<p>Or is it always a reach?</p>
<p>i’m not sure on the technical definition of “match” and “reach,” but no one can be assured admission. I would venture a guess that very few applicants have better than a 60% shot at getting in. there are so many variables that affect decisions.</p>
<p>And that is what keeps them interesting to so many; possible vs. probable</p>
<p>I think it could be possible for Princeton to be a “match” for someone, but that person probably wouldn’t have any reach schools. This applicant would probably be one in a million…but I’d guess it would be a match if someone was all of the following: 1. a recruited athlete 2. had crazy-good scores (2400 SAT, 5’s on a bunch of APs) 3. had a major EC “passion” like curing AIDS in Uganda and had spent every single summer there and all year raising money for them and tutoring Ugandan refugees 4. had stellar recs and essays.</p>
<p>I don’t think it really makes sense to throw around probabilities. When you say that someone has a 60% chance of getting in, do you mean that if they applied 10 different times, they would get in 6 times? I think that generally a student would either be rejected almost every time or accepted almost every time.</p>
<p>I don’t think Princeton is a reach for some students that are in like math olympics, or a Stuyvesant valedictorian, or a 4.0 at exeter.</p>
<p>For most applicants it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance since Princeton does not take transfers. So as weasel states, you would either be rejected or accepted. If rejected, you go to another choice. If P was your only school and you only applied there, what are the chances that you will be rejected 10years in a row using the law of diminishing returns. Where the possibilities lie is in idea that you do not need to be the “perfect” student, just the right student at the right time.</p>
<p>“but I’d guess it would be a match if someone was all of the following: 1. a recruited athlete 2. had crazy-good scores (2400 SAT, 5’s on a bunch of APs) 3. had a major EC “passion” like curing AIDS in Uganda and had spent every single summer there and all year raising money for them and tutoring Ugandan refugees 4. had stellar recs and essays.”</p>
<p>Well actually number one is enough by itself, for obvious reasons.
I would also think number three alone is enough for admittance to any college as well, since the student would have to be a brilliant scientist to perform such a feat. </p>
<p>When it comes to profiling schools, Princeton has many “match students”. The reason it loses this spot in one’s college list is that Princeton’s tiny acceptance rate means admittance is never likely, even for students who fit the mold.</p>
<p>ceebee, you did not take into consideration the intangibles that may not make P a good match for even “perfect fits”; location, weather, cost; girl/boy friend, type of sport (why play Bball at P when you could be at Duke, Georgetown, Stanford with much better programs than any Ivy league), leader vs. follower (you need both). </p>
<p>CC is full of stories with “no reach school” students that were rejected from top schools. Maybe they filled their quota of perfect score, Ungandan AIDS EC, athletes last year.</p>
<p>My point (and it may be off topic) is that how great would a school be if they were only made up of the same cloned person. Probably make a pretty boring discussion in any class.</p>
<p>There’s lots of people for whom Princeton is a match… lots of them happen to be athletes, though. There’s probably far fewer non-athlete/non-hooked people who are just generally amazing enough for it to be a match, but they’re out there.</p>
<p>I was being facetious 
No high school senior could cure AIDS. But for a recruited athlete or for someone with a unique passion AND stellar grades, yes, it could be a match. And I’m not going to get into that stuff about “being a fit”…I don’t think that’s what the OP was asking about.</p>
<p>yea. duke was this kid’s safety (bascially, idk if it actually was) @ my school last year. his short list was duke, pton, harvard. he was the like internat’l gold medalist in the math olympiad compt. that he chose to attend over the internat’l phyiscs compt. that he also qualified for that was held the same weekend. and he was a piano prodigy or s/t liek that</p>
<p>Yes, there are absolutely students for whom Princeton is a ‘match’. Not many, but a few.</p>
<p>TarHeel3007 is referring to [Arnav</a> Tripathy](<a href=“2006 Physics Olympics”>2006 Physics Olympics). Too bad he went to Harvard.</p>
<p>Someone told my dd to use a new term: target plus</p>
<p>That none of the schools on her list were reaches for her - but, because of the craziness of the admission rates etc, no one can consder it to be a target.</p>
<p>Kids like that just make me feel stupid!</p>
<p>O well, not everyone can be a genius. Too bad one of them went to my school Danny Kane (ended up at MIT and Harvard for grad school).</p>
<p>It must be for those who got in. However, they may not have known it before they got in.</p>