safeties, reaches and matches oh my!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>hi i'm a rising senior and I just gave a preliminary college list to my guidance counselor and she said I have to split it into safeties, matches, and reaches. Thing is I'm terrible at determining which one is which. I mean I have an idea but I need outside opinion</p>

<p>here are the schools:
George Washington
Boston College
Amherst
Wesleyan
Vassar
Wellesley
Holy Cross
American
Tufts
Haverford
Northwestern
Catholic University
The College of New Jersey
Rutgers</p>

<p>quick stats
African American female from New Jersey
go to a private all girls school
gpa: 3.92/4.32 school doesn't rank
SATs:720/690/740 (working on it) waiting for SAT IIs
taken all honors and 6 aps by the time i graduate (they limit how many aps you can take)
President of Exec Board of Student Council, Peer Mediator, Captain of Quiz Bowl, French Club and Latin Club member (not allowed to be an officer, they limit leadership positions too), Varsity Basketball for 4 years
100+ hours of community service but not as much as I want because I have two infant and toddler siblings that I have to babysit them after school, on weekends and during the summer (parents work very late)
um...i got a bunch of awards from my school for different subjects mostly languages and history,National Latin Exam summa cum laude, Book Award, National Merit Commended, and that's all I can think of for now</p>

<p>can you help me please?</p>

2

<p>Reaches:
Amherst
Tufts
Wesleyan (low reach)
Vassar (low reach)</p>

<p>Matches:
Northwestern
Boston College
George Washington
Wellesley
Holy Cross
Haverford</p>

<p>Safeties:
American
Catholic University
The College of New Jersey
Rutgers</p>

3

<p>thanks a lot. now i have to work at cutting that list down to 9.</p>

4

<p>Northwestern is harder to get into than every school on the list minus Amherst.</p>

5

<p>Yeah. I move Northwestern to the reach category.</p>

6

<p>move northwestern to reach catagoy as well as Haverford to low reach</p>

7

<p>you could eliminate 2 safetys.</p>

8

<p>yeah i figured northwestern would be one of the harder ones as well as haverford and wellesley. but i might cut northwestern out because of location but i still like it.</p>

9

<p>Yeah. I'd put the categories as:</p>

<p>REACHES: Amherst, Northwestern, Haverford, Tufts (low?), Wellesley, Wesleyan (low), Vassar (low)</p>

<p>MATCHES: BC, GW, Holy Cross</p>

<p>SAFTIES: America, Catholic U, The College of New Jersey, Rutgers</p>

<p>That said, I would definitely bet you get into at least a couple of the reaches (Amherst, Northwestern, and Wellesley probably being the hardest to get into)…they're reaches for anyone, really, but you're definitely in the running at all of them, I'd say. </p>

<p>As for cutting them:</p>

<p>a) You don't need 4 safeties unless financial aid is a big concern (in which case you might want the schools where you're very likely to get good merit money). If money isn't a major concern, try to narrow down to the two safeties you think you'd be happiest at. </p>

<p>b) Will you definitely be happier (/significantly more academically challenged) at your matches as compared to your safeties? If not, you might cut one.</p>

<p>c) You probably don't want so many reaches. You said in another thread that you really like Wes, Vassar, and Haverford, so lets say you keep those. As for the other four:</p>

<p>Wellesley: Are you sure you'll be happy at an all girl's school? If not, cut it.</p>

<p>Amherst: Significantly less "quirky" than Wes/Vassar/Haverford. Have you visited to make sure you like the atmosphere?</p>

<p>Tufts: Same as Amherst. </p>

<p>Northwestern: You say you're hesitant about the location, so that's definitely something to consider. Also, it is much larger/has more of a grad school focus than most of your other reaches. Are you sure you'll be happy with that? Also, same as Amherst.</p>

<p>Anyway, just things to think about.</p>

10

<p>School Admit% V25 V75 M25 M75 Median
Amherst 18.7 670 780 680 780 1455
Haverford 26.2 640 740 650 730 1380
Wesleyan 28.1 660 750 650 730 1400
Tufts 28.3 660 740 670 740 1405
Vassar 28.6 660 740 650 720 1385
Northwestern 30.0 650 740 670 760 1410
BC 30.7 610 700 640 720 1335
Wellesley 33.7 660 750 650 730 1395
GWU 38.3 590 690 590 690 1280
Holy Cross 47.8 N/A N/A N/A N/A 1266
American 51.3 600 690 580 670 1270
Rutgers 60.6 530 630 560 670 1195
Catholic 82.1 520 640 510 620 1145</p>

