<p>I'm super confused as to what is considered a "match" for me...
34 ACT
800 Math 2, 750 Bio M
100.45 GPA (1/197)
Full IB Diploma + AP Calc and AP Chem
great essays, great rec letters, great ecs, etc...</p>
<p>What type of school is considered a match for me?
Like Cornell or JHU or much lower? Idk where I stand...</p>
<p>Depends on your ECs. I’d hesitate to ever call the top schools matches for unhooked applicants, but you’re in extremely good shape. You have a good shot at the top schools.</p>
<p>For strong applicants, I wouldn’t recommend worrying too much about the difference between matches and reaches. The stronger your application, the more reaches you should include, as a strong applicant can reasonably expect to get into at least one of them. Also, the stronger your application, the smaller the “match” category gets, as more and more schools turn into safeties.</p>
<p>I had a similarly strong application and applied to one safety, one match, and seven reaches.</p>
<p>If you know your safeties and reaches, pick something that has an acceptance rate and stats in between them. That’s essentially what a match is.</p>
<p>Schools like Cornell and other Ivy’s are not matches for anyone. They are all reaches. However, other selective top 20 universities could slightly be considered matches for you, if your extracurriculars are as impressive as your test scores. If not, then no match. Also, it wouldn’t help if you were Asian, either. </p>
<p>Because I wasn’t given more of a list, I just assumed you wanted schools that were science oriented for a possible engineering or premed concentration? Here’s a small list I generated: </p>
<p>JHU: Match
NU: Match
Duke: Match
Vanderbilt: Match
Carnegie Mellon: Match
Cornell: slight reach (very slight)
Columbia: reach
Princeton: high reach (just because)</p>
<p>I don’t think I would consider Duke a match. It can be more selective than Cornell. Knowing your intended major would also help.</p>
<p>Assuming that a safety is a school where you are highly likely to gain admission, a match is a school where you stand a reasonable possibility of admission, and a reach is a school where your admission is possible but unlikely; Cornell and JHU are matches.</p>
<p>ZaZa </p>
<p>The question you ask is largely one of semantics.</p>
<p>One can define “Match” as the Schools where your academic record compares with the academic record of the entering class. This says nothing about your chances of getting in. (This is my Personal definition)</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>One can define Match as the best school with respect to which you are likely (50%, 60%, 70% - you choose). (Others in this thread use this definition).</p>
<p>The Ivies have admissions percentages of <20%. Many <10%. The majority of students, even with credentials as excellent as yours get rejected from one or more of these schools. Viewed that way, one could say they are a reach for anyone.</p>
<p>However, if you look at your scores/grades and compare them to average student who was accepted, you fit right in, and are probably ABOVE AVERAGE for these schools, so we can say they are a Match for you.</p>
<p>Basically, you are #1 in your class with a 34ACT (which is above average for anywhere), I think you are a ‘match’ or better for any school in the US. You may have to apply to several, but if this is your goal, you will probably get into one or more schools in the highest tier. Students with your credentials apply to these schools, and by and large are admitted to schools in this range.</p>
<p>In any event, at the top of this post, I gave two interpretations to your question – so, which question are you asking?</p>
<p>I would never describe a school with an admit rate <20% as a match for anyone, unless the school is using a strictly by-the-numbers approach to admissions and the applicant is well above the 75th percentile in every statistical category. The holistic admissions process is just too idiosyncratic.</p>
<p>Cornell’s overall admit rate is 18%, lower in some programs, higher in some others, so it’s going to be “matchier” or “reachier” for some intended majors than for others. The OP’s ACT score of 34 is one point above Cornell’s overall 75th percentile of 33, but again, it’s a big, complex school so some programs may have a higher 75th percentile. And Cornell is not a strictly by-the-numbers school. So I’d say Cornell is likely to be either a match, high match, or low reach, depending on the program; it’s a complex place with very different admissions standards in different parts of the school.</p>
<p>JHU isn’t much better, with a 21% admit rate and also a 75th percentile ACT of 33.</p>
