How do you determine a reach/match/safety school?

Applying to College
61

<p>I'm of the mind that there are two times when reach/match/safety need to be determined. Initially, this is done as a screening mechanism. Secondly, when determining which school to apply to, a more rigorous approach is needed that includes many factors. For determining which safety schools to apply to always include cost of attendance and financial aid. A safety school should be a safety acceptance wise and financially.</p>

<p>For screening, my rule of thumb for those without a solid hook:</p>

<p>safety = more than 50 points above 75% SAT (CR+M)
match = +/- 50 points of 75% SAT
reach = less than SAT midpoint</p>

<p>For schools with SAT 75th percentile 1550 or above, there is no such thing as a safety.</p>

62

<p>would the CR + M that you would use to determine it be your superscore (your best of each section)?</p>

63

<p>I would recommend one safety, one or two matches, and the rest reaches.</p>

<p>Your safety is usually a local school where you're sure of getting in.</p>

<p>Matches are more competitive but are still slighly below your statistics.</p>

<p>Reaches are those that fit your statistics or are higher.</p>

64

<p>Well.....I would recommend 3 safeties, 3 matches and 3 reaches. Embrace your safeties and make sure you LIKE these schools...you may end up there, they may give you the most money, and it may be a better fit for you anyway.</p>

<p>I just came from Borders..sipping my latter for an hour reading all the new college howto and college profile books: Barron's Petersen's Fisk Princeton Review etc. Its amazing. The same school and you get DIFFERENT information on it, what the standards are, what the sat ranges and gpa ranges are etc. One of the better directories I read was a book called the getting into the right college book, or something like that. It had the most comprehensive commentary and seemed to be the most accurate and less about generalizations. Princeton Review was THE WORST by far: generalizations and almost written by a bunch of kids who dont know squat. The other book had some interesting comments about the socio political scene on campus, some red flags and some well regarded faculty and what departments were weak or strong. Now of course, its not a perfect guide and is subject to highly subjective commentary of course....but its a start.</p>

<p>It noted that a lot of colleges had gotten rid of core requirements...and now its possible to graduate from so called liberal arts colleges without taking liberal arts classes....a true sad state of affairs, if you ask me. Engineers cheer it, however.</p>

<p>Dartmouth was blasted for going overboard on being PC and watering down a lot courses and the ubiquitous grade inflation problem....it certainly didnt seem that prestigious once you got admitted, from what I read.</p>

<p>Interesting. But then again, I didnt go to Dartmouth and neither are my kids. </p>

<p>I would read up heavily on reach schools. Some of them, like Wesleyan for example (if its a reach for you....or even a match) have a STRONG left wing bias and kids who are conservative feel oppressed.</p>

<p>WashU was slammed for being too biased towards premed, engineering and math/science stuff..and neglecting history, political science, english, philosophy. Dont know if that is true or not, just the author's anecdotal remarks based on what students told him.</p>

<p>It would be a bummer to be admitted to a dream school only to find out your intended major is a stepchild on campus and the professors suck.</p>

<p>LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP.</p>

65

<p>Student615, you nailed it pal! Well said. Congratulations. I can see you are headed in the right direction.</p>

<p>I know someone at UNC Chapel Hill who was top 5% of his class and is now VERY VERY unhappy. Why? A poor fit for his personality and interests outside of class. His classes are stimulating and he likes them....but the party atmosphere on campus is overwhelming and he is not a party kind of kid.</p>

<p>You have to go where YOU fit in the best and would be happiest, not where USNWR suggests you should go based on rankings.</p>

66

<p>standrews, nice little rule for assigning SMR. Can you be so kind to give an updated one for the ACT scores that are published? Most often, they publish the range of act scores that are in the 50 pct-ile - eg, 26-31. </p>

<p>quick question on this last sentence - how can there be a range of distinct scores in one percentile?</p>

67

<p>joecollegedad, the range is the 25th-75th percentiles, not just the one 50th percentile, so it's the middle 50% of scores</p>

<p>as for perfect SAT/ACT scores or being valedictorian being automatic ins to the top schools, look at brown's facts and figures page:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>only 25.5% of people with verbal SAT scores from 750-800 were accepted
only 24.6% of people with math SAT scores from 750-800 were accepted
only 26% of high school valedictorians were accepted</p>

