How did you decide on a "reach" school?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Sorry if this is a naive question, but I am wondering what criteria people use, and/or what the process is, for selecting a reach school. </p>

<p>For example, is it simply your dream school, or do you use a systematic approach, like look at the avg entering freshman GPA and if it's 0.x (or 1.x) higher than your own, you apply? </p>

<p>There must be a line between choosing a school where you have some chance (however remote) of getting accepted, vs. throwing money away on an application fee.</p>

<p>Thanks for any help.</p>

2

<p>Most schools that accept fewer than 30% of applicants are going to be a reach for most students. It really depends on the students gpa, test scores, hook and ECs.</p>

3

<p>We did NOT encourage our kids to apply to schools that were total reaches. We felt that was a waste of time, emotions, energy and money. We did, however, allow both to apply to REACHABLE schools…ones that were a little more competitive, but sort of in the realm of possible. Simply put…neither applied to HYPS etc…as they would NOT have been accepted. Both applied to one top 50 school. One got accepted, and the other didn’t. That’s reaches for you. BTW…the kid who got accepted at the “reachable school” didn’t go there.</p>

4

<p>I tend to agree with glido.</p>

<p>Your GPA/SAT stats can match up perferctly, but when admit rate % show less than 1/3 of those who apply get in the odds are stacked against a single candidate.</p>

<p>IMO – This is why many high end candidates do not have “matches.”</p>

<p>If the admit rates are over 50% & your stats are on the low end of the average, I also consider that a reach.</p>

5

<p>I think this is a great question that many people are probably wondering about.</p>

<p>My son hasn’t been thinking in terms of reaches and matches, although his list ends up breaking down that way. Basically, he chose the schools that he wanted to apply to, and when I saw that they were skewed toward schools that are tough for anyone to get into, I forced him to add a couple of safeties.</p>

<p>If I had to define “reach school,” I would say it’s one where you are in the lower 50% in basic stats (grades and test scores). But from there, you have to consider that the lower the admission rate, the higher stats you’d better have in order to stand out from the “noise” of all the other applicants.</p>

<p>And there are about a dozen schools that are reaches for everyone, no matter how good they are.</p>

6

<p>I’d say, a dream school in that it has something you love-- a certain program, attitude, location, or just the right feel-- but the usual admitted applicant has higher stats than you. Still, it’s worth a try, partly because you feel that connection. Your “Why ___ College?” essay will have a certain shine, your particular strengths fit, you feel you’d love it, so it’s worth a try.</p>

7

<p>I your school has Naviance, which plots GPA vs. SAT for your school, provided there is enough data, you can kind of assess the probability of getting into a given school by looking at a “neighborhood” around your point. </p>

<p>If the probability is substantially less than 50% then it would be a reach. If the probability is very small, unless it’s your first choice, it’s so unlikely that you would actually go there that it’s barely worth applying. </p>

<p>D found that for very reachy schools that were not her top few choices, even if she liked the school better than some of less reachy schools that she’s applying to, the probability that she would get in there while simultaneously getting rejected at the schools that she liked better is so small that it clearly isn’t worth applying. I would say that all of the schools below her 4th choice are matches and safeties. </p>

<p>In other words, I think that you should try to calculate the probability that you would actually go to a school based on how much you like it compared to others and what your chances are of getting in. If the probability of actually going there is really small it may not be worth the time and expense to apply. You do have to take into account that each decision is not independent because it’s based on the same criteria. Nonetheless, I think that it’s a helpful way to think about it.</p>

8

<p>For a first pass we check out the stats of the kids who are rejected.</p>

<p>If they match up with your kids’ stats, it’s a reach :-)</p>

<p>Example:
Princeton rejected 3/4 of applicants who scored 2300 -2400 on the SAT
[Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/)</p>

<p>Naviance will tell you how kids with similar GPAs and SATs from your school have done in the past</p>

<p>Kei</p>

9

<p>[Naviance will tell you how kids with similar GPAs and SATs from your school have done in the past]</p>

<p>What if your school does not have Naviance?</p>

10

<p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p>

<p>Hopefully the school’s college guidance folks should be able to answer that question: how successful have other students from my school with similar stats in gaining admission to _______?</p>

