<p>My kids hammered down on what we called “target” schools – places that they really liked, where they had a plausible shot at acceptance, and where the fit between kid and the school seemed particularly well-aligned. Their essays were written specifically for those schools. (In retrospect, a couple of colleges probably looked at those essays, realized S1 or S2 was a better fit at X, and moved on to the next applicant.)</p>
<p>For S1, these targets were Harvey Mudd RD, UChicago EA and MIT EA.
For S2, they were UChicago EA and Tufts RD.
These were not slam dunk schools for them or most applicants, and while they both had great test scores and extremely tough course loads, they were not top 10%. They went 5 for 5. They each made their cases for what they brought to the table.</p>
<p>We did ask them to select a couple of likelies where they would be happy and that offered merit $$. They both got into those with merit $$. </p>
<p>The big thing for them was that they didn’t apply anywhere they couldn’t see themselves attending in the first place. Both felt they could have done well with the opportunities at our flagship, and with that as the baseline, S2 in particular decided not to apply to several well-known CC schools because he felt it would not be worth the difference between the flagship and $50k+. Neither had the time nor inclination to send out lots of apps, and I am firmly convinced that the end product sent to the colleges would have been watered down had they done so.</p>
<p>Both sent out a mega-reach app after good EA news (in each case a school they had already vetted and considered), but in hindsight, they shouldn’t have bothered. Their target schools were much better fits.</p>
<p>It’s not just about getting into the school – it’s about doing well, being happy socially and academically, and graduating, too.</p>
<p>I think the concept of reach, match, safety is a good one. But, hey, if you found one safety you LOVED and would be happy to attend and can afford, then, no, no reason to apply to a reach. Plenty of kids who only apply to their one safety.</p>
<p>OP, I totally agree. After going through “the reaches” scenario with D1, I have vowed to never go through that ordeal again. With D2, we will encourage her to look at matches and safeties. It’s not worth the agony, in my opinion. The safety that D1 is attending is such a perfect fit, that it was downright foolish for us to set our sights on top schools.</p>
<p>But what if you have a kid who is tired of playing dumb for 12 years just to fit in socially? What if you have a D who keeps getting tracked into lower level math and science classes even though her test scores suggest that she’s at or near the top of her grade level? What if you have a child who doesn’t care about the grade- just wants to work hard and be challenged by kids who are smarter or harder working?</p>
<p>It’s all very well and good to say don’t push your kid to apply to a reach. But if you’ve raised a kid who has had to temper his/her natural curiousity because the school couldn’t accommodate, or because it wasn’t cool to love math, or because girls didn’t participate in AIME or the Physics Olympiad, it would take a cruel parent to tell your kid, “hey, mom and I think you should just find a college you can get into with no hassle and where you won’t have to struggle to keep up”. Maybe your kid wants to struggle. </p>
<p>All my kids ended up a little over their heads Freshman year in demanding colleges with tough curricula. All ended up doing fine- motivated to work hard by exceptional peers, encouraged to stretch by exceptional faculty, and yes, having to step up their game vs. HS which some days didn’t really push them on all cylinders. If they hadn’t ended up at Reaches they’d have found "their people " too… but we don’t regret encouraging them to Reach. Life sometimes is about the reach. If your kid suffers anxiety from getting a C- hey, that’s a good thing to know. But if your kid loves the journey and isn’t worried about the grade-- what’s wrong with the reach?</p>
<p>I suppose I agree in part and disagree in part. I think it is very important to have some sense of whether the schools a student is interest in are safety, match, or reach. However, I don’t think that there should be any particular number of schools that fall into each category. That said, I think a GC would be derelict not to urge a student to have at least one safety. Financial aid considerations limit the ability of many students to apply ED and may also necessitate applying to number of schools where there is a good chance for merit aid.</p>
<p>Students are individuals and formulas for safety/match/reach, or any other aspect of college admissions, cannot be blindly applied. But students must also be realistic about their chances for admission at a particular school, and safety/match/reach help to bring a dose of reality into an often confusing process.</p>
That merely implies that her school is run by incompetent administrators.</p>
<p>In any case, I did not read the OP as a mandate that parents push their kids not to apply to reaches, just as an encouragement to let them make up their own minds.</p>
<p>S1 was adamant from the beginning that he wanted to attend our big state u.<br>
He had good stats,etc and an ROTC scholarship that would pay his tuition at dozens of schools. I worried that he was throwing away a great opportunity but knew it was ultimately his decision. I bowed out. No reaches or big horizon stretching.