<p>I’d say Notre Dame or Emory, with 29% admit rates, are more in the match range. Or Carnegie Mellon, with a 33% admit rate.</p>
<p>IMHO, the very tippy top students (which I think describes the OP), really have reach schools and safety schools. Many of the schools in the top 25 are reaches for every applicant in some way or another because there are not that many spots and you do not know what they are looking for that year. For most of the other schools, you are at the top of the applicant pool. Good luck.</p>
<p>Popcharlie- “However, other selective top 20 universities could slightly be considered matches for you, if your extracurriculars are as impressive as your test scores. If not, then no match. Also, it wouldn’t help if you were Asian, either”
“Because I wasn’t given more of a list, I just assumed you wanted schools that were science oriented for a possible engineering or premed concentration?”</p>
<p>My ECs are quite extensive, however, I am extremely dedicated to many of them and have some interesting ones, internship with senator, etc.; I am not asian, I am a first generation to a four year institution italian boy…
and excellent guess loll, looking to do biological engineering or biology/math double major, something along those lines because I want to become a reproductive endocrinologist (an in vitro baby myself!) loll</p>
<p>Red Seven- One can define Match as the best school with respect to which you are likely (50%, 60%, 70% - you choose). (Others in this thread use this definition).
This is the definition that I want to use; a school that, somewhat based on statistics, I have a great chance, at.</p>
<p>bclintonk- So I’d say Cornell is likely to be either a match, high match, or low reach, depending on the program; it’s a complex place with very different admissions standards in different parts of the school.
I’m applying to the CALS school; I am instate, not applying to AEM (Biological Engineering)</p>
<p>and thanks to all for wishing me luck! I sent in my princeton rea app today! loll</p>
<p>any ideas?</p>
<p>There are no match schools at this level.
They are either reaches or safeties.</p>
<p>I was waitlisted from JHU and rejected from Duke.
(I am an Asian male and let me say that I am not very impressed by your academic credential.)</p>
<p>thanks? no need to put me down…that’s not what I was asking for…</p>
<p>I am not putting you down.</p>
<p>I am telling you the reality.
Apply to many colleges. You will get into some.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement…Someone must be bitter that he didn’t get into JHU or Duke…</p>
<p>Whatever…</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>I’m sorry…ugh…I can’t make a mean remark to anyone without feeling bad x_X</p>
<p>@ZaZa94 I think what @20more is trying to say is that when you are talking about top students and top schools, no one is really all that impressed unless you’ve reached a high level of national achievement in something or done something that’s rarely ever been done before.</p>
<p>Honestly, as a student with credentials similar to yours, I am also not “impressed” by your stats. I doubt you’d be “impressed” by my stats, because they are on par with yours. These schools see countless kids like you and me (and a bunch of the kids here on CC), so they, as well, are rarely “impressed” by these sort of stats. In fact, they expect them.</p>
<p>As has been said, at this top level, there aren’t really matches. There are just reaches and safeties. The more “match” like schools sometimes reject top students because they realize they aren’t anywhere near the top of the list of that kid’s schools.</p>
<p>You match the profile of many kids who got into Cornell, JHU, and Duke, but you also match the profile of a greater number of students who got rejected from those schools.</p>
<p>You can only apply and hope for the best.</p>
<p>I’m just so sick of this whole college thing…wanna get it over with already.</p>
<p>Hate to be a thread stealer but can someone weigh in on my situation a little? Very similar. Ranked 1/341, GPA 4.0 (we don’t weight ever), SAT 2280 with 800 subjects in Literature and US history and 740s in bio-E and math II, 5 AP’s all with 5s. Part-time job, state-ranked debater, no sports because medically not allowed to. 1500 hours of volunteering for a 501(c)3 nonprofit i founded myself–we’ve raised more than $400,000.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>If students such as you applied to the top 10 colleges in the country chances are that you’d be admitted at 4-6 of them. However predicting WHICH 5 or 6 is the tricky part…that’s why it is difficult to asssign a “match” status to the top schools.</p>