<p>Ooops .. forgot C of NJ, but that's a safety.</p>

<p>Given these numbers, and estimating conservatively by pretty much ignoring your URM status, I'd say:</p>

<p>Reaches:
Amherst
Northwestern
Tufts
Haverford
Wesleyan
Vassar (low, because student body is over 60% women)</p>

<p>Matches:
Wellesley (you can count on their 33.7% rate to apply to females)
BC</p>

<p>Safeties:
GWU (you're 75+% for both V and M scores)
Holy Cross
American
Rutgers
Catholic U
College of NJ</p>

<p>You might be in a better position than you think with Amherst because their diversity statistics indicate they are actively searching for URM's.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

11

<p>Descartesz:</p>

<p>Northwestern's acceptance rate decreased to 25% this year. there was a 20% increase in the number of applicants from last year's figures.</p>

12

<p>thanks everyone for the great advice. i'm talking to my parents about it now and we're having some problems. i want to cut (well not really cut but move them down the list) northwestern, wellesley, tufts, rutgers, and catholic u. thing is, my mom wants me to keep wellesley and tufts and my dad wants me to keep catholic u as well as add notre dame!? but in the end of course, i'm the one filling out the applications. does any one know what notre dame would be? i'm thinking it's a reach.</p>

13

<p>Looks to me like ND's admission stats are similiar to BC's. A little lower admit rate, though, probably because it is better known and thereby attracts more applicants.</p>

<p>I think you should think of it as a reachy-match.</p>

14

<p>Here's my two bits, but I have a question first. Why is your list so oriented toward the northeast? What are you looking for? That being said....</p>

<p>Likely: TCNJ, Rugters, Catholic University, Holy Cross, Wellesley</p>

<p>Favorably possible: American, Boston College, George Washington</p>

<p>Toss-up: Northwestern, Wesleyan University, Amherst, Haverford.</p>

15

<p>my list is oriented toward the northeast because i live in new jersey and I don't want too go to far from home (not more than a five hour drive in all directions). I have two very young siblings (one who is sickly) and I want to be able to drive home relatively quickly if I need to see them.</p>

16

<p>sgtpepper</p>

<p>although I understand that your counselor is requiring you to put these schools in some sort of order, I actually feel that you have an excellent chance at all of these schools. You are a URM with very good test scores and grades, and nice ECs. Although I normally wouldn't be suggesting more schools, I definitely think that you have too many safeties and not enough true reaches. I would pick the two safeties that appeal to you the most and I would probably add some tougher reaches, perhaps yale or brown (you could even apply EA to Yale and if you were accepted, you would still be able to send in the rest of your applications and see how you fared in regular decision).</p>

17

<p>Since you want to stay relatively close to New Jersey, think about the following, where you would be a VERY ATTRACTIVE applicant and a likely admittee;</p>

<p>Allegheny College, Westminster College, Ithaca College, Williams College.</p>

<p>Also, don't fool yourself, no matter how admirable your intentions are; you probably will not be heading home to visit family more than twice in the academic year. And even in the event of a family emergency, airports train stations and bus stations are typically nearby any given campus.</p>

18

<p>haha that's what my parents said. that's why they want to ship me off to indiana. but i honestly cannot imagine being so far away.</p>

19

<p>As a URM with those stats - I'm not sure if any of those "reach" schools (much less other top schools) are reaches.</p>

<p>While no guarantee of admission - I'd say you have a pretty decent shot at the "reach" schools.</p>

20

<p>As an African American, I think all of these are well within range.
Amherst is the toughest, but a New York Times article recently featured a successful African American student with a 1200 SAT, and the 2007 USN&WR profiled an African American girl accepted to Amherst with an 1150 SAT (but who chose to go elsewhere).
I think you need to add some higher ranked schools to your list and drop some of the lower ranked ones.</p>