<p>Cardinal Fang–No problem, my list was confusing.</p>
<p>You are right about challenges of the “good” GPA + “really good” SAT mismatch. My first kid was a 2300, second decile AP student looking for engineering. Not good enough grades for the Ivies, Hopkins, CMU, Duke, MIT, but pulled in decent merit money at a couple of schools where his grades were typical and his scores way above average. </p>
<p>He is quite happy at one of them, and is sufficiently challenged. He is learning that an A doesn’t come as easy in the upper-level courses after placing out of the intro ones with AP credits. I’m not sure how he would have done grade-wise at schools where the majority of kids had worked a little harder in high school to get their top-decile grades.</p>
<p>So do you folks really think of a “match” as having 50/50 odds? Would you be surprised if your kid was rejected by half of their “match” schools?</p>
<p>I think of a safety as being nearly a sure bet, a match as being something like 70% chance of acceptance, and a slight reach as maybe 50%, and a reach at 30%. Anything less than 30% is just a long-shot. </p>
<p>BTW, Case Western is a great school for non-binding EA.</p>
<p>U of Oregon also has early action and an honors college.</p>
<p>I am very much in favor of Drew in NJ (fairly easy access to the city for Midwestern lovers of NYC) and Depaul in Chicago (for those not desperate to leave the Midwest!).</p>
<p>Dad 'o’2 --I think a match is somewhere around 50%. You apply to 3, you will probably get into 2, you might get into 3, you know you should definitely get into 1. I do agree with your list although I would say Clemson would be a safety. Md and Pitt are match/ safeties but, again, there are always surprises. </p>
<p>Based on our school’s Naviance data (out of Grinnell’s normal area), average SAT accepted is 1450, average unweighted gpa is just under a 3.7 </p>
<p>Another match: Hampshire Based on our Naviance data, they took a lot of kids whose SATs are higher than their grades would predict. Colorado College and Occidental also fit that profile although I know very little about them.</p>
<p>“Let’s say a student has low 700s scores, and, say, around 10th to 20th percentile rank in a good suburban school. So we’re talking about a bright, successful, hardworking student, but one who most likely won’t be admitted to the top schools.”</p>
<p>In the Northeast: Check out the Patriot League schools - Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Colgate, Fordham, American. Also maybe the NESCAC schools - Colby, Bates, Bowdoin (probably need to be top 10% for these), Hamilton, Connecticut College, Trinity. Also Fairfield and Providence.</p>
<p>Mid-Atlantic: Villanova, William & Mary</p>
<p>South: Wake Forest, Elon, maybe Davidson (again, a little reach-y). </p>
<p>That’s just off the top of my head…</p>
<p>jackief, you would need to double check bc I am not sure, but Peterson’s lists Rhodes, the Penn State schools, and many SUNYs as being rolling admission. I remember that when my older son applied, Quinnipiac and Towson had rolling admission. My son had an acceptance from Towson U. within 10 days (probably a little less than that).</p>
<p>thanks all on the rolling/early info. I neglected to say she is interested in small LACs only (at this point) and although there are some most of the schools thrown out are larger Us. I do appreciate the answers and hope they will help others. Unfortunately (for lack of many choices in this area) she is also preferring the northeast at this time.</p>
<p>jackief, you might contact the schools that she is interested in. My son got a few early acceptances that we were not aware were rolling bc they have something that they referred to as “modified rolling admission”. Sorry, I cannot define what that means, but for my son it meant an early decision at a few schools.</p>