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Reaching and Playing It Safe: Choosing Colleges

Are you a realist or a go-getter? The answer could define your strategy for selecting your college of choice.

There are three legs on the college application stool. You could apply to a “reach” school — one you might get in. You could apply to a “safety” school — one that you should easily get in. Or you could go after a “target” school — one that gives you a 50-50 shot at admission.

So, you ask, what should you consider when selecting reach, safety and target schools? The ultimate goal is to avoid getting too daring with a middle-of-the-road GPA and, by the same token, too safe with your stellar academics. Either way you could wind up wishing you’d made different decisions. Making the right choice begins with understanding the university landscape today.

“Having a good list includes having a few reach colleges, more target colleges and a few probables,” says Janet Rosier, an independent admissions consultant in Woodbridge, Connecticut. “In today’s highly competitive college admissions environment, we don’t even refer to colleges as safeties anymore.”

Reaching for Admissions

The first rule of thumb when applying to a reach school is this: Knowing which school is a bit of a stretch and which school is a “there’s-just-no-possible-way-you-can-get-in,” according to Salvadore Liberto, vice president of enrollment and dean of admissions at Newbury College in Brookline, Massachusetts. The first option is not a hopeless case, he says. The second one is.

“Since admission standards can vary from year to year, you will want to make sure you know the up-to-date GPA, courses requirements and test score averages for your potential reach school,” Liberto says. “Even better, talk to an admissions counselor at that school to find out the projected requirements in the year you are applying.”

Playing it Safe

When it comes to the safety school, the selection advice is simple: Make sure you like the school. Don’t pick a school just because you know you can get in, Liberto suggests.

“The rankings and all of the criteria we use to assess colleges do not help a student when they have to make what is a personal choice,” he says. “So, students should use their personalities to test where they are comfortable and not try to align themselves to a market ideal, just for the sake of fitting into a pre-ordained schematic. That’s called being a statistic, not an individual.”

Make No Mistake

Putting all of your emotional energy into reach colleges and not paying enough attention to targets is a potential pitfall. That’s because if the reach doesn’t work out, you could find yourself having to make a snap decision on target colleges you may not have visited or even researched, Rosier says.

“Ideally, by the time application season arrives, you’ll have a good list that includes reaches, targets and probables and you’ll feel like you would be happy at any of the colleges on the list,” Rosier says.

Lisa Meyers, recruiting coach director at the National Collegiate Scouting Association, says many high school seniors make the mistake of submitting only one or two college applications.

“By submitting applications to all three categories, wise applicants can rest assured that they will receive at least one acceptance, and they just may be accepted to a school that appeared to be a long shot,” Meyers concludes. “In most cases, students who apply to these three categories will have options.”

Advice From a Yale Student

Jerry Guo, a current Yale University student and author of “Science Whiz,” a book about admissions for science students, offers some sage advice: Don’t be afraid to reach for the top. From where he sits, students apply to too many schools, up to 15 in his experience. Guo recommends choosing two or three reach schools and one safety school.

“If you’ve picked your safety right, it’s a school you should have no problems getting into, so why would you need more than one?” he asks. “Plus, you probably don’t want to matriculate there, after all. That’s why it’s a safety.”

Guo suggests two or three reach schools because, he figures, if Harvard and Yale won’t accept you, then Princeton won’t either. Instead of applying to over a dozen schools, he says, spend that time making your applications that much better.

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