<p>in "what are my chances" forum, people write those things... can anyone explain to me what those mean?</p>
<p>safety - can be certain applicant will be admitted
match - applicant's statistics are in the range of a particular college and has a solid chance of being admitted
low reach - applicant's statistics are just below a college's general range and may be admitted
high reach - applicant's statistics are far below a college's general range and has a low chance of being admitted
Ivy and top ten or twenty schools are considered high reaches or at the very least reaches to virtually every applicant.</p>
<p>high reach- it would be somewhat unlikely for the prospective student to get into the school
low reach- it is a gamble as to if the person is to get in
high match- it's very possible, but certainly not guarenteed that the student will get in
low match- most likely, but still not certain that the person will get in
safety- almost a guarentee</p>
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<p>Because thousands of tippy-top scorers apply and acceptance is not based on test scores, but on how an Admissions Director “feels” after reading your essays and teacher recommendations (otherwise known as the holistic approach). So, even students with perfect test scores and stellar GPA’s sometimes get rejected. IMHO: Any college that has an acceptance rate under 8% is a high reach for all students.</p>
<p>HYPSM (among all other top 15-20) schools work far past simply score and quantitative data . There are more than enough perfect SAT/ACTs and 4.0s in the country than there are spots at these schools. HYPSM especially attracts people of high caliber so no one is guaranteed acceptance (unless u win a nobel prize or something). This is same as it trickles down the totem pole to the other top 15-20 schools where top scores can only do so much as give u a slightly better chance.</p>
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True for most, but not all students. For academically qualified athletes, any college that strongly recruits them is a sure thing.</p>
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<p>They get more applicants with top-end academic credentials than they have space in their frosh classes for. They therefore select only a small portion of them to admit (e.g. by looking for high level awards or extracurricular achievement, academic and/or extracurricular achievement coming from very disadvantaged backgrounds, or preference items that have more to do with the school’s needs than applicant’s academic merit like ethnicity, recruited athlete, and legacy, etc.).</p>
<p>As I posted elsewhere this morning, the odds for highly qualified candidates are NOT 8%, that is the average rate for every application in over the wall, from 2.7 GPA/22 ACT/1 AP to 2380 SAT/4.0 GPA/13 AP. They both don’t have an 8% chance. </p>
<p>The most qualified students probably have a 33 to 50% shot at any given school. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t see kids with multiple offers to Ivies. It’s not a random process.</p>
<p>^^ Actually, Harvard and Yale have said that 80% of applicants have the stats to be admitted and could do the work . . . so I think your percentages are off. </p>
<p>And quite frankly, I do think there is an element of randomness and luck involved in the applications process. I’ve mentioned this in other threads, but both my kids applied to HYP. My daughter was accepted to H, but rejected from YP. What did Harvard see that Yale and Princeton did not? Who knows? You would think that a most qualified applicant would be wanted by all – but that wasn’t the case. Same deal with my son, who was accepted to YP, but rejected from H. There are just too many “most qualified students” and not enough beds for them all at the top schools. And each college tends to look for different things – and what they look for changes from year to year – and so does an applicant’s chances. To me, and my kids, it’s very random.</p>
<p>There is a vast difference between “most qualified” and “qualified to do the work”. Most students who are 27+ could do the work at HYP, but that doesn’t make them “most qualified”. </p>
<p>By “most qualified”, I mean those above the 75% range, the ACT 34 and above contingent. Their odds aren’t 8%.</p>
<p>I may be wrong, but I think 80% of applicants at schools like Harvard and Yale probably have a 31+ ACT (or the SAT equivalent). At least when I look at my kids high school Naviance that’s what the majority of applicants to top schools have.</p>
<p>In the SCEA application pool, I imagine that 80% of applicants have a 34+ ACT. So, that would be 4,000 “most qualified” applicants out of 5,000 applicants total. Those odds aren’t 8%, but they are also not the 33% to 50% you eluded to in post #9.</p>
<p>Friends who have worked in college admissions have told me that every year they could put together 4-5 great incoming freshman classes from the applicant pool. They can only admit one. Any selective college is a gamble, there are no sure things. This is why it is important to apply to reaches AND matches AND safeties. (Oftentimes a very strong student will get rejected by a perceived ‘safety’ if the admissions committee senses that the student isn’t truly wanting to go there) </p>
<p>One interesting thing to do is visit the “Stats Profiles” link in the upper left column of this page. Start by looking in past years for the students scores/grades who applied to a particular school on your list, and then click through to see their total results. It’s really interesting to see the different results students get from various schools…</p>
Somebody Please chance me: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19890418#Comment_19890418
I echo the be careful mantra when it comes to college admissions. In 2013-14, my daughter applied to a whopping 17 colleges out of an abundance of caution… 4 safeties, 4 matches, 3 low reaches and 6 high reaches, but she was ultimately rejected by 12 out of the 17 schools. She was only accepted to her 4 safeties and one match.
She had created a matrix to determine where her stats correlated with every school on her list, and then came to consider certain schools matches based on such, but with so many applicants these days, being in the 75% or better is still not a guarantee. Everyone has to self-evaluate of course. But if you are simply a well-qualified, over-achieving non-URM with no definitive hook to assist your admissions chances, then beware and tread lightly. You may need to apply to more schools or apply early somewhere to gain an assured admit.
So assume nothing and leave yourself options. Just keep in mind that when an elite college accepts 5-9%, they are also then rejecting 91-95% of all applicants. Even an elite college accepting 30% is then rejecting 70%. And many of those failed applicants had good reason to believe that they would be accepted too. But with so many seniors applying to 10 or more schools and each elite school receiving 25K+ applications (some receive 50K+ and one even received 80K+), the chances of securing that coveted “golden ticket” keep going down.
Good luck…
Don’t pull up old threads, particularly to hijack them.