How to Pick a Reach School aka toss a bone

tk21769
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:49:44 +0000

What is it you’re looking for in a college that you think a more selective school than UNC might give you, that UNC won’t? If you can’t answer that question, there isn’t much point in fishing around for reach schools based on a match-up of grades and scores alone.

For example, it would make sense to look beyond UNC if you want a strong engineering program, which UNC does not have. Neither does Chicago. If you’re looking for some more general quality such as smaller classes or a more geographically diverse student body, then many other schools besides the 6 on your list could fit. If you’re looking for more aid than you think UNC will offer, then you shouldn’t necessarily be focusing on admission reaches.

UNC is not exactly a safety for your stats. Here are a few private schools that are about as selective as UNC or a bit more so (but not wildly out of range):

Universities
Boston College
Brandeis
Carnegie Mellon (Arts & Sciences, not CS)
University of Rochester

LACs
Colby
Colgate
Davidson (more of a reach than most of the others)
Grinnell
Hamilton
Kenyon
Macalester