Winnow! Play this game to shorten your list of colleges.

[TheGreyKing]

I am responding to a request from @labegg to post my response to another thread as its own thread in this forum. This is an activity that can be used by a student who is having trouble winnowing out colleges from a long list (after already ruling out any colleges based on finances, etc.).

Write each college’s name onto a separate index card.

Sort the index cards into three piles: reach, match, and safety.

The ‘rules’ of this game are that:
1- You must have at least 2 and no more than 6 or 7 schools in each pile when you have finished, and
2- You may not have more than 20 cards total at the end. (20 is the number of colleges allowed on the Common Application. Decrease the number allowed if application cost is a factor.)

Within each pile, compare the cards and sort them into an order. The ones you are most excited about go on top, the least on the bottom. If you need to do so, compare just two cards at a time until you have compared every college against every other one.

Who was eliminated the most often? Eliminate that college from its pile. Keep going until you are at the correct number of colleges as per the rules of the game.

Which colleges kept getting preferential treatment compared to all the others? Consider these for early decision or early action.

In December, if you were not chosen for ED, compare remaining colleges to your early action acceptances. If you will choose your early action school above another school anyway, eliminate that other school.

Good luck!

[ucbalumnus]

@TheGreyKing

Sort the index cards into three piles: reach, match, and safety.

The ‘rules’ of this game are that:
1- You must have at least 2 and no more than 6 or 7 schools in each pile when you have finished, and
2- You may not have more than 20 cards total at the end. (20 is the number of colleges allowed on the Common Application. Decrease the number allowed if application cost is a factor.)

Within each pile, compare the cards and sort them into an order. The ones you are most excited about go on top, the least on the bottom. If you need to do so, compare just two cards at a time until you have compared every college against every other one.

Remember that reach/match/safety must include affordability. A college that is a safety for admission but is unaffordable without a large merit scholarship that is a reach must be classified as a reach, not a safety.

There is no need to have any minimum number of matches or reaches if there is at least one affordable and desirable safety.

For any college that you would not choose over any of the safeties under any circumstances, remove that card.

The Common Application limit of 20 may not be relevant if many of the colleges use or accept other applications (college-specific, Universal Application, state university system application, etc.).