What do terms like “reach”, “match”, and “safety” schools mean?
A “reach” school is a school that you know is definitely going to be a challenge for you to get into and admission into those schools are never guaranteed. In the world of boarding schools, examples of reach schools, for everyone, include Exeter, Andover, and schools of a similar caliber.
A “match” school is a school that appears to be similar to or matches your personal qualifications, such as their average SSAT percentile being similar to yours.
A “safety” school is a school that you are almost guaranteed to get into, a school with extremely low average stats and somewhat (for boarding schools) high acceptance rates. These schools act as a backup in case you are unable to get into your match or reach schools so that you aren’t left without an acceptance on M10.