<p>Yes, Irish, thanks for the great post! Admissions has increasingly become trickier to predict (if that is even possible!) as years pass by. It is more difficult to gain admissions to colleges, period. There are more students trying to gain admittance, thus, competition is indeed tough. The whole package and trying to maintain the perspective of having several good options (reaches, matches, and hopefully, safeties) can make the process maybe feel less daunting. Perhaps more of those chance me threads can step back and soak up some of your advice before putting all eggs in one basket! Thanks again for some good, honest info.</p>