We’ve had one source say that match schools for my daughter would be schools with acceptance rates in the range of 20-40%. But having 2/3rds of your application list being 40% or under is a little worrisome. I know she’d be happy at one of her safety schools, that I know is truly a safety, but in general is there a method to determine a range for your “match” schools?
I look at it as what naviance says when plugging in her grades and act or sat. Plus where does she lie. In the 50th percentile to 60 to me is a match. Safety is in the 75%.reach us in the lower 25th percentile or lower. Then I look at acceptance rate of the school and go from there. I am curious also what others think.
My daughter looked at where her test scores and GPA fell against each school’s common data set. If she was above the 75th percentile, even a school with under 50% acceptance felt like a truer match.
I would caution you to delve into the details to be sure the overall scores/acceptances reflect those of your daughter’s intended major. Also, if she’s applying to out of state publics, look into the differences between in and out of state applicants. There can be a big difference.
I think she’s mostly looking at private schools for out of state. I noticed quickly that out of state public schools give very little merit and financial aid.
I can get the average GPA for students from her school that went to a certain college, but not the average of all kids who got into that college. I looked in the common data set. Seems some schools leave that section blank. An example of oddness, she’s above the 75% for ACT for both Washington University and Northeastern. She has a 35 and they both have 34 as their 75% score. However based on admit rate, Washington University (17%) is a reach school and Northeastern (32%) is a match school. But maybe they should both be reach schools or match schools?
@momofsenior1 Did she find a lot of GPA data in the common datasets? I’m seeing that section mostly blank.
A match college should be one where applicants with the student’s characteristics (at least the easily comparable ones like the academic stats) are admitted at a much higher rate than 20-40% even if the overall admission rate is only 20-40%.
Of course, it is often hard to find tiered or banded admission rates, and some colleges are more selective for specific popular majors or divisions. State residency can matter for public schools; regional residency can also matter in some cases.
For example, here are the 2017 banded-by-GPA (recalculated weighted-capped by the UC method, not the often-inflated weighted high school GPAs) admission rates from http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary :
Campus 4.20- 3.80- 3.40- 3.00-
higher 4.19 3.79 3.39
UCB 43% 13% 2% 1%
UCLA 47% 12% 2% 1%
UCSD 84% 39% 7% 1%
UCSB 82% 45% 10% 1%
UCI 94% 52% 11% 3%
UCD 90% 56% 17% 4%
UCSC 93% 76% 44% 14%
UCR 98% 90% 63% 23%
UCM 98% 96% 89% 57%
For example, UCSD has a ~34% overall admission rate, but applicants well into the highest GPA band could call it a match if they are not trying for a capacity-limited major (listed at https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/capped-majors.html ). But applicants in the next GPA band should call it a low reach, and those lower should call it a reach. Note that those near the border of the GPA bands should probably consider their chances intermediate between the two bands’ rates.
In addition, if the applicant needs a merit scholarship to be able to afford attending the school, then the reach/match/safety assessment must be made on the chance of getting the scholarship, not admission. For most scholarships that are not automatic for stats or National Merit status, they should be considered reaches due to the lack of transparency of how competitive scholarships are given.
Colleges with low acceptance rates can reasonably serve as matches in the case of a highly qualified applicant. Hamilton, for example, which admits at an overall rate of less than 25%, accepts students who submit SAT scores in the 1500-1600 range at a rate of 53%. Though few schools offer this degree of specificity through their sites, you might be able to draw inferences from this example that could apply generally to colleges with comparable acceptance rates.
https://www.hamilton.edu/admission/apply/standardized-testing-distribution-of-scores
@alliblues Some schools did you have GPA ranges but for those that did not, we used Naviance data from DD’s high school.
@alliblues Northeastern’s latest acceptance rate is 19% if that helps. I would say both are matches. For top students generally, most of the top 20-50 schools by acceptance rate are usually matches in that the students are absolutely qualified but it’s impossible to get a guarantee for the schools.
Northeastern also has NU.IN and spring semester admissions that are offered to a decent number of students. These are for students they would like to admit but can’t for fall. These extra spots are not in the 19 percent. Some say NU does this to bolster rankings. But doesn’t really matter because it’s still super competitive
If my D was at or above 75 percentile in scores and GPA and the overall acceptance rate was 35% to 50% I considered it a match. At or above 75 percentile but over overall 50% admissions was safety.
Also, I knew she was bringing very strong rigor (dual enrolled with state’s gifted STEM HS), essays, and recommendations to the application – but no hooks and only above average leadership and EC – no big state or national awards and only one unusual passion/interest that perhaps stood out but hard to say. She’s not that spikey kid that admissions folks often like. Point being, if you have big positives or negatives in hooks or ECs then you might want to adjust the stats part of selecting matches up or down a bit accordingly.
She had 1 match and 2 safeties on her list and got into all 3. She was very interested in the one match and one of the safeties so we didn’t feel need for more. The rest of her apps ranged from low to high reach b/c their overall admit rates were less than 35% (though one just a tad under.)
Good luck!!
I think this is just right. No matter how far above the 75% you are, if the school has an admit rate of 20% or less, it is NOT a match.
Also, if the kid loves the safety, you really don’t need many other schools. Best case scenario…get an early acceptance through EA or rolling admissions and the rest is gravy.
Wow, that is a jump down in acceptance rate. I got acceptance rate data from Naviance. I guess I need to rework our spreadsheet. We only had a few safety schools and they might be moving to reach now.