Why avoiding highly competitive schools is a winning applications strategy

EconPop
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:12:33 +0000

I would hazard a guess that any college with a 70% admit rate would certainly admit applicants with 3.9+ GPA and 1500 SAT scores. That’s what we’re talking about in this example, students focusing on T30 universities.

When these students fail to get accepted to a “safety” school, it’s not because safeties are rare creatures. It is because the families did not understand how to identify safeties. Some families think “We’re targeting Top10 Unis, so obviously 11-25 are safeties for us. Just to be extra safe, we’ll also apply to UT and UNC.” That is a recipe for disaster, but it happens every year.

Another safe guess is that there are probably more 70% admit-rate schools than any other category. These schools are not hard to find.