He was right. It was the perfect place for him.</p>
<p>I don’t know that anything is really wrong with the reach, but ultimately your child has to be happy there academically and socially. My older D had a good idea of what she wanted and didn’t apply to any reaches. She applied to 2 schools, accepted by both. Either would have been an excellent choice. (The one she chose had a human cadaver lab for UG.) </p>
<p>Younger D doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life and her list is really different from her sister’s. She’s targeting schools that it’s likely shell be admitted to and have a wide range of potential majors. A reach might be nice, but we also have to consider finances.
Not eligible for <em>any</em> need based aid, including the current tax credits, if the school (private or OOS) doesn’t offer merit for someone with her stats, it’s a likely no-go. We have a budget and we’ll stick to it. It’s not like we’re denying her opportunity, only that she has to be smart about it. What good is a true (academic) reach if there’s no way we can afford it?</p>
<p>We didn’t really buy into (or rely on) the Reach-Match-Safety model.</p>
<p>My D knew several key things she was looking for in a college, 2 of them being size and location. That generated our first list. Research and visits narrowed that list down to 6 or 7 schools. All are very good small midwest LACs.</p>
<p>Her stats are at the tippy top of their applicant pools, so we expect significant merit aid.</p>
<p>D has ranked the 6 schools in order of preference. I’m sure she’ll be accepted to all 6, and my hope is that one of her top 2 will come through with the most attractive financial package.</p>
<p>All of these schools are really safeties in terms of admission AND financial aid. But they are the schools she wants to go to, and where she sees the best fit. So “match” and “reach” aren’t meaningful concepts to us at this point.</p>
<p>I thought my daughter had some reaches on her list, but she got in everywhere she applied, which was odd and not what I’d expected. She had an interesting academic and EC profile which combined to make her an incredibly lopsided kid. I guess it was lopsided in the way a lot of schools were looking for that year.</p>
<p>In the end, though, given her areas of interest and her desire to do more than one thing, she ended up at a school which was not one of the academic or name recognition top 3 of her acceptances. It was the one she liked the best.</p>
<p>So, yeah, I think fit is incredibly important.</p>
<p>My next one is not a “student” by anyone’s standards, I’m not even using the CC filter, but her teachers and coaches adore her and she is considered to be a leader and all around great influence. A ‘fit’ for her would probably be culinary school, though she is likely to go to college, anyway, on an athletic scholarship, since she would very much like to continue to play as long as she can. For her, the best fit will be the best team.</p>
<p>Kids are different, I think. You can only get behind them and cheer them on. At least in my experience.</p>
<p>D’s best friend from HS is at Harvard, though, and absolutely thriving! I don’t think he would have applied there if his mom hadn’t pushed him to do it. In that case, I think it was a good thing he had that mom standing there saying, “Cut it out. I don’t want to hear all the reasons this is a waste of your time. Apply and then we’ll see.” That is a really good outcome for a kid who wasn’t nearly as excited about himself as he should have been. JMO</p>
<p>I never heard about the “reach, match, safety” concept until CC. By then, both kids applied to school and S1 was already in school. They both applied to the kind of schools they wanted to go to and felt they had a reasonable chance of getting in. My only concern was that at least one of the schools that at least one of the academic safety’s was a financial safety as well. They are both at good schools and seem to be thriving.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you, researching4emb. I could have written that post myself!</p>
<p>My son will be applying for one “reach,” Stanford. Because he really likes that school. It’s a reach in that they can only accept so many kids, and lots of kids have great stats (the roulette you mentioned). But it’s not a reach in the conventional sense; it’s more of a match, because of his stats. (It’s also a reach in that we don’t think we can afford it even if he IS selected.)</p>
