<p>Say your scores and GPA are exactly the average for a school, is that a good fit? A reach if the school is selective?</p>
<p>What if you are in the 75th percentile? Still a good fit? Or is it now a safety?</p>
<p>When is a school a reach?</p>
<p>I'd love some input! People are always saying, "oh, I'm applying to 2 safeties, 3 reaches and 4 good fits" or whatever. But what does it all mean?</p>
<p>depends on the school and its acceptance rate as well…</p>
<p>Usually if both your GPA and ACT/SAT scores are average-above average for a school, it can be considered a match/good fit. If your stats are above the 75th percentile, then a school can usually be considered a safety. The main exceptions to these rules are highly-competitive schools like Ivies, Stanford, MIT, etc. which are reaches for everybody. Good luck.</p>
<p>And, as NyOrker pointed out, it doesn’t hold for good schools with low OOS acceptance rates … the UCs, UVa, W&M, UMi, etc. Pretty easy to get waitlisted at those, even with 90th percentile stats.</p>
<p>thanks… any other input?</p>
<p>reach - SATs in the bottom 25%
match - SATs in the midde 50%
safety - SATs in the top 25%</p>
<p>I’m sure collegehelp is referring to typical schools. If recent posts are to be believed, Harvard rejects more than half of applicants with 99th percentile stats. I’m sure applicants with 80th percentile stats don’t thinking of Harvard as a “safety.”</p>
<p>I use a combination of my statistics and the acceptance rates. For example, Rice and WUSTL are technically matches for me, but because of their low acceptance rates, I call them reaches. I think it is important to keep in mind the acceptance rates of the school.</p>
<p>the top 20 or 30 schools are pretty much reaches for everyone. apart from that, the 25/50/75 rule seems to hold true.</p>
<p>Attended a local info session for one of the highly selective ivies, and the admissions officer implored the audience to view their school only as a reach (even for the most accomplished applicants), and to make a sensible choice of safety/match/reach schools when applying.</p>