<p>you have to have much more than just test scores and a high GPA or rank to be accepted at the top schools.</p>

68

<p>thanks, trackie, for the clarification. I probably have been misleading my poor daughter to wrong colleges. oh well. some colleges are now test optional.</p>

<p>standrews, btw, in case you are not familiar with act scores, max, or perfect, is 36.</p>

<p>for completeness,</p>

<p>this is from princeton review's website...</p>

<p>About the Middle 50%</p>

<p>The 25th percentile is the score that 25 percent scored at or below; the 75th percentile score is the one that 25 percent scored at or above. The middle 50 is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile.</p>

69

<p>I have constructed a quantitative method for building “Reach”, “Expected”, and “Safe” portfolio of schools and a way of defining “Out of Reach” that I think works for most students. Obviously this approach can’t address individual preferences for one type of campus over another but, for what it’s worth, here it is. </p>

<p>The focus is students who are not recruited athletes, URM’s, legacies, or development candidates. My guess is that, at a typical selective LAC, setting aside those groups would eliminate about 40% of available openings. At a medium sized private university, my guess is that those groups capture about 33% of the openings. And at a large flagship state university, again just a guess, but I assume that those groups represent about 25% of the openings. I am assuming a Regular Decision student whose grades are in line with their test scores (easy to figure out from data available at most high schools) and whose EC’s are demanding, with some degree of leadership demonstrated, but no significant accomplishments on the national level. For example, at a most selective LAC’s this kind of candidate should consider a school out of reach if the student’s test scores are below the mid point for the school’s reported scores. At most selective mid-sized private universities this kind of candidate should view a school as out of reach if the student’s scores were below the average of the schools mid-point scores and the 25th percentile. And for a large flagship state university this candidate should view the school as out of reach if the student’s scores are below the 25th percentile for the school. The full list of ranges is listed below. One caveat, if a student is not in the top 10% of their class they should use the mid-sized private university rules for assessing State U chances. The idea is that the student places this school in each category if the student’s scores fall in the range designated for the school. Obviously a little guessing is required to identify scores for some of these ranges but simple linear interpolation should work pretty well.</p>

<pre><code> .........LAC’s; Mid Size Private U; Major Flagship State U
</code></pre>

<p>Relevant percentile ranges:</p>

<p>Out of Reach 0-50; 0-32; 0-25</p>

<p>Reach 51-75; 33-67; 25-50</p>

<p>Expected 76-87; 68-81; 50-75</p>

<p>Safe 88-100; 82-100; 75-100</p>

70

<p>curious, I like your attempt to bring some clarity to the assignment of reach, match, safety. </p>

<p>I was about to say that you did not sift GPA into your rule, but I notice that you said that you assume GPA consistant with test scores. So your rule might be prolematic for a student with test scores that are either significantly greater than the level of GPA or test scores significantly less than the level of GPA.</p>

<p>And, One question comes to mind:</p>

<p>How would you handle test optional schools? I am pretty much only looking at LACs, so I am not sure any uni's or any state U's are test optional.</p>

<p>and to be clear:</p>

<p>when I see the mid 50 pct ile of score reported, it is really the scores between 25 and 75 inclusive. </p>

<p>So U Iowa is 23-27. 23 would be at the 25th pctile. If a student has a 24, that person would be considered a reach under your rule.</p>

<p>Finally, in the spirit of quantification, what kind of odds might you assign to 'reach', and to your other categories?</p>

<p>and, a quick comment: would you say that your rule applies to the more selective colleges, the ones often assumed to the default colleges in lots of the discussion 'round here - say the top 30 usnr's?</p>

71

<p>I'd say the rules apply to all but top 3 or so on Univ and LAC lists. In the case of these schools I'd say no one is a safety. As far as people who are on the cusp, obviously the cut offs are arbitrary so you might want to use language like high reach or safety/expectation, the objective is to have schools on the list that are spread out accross the continuum. Test optional schools are tricky. There is a temptation to assume that if a school only receives scores from 2/3 of the applicants and you are in the top quartile of those submitting scores you are on safe ground. For a variety of reasons I think it is best to treat the ranges for these schools just like you would treat anyone elses ranges, I'll explain if you want me to. IMO I'd say the probabliity of acceptance at a reach is less than 25% maybe less than 10%.</p>