Replacing "Reach, Match, Safety" with "Match, Match, Match"

[annasdad]

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You know, it’s pretty insulting that you assume that “reach” is all about the sticker-value.

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<p>Except that for many people it is. If it’s at the top of the USNews ratings, it must be the school for me.</p>

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My kids want to go to reach schools for the same reasons that make the schools such a reach: they’re excellent schools, with great teachers and excellent facilities and a peer group that will inspire and challenge them.

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<p>And the same could be said about hundreds of colleges and universities that are not in the sub-50% admissions realm.</p>

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My kids have stats that make them excellent candidates for those schools. Why should I try to dissuade them from trying to go to such a school, just because those schools happen also to be prestigious?

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<p>I wouldn’t dissuade them, but neither would I push them. I would encourage them to look at a variety of schools - size, location, selectivity - and find some that appeal to them. I would make sure there are safeties on their list. If there are reach schools, that’s fine, but I sure wouldn’t insist on it.</p>

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Williams is a damn good school. You name me an equivalent small LAC, with students and a program on a par with Williams, and an acceptance rate higher than even 50%, and I will encourage my kids to look at it.

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<p>What programs are your kids interested in, and what OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE do you have that kids who go to Williams get a better education in that specific program than do kids that attend less selective schools? (Hint: USNews rating is not objective evidence of educational quality, nor is admission rate.)</p>

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And I think there are at least as many kids posting on these boards who have, in fact, cogent and compelling reasons to dream of their reaches, specifically, as there are the kind of clueless prestige grubber you are characterizing the majority to be.

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<p>Well, I’ve only been posting here a couple of months, and I don’t claim to read even all the current posts, but I’ve yet to see any posts with “cogent and compelling reasons to dream of their reaches.” I have seen posts asking for information about the quality of specific programs at specific schools, and posts asking about what schools have good programs in specific areas. But mostly I’ve seen a lot of copy-and-paste from the USNews website, perhaps filtered by geographical location. But I have not personally seen a single post that says, “I want to go to Williams [or Harvard or Harvey Mudd or Berkeley] because it has a great program in ____________, AND HERE’S WHY that program is a great one AND THE RIGHT ONE FOR ME.” (Yes, I have seen posts from alums with that kind of information, but not from prospective applicants.)</p>

<p>I’m sure there are exceptions, but I’m convinced that for most applicants, the main advantage of a super-prestigious college or university is the decal it lets mommy or daddy put in the back window of the Navigator.</p>