<p>I'm a junior looking into colleges I could be interested in. I'm trying to compile a list of safeties/matches/reaches. What kind of numbers make a school a safety, a match, or a reach? And for reaches, what is a smart/reasonable reach?</p>
<p>A safety is a college where you’re almost 100% guaranteed to get in and you wouldn’t mind going to as a last resort. Find a college where people with lower GPAs and SAT scores than you have gotten in.
A match would be one where people with stats similar to yours have gotten in.
A reach would be one where people with higher stats generally get in.
I suggest looking for rankings of your intended major/ area of interest.</p>
<p>A reach school is your ‘dream school’ that you still have some chance of getting into. You would probably have to put in extra effort and then some to make it happen, but it’s not impossible. Improve your test scores and write a strong essay and see what happens. You might be in for a nice surprize.</p>
<p>A match school is a school where you stand a decent chance. One can never be sure, but it looks like you could get into such school without bigger problems.</p>
<p>A safety school is very easy for you to get into. It’s the last resort where you can still go, should you fail elsewhere.</p>
<p>Ideally, you should apply to about 3 reach, 3-4 match and 2-3 safety schools.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>