<p>How do I determine if a school is considered a safety, match or reach for me? Since the only quanitative things I can see about a school is the test scores range, GPA, and class rank, can I use those three things to pretty much decide which schools are safeties, matches or reaches? Because we have no way of deciding how extracurriculars, essays and recs would be judged.</p>
<p>Numbers are an okay way to judge... extracurriculars have a LOT of weight at more competitive colleges, though! Leadership, commitment, and "focus" in your EC's are ways to judge whether they are strong or not... you might also want to look at "Results" threads for some of your schools, and see what types of students get in where.
You probably will have some sort of idea about the quality of your recs and essays, though. Do your teachers like you, and do they see you as both a strong student and good person? Are you good at writing, and do you portray yourself as a unique and positive addition to the school? Try to get feedback from fellow CCers, friends, parents, guidance counselors, and teachers...</p>