Today I was looking at my list of colleges and realized that I really only have safeties and reaches. I’m 2nd in my class of about 200 people and my SAT score is 2290. Schools where I’m within the range for GPA and SAT scores are schools that really can’t be considered a match for anybody because they’re so competitive. Even though my SAT is around the 75th percentile at, for example, Bowdoin, I don’t think I could comfortably say Bowdoin is a “match” for me because it is so competitive.
This really isn’t that pressing of an issue for me because I have some safeties on my list that I would be happy attending, but I was just wondering what thoughts other people had on this. What kind of schools could reasonably be considered “matches” for students with very strong stats?
No school with a 25% or lower acceptance rate is really a match, especially a school like Bowdoin were the class size is small and athletes make up close to 30-35% of the student body.
Available spots to unhooked applicants are pretty limited actually. Bowdoin and colleges like it don’t receive many Hail Mary applications either, so the applicant pool is very high quality. They are also very good at predicting whether you will actually come.
Your other problem is that safety schools might sniff you out and not accept you.
Boston College is probably a school where your chance of acceptance is a little above 50% based on its acceptance rate and your stats. So that one I would consider a Match.
What does your whole list look like? What is your proposed major? What is your financial situation? What sugnificant ECs do you have? All that would help us recommend matches.