@lmpr176pk: The issue here is likely to be not having “match” schools. By definition, top 40 colleges are going to be reach for most students, simply because of selectivity/acceptance rate. These are smart students, so they’ll have safeties. In their minds they believe they’ll never need the safety, so they don’t invest in investigating those and often their list reads like 8 reaches, 2 safeties, 1 random “match” - they don’t have “good” matches, schools they like as much as the reaches even though they’re less selective, but that are overall closer to their stats, and/or they don’t demonstrate interest in the non-reach schools.
Dream schools, by definition, don’t take appeal letters.
As for transferring, it’s very difficult, and transfers don’t get as much financial aid (and no big merit scholarships).