How do *you* define match vs reach vs safeties?

[AustenNut]

@jym626

Calling @Mwfan1921 and @AustenNut, who have posted several excellent posts (threads?) on this topic. Perhaps they could post the links here.

Thank you for your kind words. These might perhaps be the most relevant? I haven’t read this thread yet, so I might be off.

Thread:

Changing College List Categories from Reaches/Safeties to Unlikely/Extremely Likely

On the thread Are We Doing Enough for Our Kids’ Mental Health? it was proposed that the language of Reaches/Likelies/Matches/Safeties should be changed to Unlikely/Possible/Likely/Extremely Likely and there was a positive response from the readers on that thread to the idea. I suggested the change on the sticky post for how students should write their Match Me/Chance Me threads, but I’ve now been informed that this is the proper venue for that discussion. There are several rationales behind the proposed change. “Reaches” implies that if a student tries hard enough, they can do something to make it more likely to gain acceptance. But here at CC people realize that 95% of all denied students are highly qualified with great ECs, leadership, test scores, and GPAs. Using the term “Unlikely” shows that it’s a numbers/odds game and is no reflection on the quality of the applicant. “Matches” for the uninitiated can often seem as though it should be a likely admission, when in reality it’s j…

Post:

POLL: What do you call a college a student has a pretty good chance of getting into?

A college that a student has a pretty good chance of getting into is a likely. I have issues with the words match & target. Match because it seems like you’re looking for a partner that will match you, and if you’ve selected your match but your match doesn’t pick you back, it feels pretty stinky. Also, why can’t a school where a student has a likelier chance of admission be a “match?” To me, the word “match” is more about a “best fit” type of school, and a school’s admission rate is not a “best fit” factor. With respect to target, it feels as though these are the schools you should be targeting. Why should a school’s admission rate (or a student’s chance of admission) have an impact on with why a school is a good fit for them? To me, chancing is all about that, the chances of getting into a school. Ideally, all of the schools on the list should be a “best fit” or at least “good fit.” The names of the categories are just ways of saying the likelihood of the student getting into…

Post:

How do you know what's a safety/target/reach?

When chancing people, this is the first place I start. Based on how a student’s stats compare to the school’s stats I might move a school up or down a category (occasionally up/down 2 categories, but rarely), but the basic chance of getting into a school I base on the overall acceptance rate. (By the way, when I mean categories, I generally will group schools into these categories: Extremely Likely: 80-99+% Likely: 60-79% Toss-Up: 40-59% Lower Probability: 20-39% Low Probability: less than 20% Then I’ll look at what percentage of student submitted a test to the school. If it’s a high percentage and the student is going TO, then it definitely drops the kid’s odds at least one category (and potentially more). If it’s a low percentage of people who submit the test, then I would look at the Common Data Set for GPA breakdowns. If a school is 99+% at 4.0, then I know they’ve used weighted scores and it’s not overly helpful. But if there’s a more typical grade breakdown, then I’d co…

Post:

Does Relative Excellence Matter for Highly Selective Colleges?

I don’t think that people say that. Most people say that they are reach schools or low probability schools. Let’s say that a student with a 1580 on the SAT vs. a 1520 on the SAT gets a 1 vs. a 2. One, plenty of people with 2s are accepted, so it shouldn’t be discouraging to the 1520. Secondly, the odds for the 1580 person might be better than the 1520 person, but their odds are still extremely low. Maybe one candidate is particularly impressive above and beyond the regular very strong applicant, so they have a higher chance of acceptance. Maybe it’s 2, 3, 4, or even 5 times likelier than for the regular very strong student. Guess what, their odds of admission just went from 3% to maybe 15%. Still a low probability result with how we generally categorize admissions (i.e. less than 20% is low probability). When do people say that striving for excellence is a negative? The mental health crisis amongst many teenagers is scary, and there have been many instances of self-harm r…