@QuantMech, I think you’re using a very unusual and idiosyncratic definition of “overreach” that really has nothing to do with the subject of this thread. If the admissions officers of many highly selective colleges are to be believed (and why not?), 70 to 80% of their applicants are capable of doing the work. But that’s not what they’re looking for, except as a minimum threshold. The problem comes in when some students, including many who are perfectly capable of doing the work, apply to only a narrow band of super-selective colleges thinking that of course the colleges will recognize their individual brilliance and admit them, and then face a rude awakening when they’re rejected across the board. That’s overreach. It has nothing to do with whether they’re actually capable of doing the work.