what exactly is a reach/match/safety?

Applying to College
1

<p>Im under the impression that a match is a school that you will probably get into but have a small chance of not making it whereas a reach is a <25% chance and a safety is a gimmie.</p>

<p>is that right? or is a match a school that could go either way.</p>

2

<p>A safety is a school where you are more qualified than most admitted applicants.</p>

<p>A match is a school where you're on par with the average applicant.</p>

<p>A reach is a school where you're underqualified in comparison to other accepted applicants.</p>

<p>Pretty simple :)</p>

3

<p>This topic has been discussed many times, please use the search function on this forum. I did a quick search of "reach match safety" and got many hits, including:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/383820-how-do-you-determine-reach-match-safety-school.html?highlight=match+reach+safety%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/383820-how-do-you-determine-reach-match-safety-school.html?highlight=match+reach+safety&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Not in the case of very selective schools, which are a reach for just about everyone.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, that's true - super-selective schools are the exception to the rule.</p>

5

<p>A true safety is a school that is absolutely certain to admit you based only on your stats (GPA, test score, class rank), and that you know you can pay for without any aid other than federally determined aid. For most students, this will be an in-state public university or local community college. Check your home state university website for the GPA/Test score/Class rank combinations that will guarantee you admission.</p>

<p>Find a true safety, and apply early (almost all of these will have rolling admissions). Then you will have an acceptance in hand and somewhere to go even if everything else in your college application process goes wrong.</p>