<p>D has one reach on her list, and from all we've read it could be perfect for her (who knows, maybe when we visit next month, she'll hate it!), except for their reported scores. ;-) Her combined SAT is about 100 points less than their reported average, and her ACT is 2 points less than their average. Yup, she'll be taking both of them again. Is this a minor or major reach?</p>
<p>I honestly couldn't say with that little info.</p>
<p>They don't report students' GPA averages, so we don't have much else to go on.</p>
<p>That's messed up.</p>
<p>What school is this that you're looking at?</p>
<p>Yeah, that is pretty weird that they don't have the average GPA available. But dont be too discouraged about the SAT/ACT. What's the range, anyway? My school's SAT range is fairly large. There's a 100 point difference between the lower 25% and the middle 50%. So your daughter's score may not be too terribly low for the school.</p>
<p>Could you give the name of the school? Admit rates have a lot to do with this too.</p>
<p>Maybe its listed and I'm just missing it. I'm referring to Macalester. Their verbal and math (25-75%) SAT range is ~100 points. Their acceptance rate is currently listed at 44%, but I suspect that's going down as its becoming more well known and now on the "new Ivies" list, etc.</p>
<p>sushi: </p>
<p>super reaches=schools where her SAT is 100 below the mean. that difference means that your daughter must be nearly spectacular in all the other parts of her application to get in.</p>
<p>I disagree. Adcoms understand that some students are just bad at taking tests. I would say that Macalester is a reach because she still has a shot.</p>
<p>A super reach is where it would be a miracle if the applicant got accepted.</p>
<p>Definitely not a super reach. It's a reach, but she has a shot to get in.</p>
<p>i'm in the middle between faux hoax and square head. it's as impossible as squarehead would make it seem because it will happen every year that a good amount of people form the super reach list will get in, but it's also constitutes any combination of poor ecs, pretty low sat score for the school, poor gpa, that would make it seem for the person to have approximately 5-10% chance of making it there.</p>
<p>Whenever I deem a UC to be a "Super Reach" for an applicant, I do so because the UC has no reason to accept him/her... Usually, this occurs when the person's UC GPA, SAT I/II scores, courseload, and ECs are all significantly below the school's average, and he/she offers no hook or extraneous circumstances to back his/her application up. Also, the deficiency has to be so great that even "crapshoot" schools cannot admit the applicant based on miraculous luck. I rarely ever use the term "Super Reach", and only use it for UCB/UCLA admissions, but these judgements never been proven wrong come mid-March. :rolleyes:</p>