<p>He is not applying to any other “reaches,” i.e. ivies in his case. He doesn’t think he’d be happy at any of them. They’re not appealing to him. They’re not a good fit for his personality. He wants to be happy, first and foremost, and we want him to be happy! :)</p>
<p>We get the same kinds of comments … why not just apply? The better question is, “Why apply?” He’s not interested in attending! Is there any good reason to apply to a school that you don’t want to attend? Silly.</p>
<p>None of his matches accepted him?! What the heck? Why do you think that was? That’s kind of a scary thought. And can I ask … what were the matches that turned him away?</p>
<p>Many of these posts refer to better merit aid at a match or safety. But financial aid, based on need, is often better at reaches, due to larger endowments at those institutions, and to their explicit desire to diversify the student body in terms of socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>I am not a big believer of fit, or college search is trying to find a place my kid would be happy at for next 4 years, and hence my response of happiness is not worth 80,000. </p>
<p>Going to college is about getting the best education possible. For the kind of money we are spending I want to make sure it is spend at a school where my kid would get the most bang for the money. </p>
<p>There is a difference of quality of education between tier 1 vs tier 2 education. I would even argue that job opportunity is different depending what school one attended. </p>
<p>If D2 were to fall in love with a UC on a beach(decent academic), or an opportunity to go to a top tier school, she wouldn’t be ED at the UC.</p>
<p>Every top job, school, EC is difficult to reach. Some people thrive on the challenge, and some people do not have the stomach for it. I am one to push and coach my kids for them to reach their full potential.</p>
<p>I agree with Hunt-- the key issue is fit, whether it be academic, social or financial, at the school where a child will get the best education. Reach, match and safety should merely reflect the likelihood of admission (my s’s HS used these terms, not just CC).</p>
<p>If reach is being done merely to throw a bunch of applications at the wall to see what sticks, and at schools the school really isnt a fit or the student really doesn’t desperately want to go there, then in these scenarios reach=trophy-hunting and I totally agree-- that should not be done.</p>
<p>I am totally in agreement with oldfort. What is “fit” anyway? A person could be happy at and benefit from any number of colleges. Why not try to attend one that will offer the very best education (at the best price, if that is a consideration – as it is for most). Why settle for something less? And if you are a hardworking, bright, serious student, you are going to “fit” best in a place where the vast majority of students are like you. Certainly, there are very bright students everywhere, but wouldn’t you prefer to be one of the majority rather than the minority? I know top students who have gone to 2nd or 3rd tier schools for “fit” who complain that most of their classmates don’t take their education seriously. If a school accepts you, you have the capability to succeed there. Obviously, students should be realistic about their chances, and judicious with their applications, but if you are a top student, why wouldn’t you want to “reach”?</p>
<p>I agree with OP. We looked at the reach/match/safety from a financial standpoint first, then by acceptance probability. D has selected a major that is not offered at many schools so that had to factor in as well and she has an EC that she wants to continue in college so that was of high importance.</p>
<p>She only looked at schools that, on paper, had most of her requirements, ie-location/weather/sports/major, but that were affordable or that had some options for merit aid (not a top student by CC standards).</p>
<p>Financial and Acceptance fits
1 in-state public
1 out-of-state public</p>
<p>Acceptance fits but a bit uncertain of financial fit (at least some merit aid options)
3 out-of-state publics
1 out-of-state private</p>
<p>Financial fit, but acceptance reach (primarily due to volume of apps, and stats on the low side)
1 in-state public</p>
<p>Once she knows some more about acceptance/aid then shell visit those that are good options and focus on feel. Well thats what shes been saying, but now might take a trip with some friends to visit a few so Luckily its not going to be to the one OOS public that I know shell love and that Ive not got a good feeling about receiving enough aid!</p>