<p>What resources are you using to determine if your kid fits the academic profile for a particular school? At around $60 a pop for applications, I want to be sure that I have an appropriate match technique.</p>
<p>Are you adding together the math and reading comprehension SAT scores only (leave out writing)? Then a match would be where in the percentiles--in the middle 50% given? </p>
<p>Looking for NE and Mid-Atlantic safeties and matches for a (current) 1320 SAT score and a 4.5 GPA (weighted). (Four APs have been scored 5's and one 4.)</p>
<p>Sorry for these basic questions, but I've been asked to actively help in the selection process...</p>
<p>Your best resource for this information, IMO, is the on-line US News Premium College Edition. It's worth the $$$$. They list mid-50% range for SAT and ACT (if available) for each school, remembering that the "old" SAT is used, so, yes, adding just math and reading. Average GPAs are also reported and other information. You can compare your child's statistics with the averages for the school. If they fall withing the mid-50% range for schools OTHER THAN highly selective schools, then the college is a match. Scores/GPA must be above 75%ile to be considered a safety. None of this applies to highly selective schools, of course, where all of the applicants are extremely qualified and other factors are taken into account.</p>
<p>There's a free website that's kinda fun to play with--don't know how precise it can be but seems like a good ballpark on reaches/matches/safeties. It's <a href="http://www.collegedata.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegedata.com</a> and you put in your kid's basic info and then select the colleges he/she is considering. Don't know if the CC moderators will object to me mentioning it.</p>
<p>Here's how I determine match.safety.reach:
(1) how does the student's high school curriculum match up with the curriculum recommended by the specific school? For match schools, student needs to have closely matched the recommendations, for safety schools, to have exceeded it in at least several areas.
(2) how does the student's GPA compare with the median for accepted students (and it's important to know whether the median GPA reported by the school is based on weighted or unweighted grades) To be considered a safety, should have GPA above, for match it should be at or very close to the median
(3) how does the student's individual section of the SATs (i.e., math range, verbal range) match up with the school's 25-75 percentiles?
Using the combined range is not the best method because a student with lopsided scores can easily fall in a school's combined mediums, but be way below on on of the individual sections. For a match school, you want to be towards the middle on both sections, or, if lopsided, within the 25% and towards the 75% for the individual sections. For safety, should be at the top or above on both sections.
(4) Once 1-3 have been answered, What does the student have to offer that the school wants/needs? You have to read between the lines to determine this, do a search for "enrollment management" "strategic plan" "admissions plan" "admissions yield" on the school's site to see what turns up. If you offer something the school is actively seeking, a match can move towards a safety IF you prepare your application materials to reflect that.
(5) what is the admissions rate? Even if you're above and beyond on every item, a school with a 10% admit rate is NEVER a match or safety. On the other hand, a school with a 70% or 80% admit rate may be a match even if you fall slightly below on 1-3.</p>
<p>One key element for safeties, AFTER you have determined a safe SAT/GPA range, is the acceptance rate of the school itself. Different posters here have suggested different "cutoff" points, but I would say you want AT LEAST a 50% acceptance rate and probably better. IE, to use an extreme example for illustration purposes only, if your kid is an 800/800 and that puts him at the top of HYPSM's SAT range, they still ain't safeties, no way.</p>
<p>I'm not sure there is a right way to evaluate the SATs. We looked separately at Math/Verbal and wanted to be in the top 25% for safeties, solidly in the 25-75% range for matches, preferably in the higher end of that range. Also a GPA well above the average for a safety, on or above the average for match. Similarly, altho our school doesn't rank, a look at % of admits in top10%, top 25%, top50% and knowing where your kid falls helps id safety/match.</p>
<p>edit: uh-oh, the dreaded cross-post with carolyn ;). Doubt if I brought anything to the party.</p>
<p>Forgot to say, I agree with Quilt - the US news online premium edition is worth the money (although you can get the same information for free on the college's common data set information so do a search on the school's website first). There are a variety of other sites I use for information as well -- if anyone wants to know where to go, PM me and I'll send you a link. But, the best source of information is the school itself --- as I said, search for information on their enrollment management goals.</p>
