<p>^^^Exactly the problem, tokenadult. There certainly are many schools for which a kid with these kind of stats would be a “match,” if being in the top 25-35% of stats makes you a “match”–except for the problem that almost all of them have acceptance rates in the twenty-something percent range or lower, with a few around 30%. with those odds, the idea that one can pick two or three “matches” a couple safeties, and a couple reaches ceases to be so simple.</p>
<p>The reaches are easy: they are the schools that are reaches for everyone. The safeties and matches are the problem. Is a match a match if the odds are that low? How about the safeties? If the kid is solidly in the top 25%, but the school only accepts 32%, is it “safe”? What about “Tufts syndrome”? And what about going lower in the selectivity ranks? Conventional wisdom has it that many such kids will be waitlisted or rejected from such schools on the assumption that they would prefer to go elsewhere.</p>