<p>Kei</p>

11

<p>my reach was my “hmmm…i wonder school”
but i only did one
just for fun</p>

12

<p>We looked for schools that were strong in what my son was interested in (History and International relations) and that were the size he wanted (bigger than his large high school but not huge) and near urban areas, but with a defined campus. My son’s SAT scores makes most schools look possible, his GPA makes many schools reaches. He’s put together a list of schools he likes, making sure that there are at least two he’s pretty sure he can get into. Whether the rest are reaches or matches or somewhere in between is not something we are worrying about too much.</p>

13

<p>My daughter’s reach school accepts over 30%, but no one with her stats (2 people, according to Naviance) have ever been accepted. Guidance counselor still thinks she has a 50/50 chance, so I hope he knows something we don’t know. Everyone from our high school loves this college and it’s known for it’s “happiest students”.</p>

14

<p>We’re not systematic, mathy people at all. We’re intuitive folk. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, like any other trait.</p>

<p>S had 34 ACT and very high GPA and very good EC’s, but nothing exceptional at all. (No Intel, Seimens, celebrity stuff. For example, one of his dear friends studied with Itzak Perlman for about five years and went to Julliard, junior division, every Saturday for longer than that. I would consider that a great EC.)</p>

<p>Daughter was very similar but not quite as high but 2100+ SAT.</p>

<p>We ruled out HYPS as being out of reach, and neither of them is MIT or CalTech types.</p>

<p>After that the reach schools were anyplace they really wanted to go but probably wouldn’t get in just on the basis on statistics or demographics.</p>

<p>S got into three reach schools, D didn’t.</p>

<p>However, her dream school was Columbia for many, many years. I told her (to her chagrin – she was angry with me) that she probably wouldn’t get in when she was in ninth grade. I could tell because I saw that wasn’t going to be able to maintain A’s in advanced math without tutoring, and she didn’t want that. Okay with me.</p>

<p>So I encouraged her to switch her dreams to Barnard.</p>

<p>But the time she applied to college she actually preferred Barnard. In fact, although not a reach, it was a dream school, her number 1. She preferred it to Brown, her reach school.</p>

<p>So, she was rejected by reach school but accepted by dream school.</p>

<p>As it worked out, one of her majors was offered only at Columbia, and she ended up taking 40% of her classes at Columbia. Barnard, however, remained her favorite. She preferred its classes, dorms, advising, etc, though she loved both schools.</p>

<p>To summarize: it was schools they loved that the thought they might be accepted at.</p>

15

<p>S1 never had a “reach school”, but S2 does. It’s a college that met every single one of his “wants” but his stats are low. It’s ironic because not so long ago it would have been a match, but it’s a no-loan school and now attracts non-typical students with very high stats in search of a financial safety and it’s now a definite “reach”.</p>

16

<p>For us the criteria has been:</p>

<p><25% acceptance rate is a reach regardless of stats.
If stats are at or slightly below the 50th%tile and the acceptance rate is 25%- 40% that’s a reach.
If stats are at or below 25th%-tile, sons didn’t even bother looking at it.</p>

<p>Obviously the closer their stats were/are to the 25th%-tile the lower the odds. After that it just becomes choosing the one or two you most like, buying your lottery ticket and filling out the application…</p>

17

<p>For D1: It was like throwing darts.
For D2: I compiled a list based on a formula: GPA, 75th SAT, acceptance rate, yield, # of transfer students, etc… using the US News data. The formula spits out a number. I formed my own rank regarding selectivity based on this number(It’s obvious I don’t have anything to do :D). I then correlated this number with D1’s admission results for some consistency. So far this list is reasonably accurate across the board, from National Universities to LACs. It will make it easier for me to determine reach schools for D2.</p>

18

<p>OK, Columbia_Student, now you have to post your formula!</p>

19

<p>No, I don’t want to, I’ll be criticized for given more weight to the SAT and the rankings. :D</p>

20

<p>The SAT is the only thing that matters. Everything else is just fluff.</p>

<p>[Acetylene valve full-open. Commence flaming.]</p>