This article is published in the 2017 I’m First Guide to College
By Kelly Herrington
Predicting admission is never an exact science. Most students apply to between four and eight colleges. Try to put the colleges on your list into one of three categories: “likely,” “best fit,” and “reach.”
- “Likely” colleges are ones where your grade point average and test scores are significantly higher than the school’s averages and you are therefore likely to be admitted.
- For “best-fit” colleges, your numbers are on par with the college’s statistics, so you have a good chance of being admitted.
- “Reach” colleges are ones where your numbers are below average. Your odds of getting into a reach school are not as good as getting into a likely or best-fit college, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply at all.
Most students apply to at least two “likely” and “best-fit” schools. Since admission to college hinges largely on the competition in a given year, it is impossible to predict the exact outcome of your applications, especially for highly selective institutions. So, it is extremely important for every student to have an appropriate group of schools within a healthy range of selectivity.