athletic activities that also has a good business program. The schools that fit those criteria will be different than ones for students looking for a small, close-knit campus or ones that cater to specific student populations, like historically Black universities.
Step #2: Look at Your Test Scores and GPA
In addition to considering what you want out of a college, you also need to use your high school GPA and SAT/ACT scores in order to pick the right safety schools for you.
As we mentioned earlier, your GPA and test scores should exceed the 75th percentile for students accepted to a college you’re considering in order for it to be a safety school.
Here’s an example to illustrate what we mean.
Zoe wants to apply to the University of Oklahoma. With a 3.9 GPA, a 660 on SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, and a 720 SAT Math score, is OU a safety school for Zoe?
Yes. Here’s why: the average GPA for OU is a 3.6. The 75th percentile scores for OU are a 660 on SAT Math and a 670 on SAT EBRW, making the 75th percentile composite SAT score a 1310.
OU’s admissions rate is 77%. With her composite SAT score of 1380 and her 3.9 GPA, both of which exceed the 75th percentile grades and scores at OU, Zoe can count the University of Oklahoma as a safety school.
But let’s say Zoe wants to take her 3.8 GPA and her 1380 SAT and apply to Harvard.
The average GPA of students admitted to Harvard is a 4.2. The average SAT is a 1550. Additionally, Harvard’s admissions rate is 3.5%. Since Zoe’s GPA and SAT scores are both below the average scores at Harvard, and because Harvard’s acceptance rate is well below 15%, Zoe couldn’t count Harvard as a safety school. (Nobody can! Harvard is a reach school for everyone.)
Now, what if Zoe decides to apply to the University of Texas? At UT, the average GPA for admitted students is a 3.83, and the average SAT score is a 1355. Zoe’s GPA exceeds the average GPA by just a little bit, and her SAT score is between the average and the 75th percentile scores at UT.
While her GPA and scores aren’t quite high enough to call UT a safety school, Zoe can apply to the University of Texas as a match school. That’s because her GPA and scores are a match for the average student who gets accepted to UT!
When you know your GPA and SAT/ACT scores, you have what you need to determine whether a college is a safety, match, or reach school. To make the process even easier, you can use PrepScholar to find the average GPA and test scores for any school you’re considering. Just search, “[School name] admissions requirements PrepScholar” online, and you’ll find up-to-date data that you can use to identify the right safety schools for you.
Step #3: Search for Schools
Once you know what you’re looking for in colleges, it’s time to do some research. The goal now is to find schools that meet the majority (or all!) of your criteria so you can build your college long list.
If you aren’t sure where to begin researching, start with a specific Google search. You can type what you’re looking for in a college into the search bar, then browse the results for schools that are a good fit.
For instance, you might search, “Small US state colleges located in the midwest.” A specific search like this one should pull up rankings lists from sources like US News & World Report, Forbes, and College Advisor. You’ll be able to browse these lists and start picking out schools that might be a fit for you.
The query above brings up US News & World Report’s list of “2025 Top Public Universities in the Midwest.” On this list, you’ll find Truman State University, a small public college in the rural town of Kirksville, Missouri. Truman State has an 80% acceptance rate, low tuition costs, and an average SAT score of 1240. It’s also ranked #11 on US News & World Report’s rankings of “Best Value Schools in the Midwest.” You’ll also find schools with similar offerings, like University of Northern Iowa, University of Minnesota Duluth, and University of Illinois–Springfield.
Or, let’s say you search, “Best value colleges in the South.” From this query, you’ll get this list from US News & World Report, which includes schools like Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky; Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia; and Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. All of these schools are included in the list because of their high academic quality and low cost of attendance.
You can also visit forums on Reddit to ask questions about schools you’re considering. Current and past students often frequent these forums, and they’ll be able to give you their honest opinion about what’s great and what’s lacking about a school. Keep in mind that these are just opinions, and it’ll be up to you to form your own based on what you learn from your research.
There are also companies, like PrepScholar, that provide a college admissions calculator that can help you find schools. If you enter your SAT score, PrepScholar will generate a list of potential safety schools based on your SAT score. If you have at least an 80% chance according to the calculator, you can probably include that school on your list of safeties.
Bonus Tip: Using AI to Find Safety Schools
While there are pros and cons to using them, AI-powered searches can also help you track down safety schools. Options like CollegeXpress allow you to ask a series of questions and will provide a list of schools based on your query. For instance, if you ask, “Provide a list of safety schools in the southern US for a 4.0 GPA and 1200 SAT,” CollegeXpress will give you a list of schools that fit those criteria, like University of Alabama and University of South Carolina.
With AI-powered searches, it’s crucial to remember that this is still new technology, and it can (and does!) make mistakes. Don’t hand over your personal information, and always do your own research to double check the results you get from an AI search.
Bonus Tip: How To Find A School’s Average Test Scores and GPA
When you get an idea of which schools you’re interested in, you can browse their websites to find more information about what each school is like.
