How do you determine a reach/match/safety school?

curious14
Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:30:29 +0000

I’d say the rules apply to all but top 3 or so on Univ and LAC lists. In the case of these schools I’d say no one is a safety. As far as people who are on the cusp, obviously the cut offs are arbitrary so you might want to use language like high reach or safety/expectation, the objective is to have schools on the list that are spread out accross the continuum. Test optional schools are tricky. There is a temptation to assume that if a school only receives scores from 2/3 of the applicants and you are in the top quartile of those submitting scores you are on safe ground. For a variety of reasons I think it is best to treat the ranges for these schools just like you would treat anyone elses ranges, I’ll explain if you want me to. IMO I’d say the probabliity of acceptance at a reach is less than 25% maybe less than 10%.