How to Limit Reach Schools?

College Search & Selection
21

Over the years, we’ve seen many students with a positive attitude, “I’ll get admitted, I just have to choose my favorite to go to!” We’ve seen kids with dreams of majors and careers…and no readiness, none of the courses or strengths they need. It often doesn’t work out as they assumed.

This isn’t picking out a gift or which party to go to. You look, you research, you see if you fit their standards and programs and costs not just what’s pretty or has a nice vibe.

Do this the smart way.
What are your stats, rigor, and ECs.

22

@vegetarianstress It is great that you are thinking this through and considering all options. However, you seem overwhelmed which makes it hard to edit your list to a manageable length. Time to get some guidance from either your guidance counselor or a private college advisor. Otherwise you are going to run yourself ragged and spend $$ on unnecessary app fees, travel for college tours, and score reports. Please use your time wisely and seek out a professional who can put this in perspective for you.

Without knowing more about you (your scores, GPA, intended major and (most importantly) your budget) there is not much useful advice you can get from CC other than what has already been posted above.

It is true you never know until you try, but its also necessary to look for fit and be focused on what you want.

23

There are more than one levels of “safeties”.

Your True Safety meets these criteria:

  1. Guaranteed admission for your stats. This information is right on the website. If you pay the application fee and send in your transcripts and any required test scores, you get in, period.
  2. Affordable for your family without any aid other than guaranteed federal aid that you qualify for by filing the FAFSA, and/or guaranteed state aid that you qualify for because of income/stats, and/or automatic aid offered by the college/university itself for your income/stats. Check the thread on automatic scholarships at the top of the Financial Aid forum for ideas about automatic aid.
  3. Your major is offered, or if a community college the first two years of your major is offered.
  4. You would be very happy to attend if all else goes wrong in the admission process.

Yes, some students with rare majors aren’t able to identify a True Safety. However, the rest of the student population can. Even if your only True Safety is your local community college, you still have that as your rock-bottom back-up.

Your Reasonable Safety meets this criteria:
No applicant from your own high school with stats like yours has been rejected in the past few years.
Note that this doesn’t say anything about affordability. Family needs vary so wildly that it is entirely possible that all of your Reasonable Safeties could end up being places that your family thinks aren’t affordable.

Your CC Parents Think This Looks Safe for Me meets this criteria:
Some of the sharpest pencils in the CC box have looked at your stats and what you have indicated so far of your financial limits, and comparing that information to the past several years of results here, collectively advise you that the place is likely to admit you and prove affordable.

Find yourself at least one True Safety (preferably two so you will still have a choice come next spring), pick a couple RSs that you like better than the TSs, and add in a few CCPTTLSfMs that you like at least as well as or more than the RSs. Fill in your list with Matches and Reaches that you like better than any of the others on the list so far.

And if mid-process you realize that your True Safety actually is the place you like best of all, then you are one and done. I know more than one student that happened to. It made for a very happy and relaxed senior year,

24

If you have 90 schools on your list, you definitely need to start thinking about all of these things @calmom mentioned:

If you still don’t know how you feel about all of those factors, it’s time to start visiting campuses. Sometimes you need to see a place in person in order to know whether you like it or not.

25

When you get too exotic with your list, you get either a bunch of rejections or a list of approvals to schools you can’t afford. Even if it’s a “reach” school, you need to make sure you can afford it, otherwise you’re wasting your time, even if you get in. Make sure you have a good couple of good match schools and a couple of good safety schools. A match would be roughly 50/50 based on your stats and you can afford it. A safety would be a high acceptance rate for your stats and you could afford it too.

26

all good advice here but the reality is the more schools you apply to the higher the chances - if you can manage to apply to 20-30 schools without dropping the quality of your applications this is amazing and i am sure you will get into one of the top 20 schools assuming your profile is solid

27

NO, absolutely not higher chances if those colleges are beyond your stats and activities. We know zip about OP’s qualifications.

28

Proof that there is such a thing as bad advice.

You can apply to every single top school in the country, then apply to every single top school in the world.

If you don’t meet the entrance requirements, you’re not getting in to any of them.

This isn’t random probability-- pick a card, any card. This is about applying to schools, each of which has its own requirements.

“Assuming your profile is solid” unfortunately, is in the eye of the beholder. Your idea of a “solid profile” may not match Harvard’s.

Narrow down your list, by cost, by admissions requirements, by location, by major, by feel. Then, once you have a reasonable number, start to visit some.

29

This has been discussed at length in other threads, but even high stat applicants aren’t meaningfully increasing “chances” by simply applying to more highly selective schools. It’s not a random process like rolling dice. The student does better to spend more time researching individual schools. The “why this college” supplemental essay can often be a very important piece and pretty hard to articulate that in an honest and compelling way for a variety of different colleges.

30

90ish is a place to start the search, not a place to end it. It is good that you are attracted to many schools, since that means you will be likely to find reaches, matches, and safeties you like. Now read up on them in college guides such as Fiske, Princeton Review, Ultimate Guide, and Insider’s Guide. Rule out ones that do not offer majors or programs or other features that are important to you. Compare the remaining ones and see which ones you keep rereading because they sound good to you. See if you can narrow the list to 20-30 for further reading and exploration.

Then read more about each, including each college’s website and info here on College Confidential and on competing sites.

Talk with your parents about a realistic visitation list. Be sure to prioritize visiting matches and safeties. You want to be sure you will be happy if you end up attending.

After the first few visits, at least three preferences should become somewhat more clear… although other factors may balance these out in some instances, so, for instance, a lover of rural schools may leave some urban or suburban ones on the list:

  1. Large school vs. medium school vs. small school
  2. Urban vs. suburban vs. rural school
  3. How far away from home you are willing to travel.

Other factors may start to sing to you. You may find you enjoy colleges with big sporting events, or hate fraternities, or want to join an ultimate frisbee club team on campus, or want very intellectually oriented classmates, or crave a well-organized and extensive freshman orientation program.

Listen to your feelings. A lot of this process is subjective, and that’s okay.

Then, start narrowing your list and visiting those that seem like what you like best.

In the end, aim for:
2 safeties
3 or more matches
The reaches that most appeal to you— but cap it at a realistic number of apps to write.

Early action, rolling admissions, and early decision may decrease the number of applications you need to complete.

Around 8-12 colleges is probably a good number if some of them are super competitive. If they are less competitive, fewer applications may suffice. The Common Application allows only 20 colleges, so you will give yourself a headache dealing with multiple application formats if you apply to more than 20, so maybe think of 20 as an absolute cap. But fewer than that is more realistic. Two words: supplemental essays. They take time, and they are specific to each college and require you to know that college really well.

Good luck! Enjoy the search. It is a fun process.