College list and ranking schools

millie210
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 05:03:47 +0000

You should take into account each school’s admittance rate. So, even if you had a 100 GPA and 1600 SAT, Yale, Columbia and Penn would still be reaches/Tier 1 because they admit such a small number of applicants.

I’m not sure what set of stats you’re looking at for the schools, but colleges generally describe their admit results in terms of a 4.0 GPA. You can easily find a 100/4.0 equivalency chart on Google. Also, colleges report the range of SAT and ACT scores for the middle 50% of enrolled students.* You’ll probably find looking at that range more informative than just the average scores that you seem to be looking at. If you Google the name of a school and “common data set” you’ll find links to a set of standardized forms that most schools complete every year. Section C of the Common Data Set gives all sorts of admissions related information you will find useful in figuring out which tier or where in the reach/match/safety scheme each school fits for you.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with your tier approach and, as you’ve figured out, it pretty much shakes out to the same thing as the reach/match/safety scheme.

Every school you’re applying to should be some place you’d be happy to attend and that you can or are likely to be able to afford.

Reaches are schools you could plausibly get into, but for which your chances are small if for no other reason than their very low admittance rate. Most people have reaches, but no rule requires them. If you’re lucky enough to fall madly in love with a school you have a good chance of getting into and affording (match) or will (almost**) definitely get admitted to and be able to afford (safety), then lucky you. I realize this hasn’t happened to you, but it happens to some people.

I'm sure there's something useful to be said about the difference in stats for admitted vs enrolled students, but I don't know what it is.

**Some people say it’s only a safety if you are guaranteed admission. Others say that a statistically extremely high likelihood given your stats and the schools admit rate is sufficient.