College list and ranking schools

tk21769
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 10:48:27 +0000

The overall admit rate alone is a rather weak rule-of-thumb. A better approach is to look at Naviance results for your school. If virtually every applicant with your combination of scores and GPA is admitted … and if your family is able & willing to cover the estimated net price … then it’s a safety. If Naviance isn’t available and you want to use admit rates alone, I’d say 50% (or even a bit lower) may be safe enough for someone with a realistic shot at the Ivies (or peers), as long as your family can cover the EFC. 50% or higher is the admit rate for some good directional state universities (such as UNC-Raleigh, Michigan State, or UMBC).

Note that the overall admit rate may be misleading for engineering and honors programs, or for women’s colleges, or for out of state public universities. Safety choices should take into account your qualifications, your family finances, the number of applications, and your risk tolerance. If UChicago accepts you in the EA round and you can afford to attend, then UChicago becomes a safety as you await other schools in the RD round.