^That’s awfully defensive. Not sure anyone is attacking…just trying to help. Don’t chase ppl who try to help away…
I have to disagree with the no match comment. A kid with a 32, strong gpa and who truly demonstrates interest in Tulane is likely to get in with significant merit. Someone mentioned Bucknell not being a match as it has a 30% admit rate. But the number to look at is what is the admit for a 32? That is likely to be double 30% and and at some schools, including my D’s school, higher still.
But perhaps it all comes down to definitions. My gc considers a match to be 50/50.
Add more variety to your school list, you may end up liking other not-that-known institutions too. I hope you are not a prestige hunter.
I wish you the best applying to those schools 
@ColdinMinny I visited a Colgate and Hamilton, which I loved. I also saw some schools in Boston like Tufts and BU but wasn’t a huge fan. I would love to visit more schools but financial cost of driving everywhere is just too much. My parents are just encouraging me to apply to schools and if I get in then we’ll visit. For now I’ve just been watching youtube videos/obsessively googling pictures and scouring the internet for every online tour possible, haha. My parents keep telling me to apply to schools and see how financial aid treats us; they assume that we’re going to get enough and everything will work out, but this logic is kind of making me nervous. In the off chance that I do get into one of my top choice schools and can’t afford to go there- that would be devastating.
I’m also definitely going to major in English with either a minor in Political Science or Theatre depending on the school.
The OP also mentioned being at a highly regarded school in CT. There are several schools in Fairfield county that do exceptionally well with placement, so if OP is coming from one of those, that gives a boost. The type of school where adcoms say they know an A from that school really means an A
Columbia College
The New School
Boston U
Hamilton
@mikemac Oh my god really? Wow I did not know that…thank you for the advice I will definitely rule them out. That’s really devastating, I’ve been looking into the UC schools a lot recently, especially UCSD.
I’ve tried talking to my GCA. She’s very sweet but also very unknowledgeable. She only graduated from college from what seems like less than five years ago. She gave me some safeties/matches- Tulane, Hamilton, and Bucknell. She just did this based off of Naviance I assume. I like Hamilton and Tulane, not a fan of Bucknell.
@mamaedefamilia Thank you so much!! I will definitely check that website out.
@californiakid17 I am definitely going to apply to UConn- although I’m not sure how much aid I would actually get because virtually every person from our school applies. That being said, I have looked at both GW and Wake Forest and would definitely consider them, I just don’t know enough yet.
I also visited Colgate and LOVED it. My dad went there and I have such fond memories of going to football games with him when I was younger. Such a beautiful school.
Agree that expressing interest is important, even at safety schools, IMO. In my example of U rochester, my D was admitted, she interviewed and visited. Some kids with very similar or even slightly better stats were WLed or denied, because they didn’t even get on the email list. In the end, my D was accpeted to all safeties, all matches and one reach, with two WL at reaches. She expressed interest in all, by any combination of visiting, interviewing, or emailing reps.
@MidwestDad3 What do you know about Rollins? The name keeps coming up and it seems like a beautiful school. I’m definitely interested in it.
@Dustyfeathers NYU was the first school to be crossed off of my list for that very reason! I can’t even imagine how expensive it would be to go to college in NYC AND not have enough financial aid. Just the thought itself gives me anxiety…
Do you know what Vassar’s average stats are? I was looking at it, but on Naviance for my school the avg. accepted stats are VERY high, like way above my range (greater than 3.82/33 ACT).
For a rough comparison of the selectivity of colleges across types, this resource can be useful: “The 610 Smartest Colleges,” Business Insider. USNWR also has a “selectivity rank” column. For example, Vassar is 12th in its category.
Just to clarify everyone- I never said that any of my schools were definitive safeties! I’m very much still looking for good safeties. That being said, I feel like I can say that Colgate at least is a match bc I have a hook there and I have demonstrated a lot of interest. Please suggest any schools you would see as a safety for me. Thank you all for your comments, it really helps! 
@sodonewithHS16 Are you male? If you are, then Vassar may be a little lower for stats. Most liberal arts colleges need men. Vassar is no exception. I think the average GPA is 3.9 officially, but in another discussion on CC we were trying to figure out what the reported GPA was compared with actual GPA. In other words, is reported GPA weighted or unweighted. YOu say that yours is unweighted. The reported seems to be for several schools weighted. If you weighted your GPA you might be in Vassar’s range. Vassar tends to like truly individual thinkers and people, also.
@sodonewithHS16 My S scool Naviance avg for vassar is over 32, over 95% average. SAt was over 2100 and over 92%.
The other problem with Naviance is that the data ages. Look at the acceptance rate of target colleges from 5 years ago, and you will find that nearly all of them probably have lower acceptance rates now. Some of them are dramatically lower. So someone who got in 4-5 years ago might not get in today.
This thread kind of reminds me of this one
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1858882-deferred-by-2-lacs-could-it-be-grade-point-average.html
People were predicting doom and gloom for the OPs son, predicting he would be shut out of everything but Binghamton and urging him to add more schools. In the end the kid did very well, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Vasaar, Bates etc.
@Lindagaf Yes, we can agree to disagree. What surprises me is that your professional advisor would tell you that “match” is a fixed definition that doesn’t vary at all by the strength of the individual student, which is what your definition implies. That doesn’t seem to make sense as there is such a radical diversity of qualifications between students. A student with a 2.0 GPA, no EC’s and a 1700 SAT logically has less than a 30% chance of getting into that school, while a student with a 4.0UW, 2350 SAT, 12 AP’s, tons of EC’s with national awards, founder/leadership positions and meaningful CS has far more than a 30% chance of getting into that school. So how can it automatically be a “reach” for both?
Lets’ use a real example. Lafayette College (a great school BTW) has a 30% acceptance rate, by your definition a reach for any student regardless of their situation. Looking at Naviance for my S’s school, 105 students applied over the last 8 years. The average WEIGHTED GPA for of an accepted student was 3.67. There are students at his school with weighted GPA’s in excess of 4.5. The average accepted student SAT is 1922. Looking at the scatter graph, 100% of the applicants above 2200 SAT were accepted, and 100% of students with a GPA above 4.15 were accepted. That includes about 20 students above those ranges. And excluding a handful of waitlist exceptions below those stats, the vast majority of students above 3.8W GPA and 2050 SAT were admitted from his school. Based on that data a student at his school with a 4.5 and 2300 SAT is almost certainly going to be admitted. There are no guarantees, but realistically it would be a safety for that student, not even a match. My son’s GC recommended it as a safety for him, and his stats while good were not as high as that example. But by your definition even though there is not a single example in 8 years of a student with similar stats who has not been accepted you would consider it a reach. Again, we’ll just have to disagree on that definition.
they announced this last fall. See http://dailybruin.com/2015/11/25/uc-to-cut-need-based-aid-for-incoming-out-of-state-students/