4.0 Student Aiming For MHC + Bryn Mawr [CA resident, <$15k from single parent + relatives]

That’s a good idea! Also, I think in your described circumstances, you should likely be hunting the best possible financial offers you can get from a college that would also work well for you academically.

And you really don’t know with a lot of these colleges what might happen–people are sometimes really pleasantly surprised with some of their offers. So giving yourself multiple opportunities to be pleasantly surprised is a good strategy.

In that sense the whole Safety/Likely way of thinking isn’t really capturing what might matter to you personally, at least not if that is defined just in terms of admission. You might think of these more like financial Matches/Targets in the sense you realistically might, but also might not, get a financial offer that would be surprisingly competitive.

Of course maybe you will get a great offer from Bryn Mawr or MHC that you like even better. But I think in your circumstances that maybe something like 3-5 applications similar in appeal to St Olaf (and including St Olaf) would help maximize the chances you are able to choose between some great offers.

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