Okay, so, I’d consider myself a good student. I’m only a sophomore but I have a 4.0 GPA and take all honors/AP classes. The only AP classes I have under my belt are AP World (Freshman, 5) and APUSH (Sophomore, probably going to get a 5), but I’m planning on taking about…8? more by the time I graduate. I’m in Student Government and hold a leadership position in that, Key Club, JCL, DECA, and I formed a Gender Equality Club at my school. With all that being said, please don’t judge me on the next thing I’m about to say…I got a 1280 on my PSAT. To be fair, it was only out of 1600 but I know it’s still an AWFUL score. I got a pretty much near perfect on my writing but I failed the math section. Failed. F-a-i-l-e-d. Math isn’t exactly my strongest suit, and I nearly had a mental breakdown the day of the test. I am ashamed and embarrassed and I attribute a lot of it to just bad luck.The only reason I even mentioned it was so that no one would ask me what my PSAT score was. I really do think if I retook it I’d get a much more satisfactory score–probably at least 1480-1500.
So my dream/reach school is UChicago, which some of you may have seen on my other posts (or not). I seriously doubt I will ever get in, but I still like to fantasize. My safety school is my state school, IU. I know I’d get in no matter what (I mean, they have a 76% acceptance rate) and since I’m in state it’s also affordable. The school I’m interested in are WashU and Northwestern, but I don’t know if I should make them my reach or target schools. They do have low acceptance rates (around the low teens [but at least it’s better than UChicago’s :(( :(( ]), and I realize that, but I honestly don’t know what to pick for target schools, then. I want to go to a bigger school that I can go into premed for. Should a target school have an acceptance rate of about 30-50%?
Any school with an acceptance rate below 30% is a reach. Top 20 schools are a reach for everyone. Others can be reaches because if they feel you are using them as a safety you will be rejected or waitlisted.
I think it’s wise to start from the bottom. Anyone can identify “dream” schools. It’s much more challenging to find at least one school where your stats are certain to earn admission, which you can afford, and which you would be satisfied attending. If you continue performing as well as you have been, the good news is that the vast majority of four-year American colleges are academic safeties for you. If you need financial assistance, your safety is likely to be an in-state public college or a less-selective college that is likely to offer you a very generous aid package. A match is one where your stats are in the middle range. If your high school uses a site like Naviance, you can see how you line up with past applicants. Unfortunately, the most elite and selective colleges will show a range of stats that will not indicate what your actual prospects are: the vast majority of their applicants have outstanding qualifications.
“Match” schools may cover a wide spectrum, especially for accomplished students. They may range from colleges that are nearly safe, but not absolutely certain (or where you aren’t certain about affordability), to colleges that are solid statistical matches but where your chances aren’t much higher than 50-50.The lines between categories usually aren’t clearly defined, apart from ultra-reaches (for everyone) like Harvard and Stanford, and ultra-safeties.
When trying to select safeties and matches, it is perfectly valid to base your choices on non-academic factors. What are your interests and preferences? Do you want an urban, suburban, or rural campus? Warm weather? Big-time sports programs to root for? Local culture? Skiing, surfing, hiking . . .?
If you provide a few more hints, we might be able to provide suggestions.
Thanks, @woogmaza because you made me feel a little bit better. I live in Indiana so I’m used to all climates, really. Every season here is super extreme, so I’m used to Chicago-like winter weather and 100 degree summers. With that being said, I don’t think I’d like to stray from anything that’s not on the eastern side of the USA. Anything in the Midwest, East Coast, and New England areas are ideal. I’m not close-minded to the South or even the West, but I don’t know if I’d enjoy the humidity or mosquitoes or BUGS. I really would prefer an urban campus with a medium-big sized amount of students. I don’t do any sports, so I guess I wouldn’t really be bothered if the school wasn’t big on athletics. I still think it’d be fun to go to football games and participate in Greek life, though, so maybe a school with a state school vibe? That part isn’t really important, but it’d be nice. I’m also a girl, by the way. Financial aid is important because I doubt I’d be able to pay more than 20-30k without scholarships or financial assistance.
To be honest, this sounds really snooty, but I don’t think my parents would LET me apply and let alone go to a college that they haven’t heard of before. I feel like this really limits my options for a reasonable match school and only allows me to consider schools that would be reaches, but they are the ones who will pay for my tuition, and they only want the best for me. US News and World Report College Rankings is their bible.
It’s hard to find academically challenging matches and safeties using the Supermatch tool or the My College Search thing on Collegeboard.org. Don’t trust the schools they choose as matches if there is really low acceptance rates, even if your stats are over the middle 50% range. Keep this in mind after you have gotten test scores you are happy with- a 2400 doesn’t make Brown a safety for example.
Chill out about that PSAT score. 1280 is a perfectly respectable effort for a sophomore (or a junior for that matter!). I’ll bet with some studying you’ll trounce that number next year when it counts.
And I’ll admit that I always struggle a bit with the advice I see so often on these boards that any top school with an acceptance rate of < 25-30% is a reach for everyone. Remember, a match school doesn’t mean you’re a virtual lock, that’s what safeties are for. To me it just means your odds are a coin flip or a bit better. Maybe my attitude is overly colored by my D’s experience, who had great stats and decent but not spectacular ECs. She applied to 7 schools that could all be characterized as “reaches for everyone” by some folks (this wasn’t as risky as it sounds because she got in to one of them EA – a very comforting thing if it works out for you). Anyway, she went 5 for 7 with one wait list and one rejection. I think in truth a good 4 of those 7 really were matches for her despite their selectivity because her stats put her in the top 25% of their range. I’ll bet this is pretty typical – my guess is very few kids with outstanding stats are going to get entirely blanked if they apply to a decent number of schools, unless they shoot exclusively for the under 10% club. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still have safeties! But I think a true safety or two (that hopefully you’d be happy to attend) plus a decent collection of highly (but not all absurdly) selective schools can be a perfectly reasonable strategy for a high stats kid.
As for you OP, relax! You’re still a sophomore, for crying out loud! You don’t need to have it all mapped out at this point, and it’s not even really practical to do so until you get a better sense of where your scores and grades are really going to end up at the end of the day. Try to enjoy high school and learn some good stuff. It’s not all just a means to an end.
As @rayrick implies, for very high stat kids the match and safety schools tend to blend together. For instance, if you keep up your current grades and get a decent SAT or ACT score, and have some highly committed EC’s (and given Indiana’s relatively low in-state tuition) you would probably consider IU and Purdue as safety and match. You might also consider one of them your target because they provide the best value for you and your family. You reaches would be OOS schools and private schools - that are ranked higher than you two big in-state options and you like more.
We live in Michigan and UM engineering was a safety, match and target for our son. (He is a high stat kid who attends a ‘feeder’ school) . He also applied to a few other safeties and matches - Alabama (full ride), Georgia Tech and 5 or 6 reaches (Ivy’s and privates). He’ll likely be accepted to only 1 or 2 of his reaches and then we can make a decision based on desirability and cost.
Each school has a different profile, which changes year to year, about their ideal student. It the rarefied air of Chicago, Northwestern, Ivy’s , to LAC’s etc. GPA and test scores are just the first hurdles. Other factors enter into their process, and unfortunately it is not at all transparent. What is certain is that for some of the schools very high GPA/SAT kids are admitted at rates far exceeding the averages.If your school uses Naviance you can get a much better idea of the admittance chances from your school, otherwise talk to your GC.