Do odds increase when applying to more reaches?

Illinoisparent12
Mon, 04 Dec 2023 19:48:12 +0000

In my opinion, the answer depends on nature of the reaches: are they high reaches or more “reasonable reaches.”

Take a student with a 3.75 UW GPA and a 1480 SAT score, with a reasonable mix of extracurriculars and accomplishments, but who has no spikes (no family member who donated a building, not an recruited athlete, no national awards in their extracurriculars, etc.). If that student applies to Yale, they are almost certain to be denied. If that student decided to “maximize their chances” and add in Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Duke, and Stanford, that student is still nearly certain to be denied by all of them, and the student hasn’t increased their odds at all. Adding in these particular reach schools will not increase that student’s chances because those reaches were all unattainable at the outset.

However, take the same student, but now they are applying to Bates College. That’s still a reach, and I’d guess that the student’s odds of admission (in regular decision) are on the low side. But, if the student adds in: Colby, Vassar, Middlebury, Colgate, Hamilton and Wesleyan, then I believe the student has increased their chances of getting into one of these reaches, at least somewhat, due to the nature of holistic admissions and the fact that these are all “attainable reaches.”