<p>Aside from the stat part of picking a safety I suggest you think out of the box.......pick something else about the school and it's location that would be a really fun and adventuresome thing to make you really want to try the place. Don't look at the whole discussion about safety the stats. I had a list of safety schools that included things I really wanted to try out.....totally new life experiences. Make sure you love your safety. It gets kinda exciting really once you are into the list making. It should be joyous to be heading off to a safety.</p>
<p>Ditto on the US News premium edition. No matter what you think about US News' ranking, the actual raw data that they provide all in one place is fantastic. On college websites, you might also want to seach under "NSSE" to get information on the college's results from the National Survey of Student Engagement" -- the info might help you answer Carolyn's number 4 (along with the enrollment management goals).</p>
<p>Good point hazmat --- enthusiasm for the school can definitely help nudge things along.</p>
<p>I wanted to add just one more thought: I HATE the words "safety" and "match" because they imply both levels of quality among the schools on your list and also that schools can be predictable. Nothing is further from the truth, so I suggest using - right from the start - the terms "lottery school" for reach schools, "good bet" schools for safeties, and "realistic bet" for match schools. It's a bit of semantics that is very important.</p>
<p>Another suggestion I have is to look at special programs offered at "sure bet" schools. Cross registraton opportunities, study abroad, honors, early experiences w/ star professors. Many schools that are not as "popular" and thus are not "lottery" know their position in the popularity and thus have created attractive opportunities......to make kids want to choose them. Look at scheduling....maybe there is a winter term off campus that offers an opportunity to travel.....maybe it is an internship program you would love to try. Look deeply into the offerings, make a few calls to investigate. Dreaming of the ocean but not in CA how about Maine or South Carolina? Think of programs that don't exist at the fancy lottery schools. There is much out there and if you are careful in making your list that "sure bet" might be much more exciting and you will feel sad that you didn't get to take that path.</p>
<p>thanks......I agree w/ OP I hate cross posting with "the guru"....you! I just hate seeing kids make a list of "safe bet" schools they don't really want to go to. How exciting can that be?</p>
<p>I agree with all of the advice given above, and this is the basic methodology we followed last year. One other consideration, of course, is financial/merit aid. Many of the most selective schools offer only need-based aid, as opposed to merit aid, so we also looked at schools where we felt our son would qualify for merit aid. If you are looking at the Ivy's etc, you may want to run some of the EFC estimators to see if you are really comfortable with what you will be required to pay. Last year, I had the idea that there was a 'sweet spot' in this process -- a small group of schools where my son would qualify for merit aid and still be challenged academically. What I discovered, and I'm sure many other posters found, was that the lottery/most selective schools where my was accepted did not offer merit aid (or he was accepted but not at the very tip of the pool which would qualify for merit aid i.e. Duke), and we did not qualify for much need-based aid.</p>
<p>Combining hazmat's top-notch suggestions with what sjmom is suggesting is precisely what yielded our S a realistic match he loved and generous merit aid. He came to love this realistic match (even prior to the merit award) over and above his reach schools. In the end, he didn't even apply to most of the reaches he had once considered - he just no longer preferred them over his realistic match. He evidenced momentary (literally) disappointment when he received the Deny letter from the one lottery/reach school where he did apply, but so loved his realistic match that he never looked back.</p>
<p>dcmom3 I had never come across that website and tried it. Seems a little better than some of the other similar sites out there, particularly on the what I have pencilled in as "good bet" and "realistic bet" schools right now. But it went a little haywire on the upper end of the spectrum. Despite what collegedata.com says, Davidson and Wake Forest are NOT "High Maybe" schools for my S :)</p>
<p>I'd shift the bar alittle higher. If your kid has no hooks, URM, athletete, bassoon player etc, matches should be at about the 75% point with safeties one more step. The middle 50 just doesn't work for most of our kids. Though we may think they come fom middle class homes, in terms of college prep they are privileged because they have us for parents. People who care passionately, and work diligently to see that our kids are successful. So we probably stretched to live in a town with excellent schools, and to give them the music lessons, science camp etc that enriched their educational experience. They have achieved but they had halp alon the way, us. So for them the mid-line won't get them in.</p>