<p>Does it refer to your chances of being admitted to said school X, or just that you "match" the typical profile of the school?</p>
<p>Like, say, a high-achieving international math champ would be a match for Cal-Tech because s/he "fits" the school?
(This is just an example that I came up with off the top of my head. If you're offended, I apologize).</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure it refers to chances of being admitted. =) Anyone can correct me if I’m wrong though.</p>
<p>It’s your chance of being admitted. Hi Match would be almost a reach, Low Match close to a safety.</p>
<p>Definitely your chances of being admitted. I use high match/low match a lot to describe schools that aren’t quite a safety or a reach, for a variety of reasons. For example, WashU has too low of an acceptance rate for me to consider it a match, so for me, it’s a high match. Similarly, AU and Pitt are almost safeties for me, but I’d hesitate to classify them as such. The same goes for the terms low reach and super reach. Safeties don’t really have gray areas, unless you have a safety and a “true safety” as happymomof1 calls it.</p>
<p>I usually consider matches schools that you believe you have a 40-70% chance of getting into.</p>
<p>All right, thanks for the responses, everyone! Really cleared this up for me :).</p>
<p>when someone says like this school is a high match for u does it mean you have a good chance of getting in or does it mean like its a reach ?</p>
<p>@jadepari Close to a reach, but a more difficult admit than a match</p>
<p>“High match” typically means on the more difficult side of “match” (i.e. closer to “reach”), while “low match” typically means on the easier side of “match” (i.e. closer to “safety”).</p>
<p>They can refer to just admission, or both admission and affordability (i.e. if you need a merit scholarship to be able to afford the school, you might assess the school as a “match” or “reach” for the scholarship and ability to attend, even if it would be a “safety” for just admission, which would be worthless without the scholarship).</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on context. Any college with an acceptance rate of under 10% is a reach for almost anyone. Colleges with acceptance rates in the 10-25% range can be statistical matches for many students, but they are still selective enough to be “Low-reach/high-match” for those students. A “low-match” is probably a college where an applicants stats are at or slightly above the 75th percentile for accepted students. The likelihood of acceptance is very high, but not absolutely certain. </p>