<p>im not sure why both sides need to be attacking one another here. </p>
<p>a vast majority of the responses have only addressed the issue of applying to tons of reaches. while i dont think this is a good thing (what happens when you get into one you dont really want to attend?), its really the secondary issue. what is the far more important and helpful question to address is why so many students arent happy with the matches and safeties to which they are admitted.</p>
<p>there are probably lots of reasons for this, but it seems most of them boil down to students simply falling into a bit too much love with some of their reaches. getting into tufts, one of the nations best schools, isnt as exciting when you have your heart set on harvard. further, reading the tufts literature, asking tufts questions, surfing the tufts website, and visiting tufts just isnt as fun. so come application time most top students have a wonderful list of well-researched reaches. fewer have great lists of of well-researched matches and safeties. come april theyre rejected from most, if not all, of their reaches (theyre ‘reaches’ for a reason), leaving a pile of acceptances from relatively unknown (to the applicant) schools around the country. its pretty difficult to fall in love with a stranger within a month of being heartbroken by harvard. </p>
<p>anyway, i dont think anyone is asking any 18 year old to act completely rationally. nonetheless, i think spreading awareness of many of the traps into which many young adults have fallen a highly valuable use of this forum.</p>