Differentiating between reach, match, and safety

lolcats4
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:28:06 +0000

Generally speaking, a safety is a school you’ll be admitted to, a reach will deny you, and a match is a toss-up. But I think you’re asking for a more specific reply; I had similar stats (3.83 UW, 2320 SAT, 2400 SATII), so I’ll share my system of categorization from when I applied:

Safety: Only need to apply to one. Admittance guaranteed, significant merit aid expected.
Match: Likely to be admitted, but not guaranteed. Possibility of merit aid if admitted.
Reach: Any school with an admit rate under 20% (statistically unlikely admittance).

I applied to 11 schools. Only one was a safety (ASU), which offered its greatest merit scholarship. The rest were reaches (Schools ranging from Harvard and Princeton, where I was waitlisted, to Columbia, Pomona, Duke and Georgetown, where I was admitted), except for perhaps USC, which was more of a match (and offered me merit aid).