<p>Since I'll be spending the next year visiting colleges, I want to get an idea of what a typical reach/match/safety ratio is. One high reach, 4-5 reach, 3-4 low reach/match, and 2 safeties seems reasonable, right? Any other ideas?</p>
<p>I think it really depends. If you have 1 safety that you wouldn’t mind going to if that was your only option, have just 1.</p>
<p>I’ve been applying to schools and I have 1 safety, in terms of if i can get in and if i can afford it. Then I have 4 or so matches and 4 or so reaches</p>
<p>If that one safety is one you can afford then that’s OK. Our DDs only applied to 6 schools. 2 safeties, 2 matches, 2 reaches.</p>
<p>I think everyone (unless you’re quite affluent) should have at least 2-3 financial safety schools for the following reasons…</p>
<p>1) you may no longer like your safety in the spring of senior year and you don’t want to get stuck going to a school that you don’t like if your other choices don’t work out. As we all know from being on CC…many schools that were “loved” in the fall are no longer loved in the spring.</p>
<p>2) Financial Safeties often offer merit scholarships, so it’s nice to have a few offers to possibly choose from.</p>
<p>3) Financial Safeties often have rolling admissions, so it’s nice to have one or two admittances in your pocket in the fall.</p>
<p>4) If your top picks don’t work out (either because of rejections or they are unaffordable), then it’s nice to still have 2-3 schools to choose from. No one wants to feel railroaded into their only affordable choice.</p>
<p>5) And, sometimes you can get a merit scholarship increased from one safety after you’ve shown the school that another safety (similarly ranked school) gave you a bigger scholarship.</p>
<p>6) And, lastly, sometimes kids don’t get into one of their safeties, because they underestimated what they needed to get accepted. Or, one of their safeties isn’t affordable because they didn’t get the scholarship they thought they would. </p>
<p>It’s good for morale to have more than one financial safety.</p>
<p>m2ck makes a very important point here. An Academic Safety may not be a Financial Safety, and vice versa. If money truly is not an issue, you only need to find Academic Safeties. However, if money is an issue it is important that you make certain that at least one of those Academic Safeties is also a Financial Safety as well.</p>