You can also look at colleges’ websites to make sure that your GPA and SAT/ACT scores exceed their 75th percentile scores. Remember: a school is only a safety school for you if your GPA and test scores are higher than the average student!
Average GPA and test score information for admitted students can often be found on a school’s admissions website. Many schools share the average test scores and GPAs of their most recently admitted class. As you browse school websites, take a look at these numbers to see how your scores and grades compare!
For more in-depth data on a school’s most recently admitted class of students, you can do an online search for, “[School name] common data set.” A school’s common data set provides details on admissions, financial aid, student demographics, academic programs, and more. This information is reported by the school itself, and it almost always includes the average SAT/ACT scores and GPAs of a school’s most recently admitted class. Using a school’s common data set is an easy way for you to determine whether your grades and test scores make a given college a safety school for you.
For instance, if you search, “University of Texas common data set,” you’ll find that it’s available on the UT website. To find the SAT/ACT scores and GPA of admitted students, go to section C9 of the common data set. This section provides 25th and 75th percentile scores for all exam sections, as well as composite scores.
find admissions requirements, information about what the school is like, and testimonials from current students about why they love the school. You can use the info you find to make sure that your GPA and test scores exceed those of the average accepted student at each school. That’s how you know that a college is truly a safety school for you!
It's finally list-making time!
Step #4: Make Your List
As you search for and learn about colleges, make an organized and detailed list of safety schools you want to consider applying to.
When it comes to making a list, go ahead and start broad. Up to 10 safety schools is a good place to start. To choose your 10 schools, start by using your GPA and test scores to move schools off your list. Any school whose average admitted student exceeds your SAT/ACT score and GPA can be moved to your list of match or reach schools, which you can work on later. The schools you’re left with after that should be the ones whose test scores and GPA you exceed.
From there, you can figure out which criteria are non-negotiable and use them to weed out schools that aren’t a fit. For instance, maybe a school fits your size requirements but doesn’t offer the major you want. Or maybe a school is in your dream location but doesn’t offer many good scholarships. If your choice major and scholarship opportunities are must-haves for you, then the schools that miss the mark should immediately be moved to the bottom of your list.
Essentially, you’re going to use what you’ve learned about SAT/ACT scores and GPA and your criteria for what you want in a school to rank colleges. The schools that get the closest to meeting all your criteria for a safety school should make your top 10!
As you search, you’ll probably find that you have dozens of safety schools to choose from. But you can’t apply to them all! How do you decide how many schools—and which ones!—to apply to?
At PrepScholar, we recommend that safety schools make up one third of your college list.
For instance, if you plan to apply to nine colleges total, a third of those, or three, should be safety schools. Limiting safety schools to a third of the total schools you’ll apply to gives you plenty of cushion. Remember: you’re really likely to get accepted to these schools. There’s no need to apply to a billion of them!
As you get more of a sense of what you want out of a college and how many schools you plan to apply to in total, you’ll be able to narrow your list down to a manageable number of safety schools to apply to. We’ll cover how to narrow your safety schools list next!
Tips For Narrowing Down Your Safety School List
Now that you know how many safety schools should make your final list, it’s time to figure out how to decide which schools you should include. Keep reading for three tips on how to narrow down your list of safety schools.
Tip 1: Only Apply to Safety Schools You'd Actually Want to Attend
Just because a school qualifies as a safety doesn't mean you should apply to it. The most important rule when building your safety school list is this: only include schools where you'd genuinely be happy spending the next four years.
Instead, take the time to research each potential safety school and honestly ask yourself: Would I be excited to go here? Consider factors like:
- Does the campus culture feel like a good fit for my personality?
- Will I have access to the extracurriculars and opportunities I care about?
- Can I see myself making friends and building a community here?
- Does the school's location work for me—am I comfortable with the climate, distance from home, and surrounding area?
Remember, there's a real possibility you'll end up attending one of your safety schools. In fact, many students discover that their safety school turns out to be the perfect fit once they visit campus or learn more about what the school has to offer.
Tip 2: Consider Scholarships and Financial Aid
Whether you attend an Ivy League school or a local community college, it’s no secret that college costs money. As you look for safety schools, search for ones that meet your criteria and also offer generous financial aid opportunities.
While it can be tempting to focus solely on financial aid at your dream schools, take the time to explore the financial aid packages at safety schools too. Since your test scores and GPA make you a top applicant at safety schools, start by looking at their merit-based scholarship offerings. If you choose to apply to state schools in the state where you currently live, you may find that there are automatic scholarships for students who meet certain criteria, like being in the top ten percent of their graduating class or having a high GPA.
If they meet your other criteria, strongly consider applying to the safety schools that offer you the best financial aid. More financial aid can often mean less stress about paying for college. You want to apply to some schools that offer you that opportunity!
What's Next?
Did you know there are other categories of schools you should include in your college list? Learn more about target schools here.
Not having to submit your test scores may change the math on whether a school qualifies as a safety, target, or reach for you. Here's a list of test-optional colleges that you can consider.
Need a little extra guidance building your college list? PrepScholar's admissions counselors can help.
