It is often difficult to decide which colleges to apply to, to build a balanced list of reach, target, and safety schools. This is something we鈥檝e discussed before, and something we see students grapple with each year. The stakes are high, and we can easily understand the stress this causes; after all, your college is where you will spend the next four years of your life, and will shape much of the rest of what you do.
One issue many students have is how to refine their lists, especially when they come to us in September, and that is what we鈥檙e going to discuss in this article. Students either have a few core schools they know they want, but are uncertain how to expand their list, or have too many schools they鈥檙e interested in, and need to refine it slightly. In this article, we鈥檒l discuss how to refine and balance your college list, to make sure you have the best possible chance of getting into a school that will meet your needs.
How to Expand Your College List
When students come to us, they usually have some idea of colleges they want to apply to. Places where their siblings or cousins attend, the local state school, their parent鈥檚 alma maters; these are schools they are well familiar with and like the sound of. Where they get stuck most often is in adding additional schools to the list, going beyond the bounds of what they have already heard of.
This trepidation is understandable. Most high school students, and indeed most people generally, have little reason to interact with or hear about colleges. You鈥檒l see a headline about some breakthrough discovery or political kerfuffle, but for the most part, colleges are a world unto themselves, insulated from the rest of what you hear about and focus on.
Here are the steps we take with students to understand, refine, and expand their college lists:
Evaluate Existing Schools
You won鈥檛 know what to add until you鈥檙e certain what鈥檚 already on the list. Do you have enough safety and target schools? What are your odds of getting into each school on your list? Do you have a clear favorite already that you want to apply to Early Decision, or are they all fairly equivalent in your estimation? What is each school asking for already in terms of essays?
By answering these, you can understand where you need to focus your efforts. A student with Rice, Yale, UT Austin, USC, and Vanderbilt on their list should add at least one or two safety schools, a few more targets, and consider adding more reach schools, for example. Once you know where you stand, you can move on to the next phase.
Deciding What You Want in a College
Your existing list, in many cases, is schools you are already somewhat familiar with. Maybe you鈥檝e been to visit, or watched their football games, or heard stories from parents or siblings. To expand your list, you must decide what key traits, besides familiarity, you want from a college.
These can be as important as what majors they offer, to as petty as what the weather is like. You will be spending four years at a school, so it鈥檚 fine to have requirements to make sure it鈥檚 a place you鈥檙e going to enjoy being. We recommend visiting a local college or two during one of your weekends; not necessarily to apply to there, but to see what aspects of campus atmosphere and culture you like, and which you might want from a future school.
Research Potential Colleges
Now that you have a list of criteria in hand, you can begin looking for colleges that match them. Target your efforts specifically to the holes you identified on your list. We will note that safety schools are going to be difficult to find that precisely match your desires; that鈥檚 normal.
You should spend most of your effort researching potential reach and target colleges. These are the schools which require the most effort to apply to, and which are the most competitive. You want to give yourself a variety of options, but don鈥檛 add any schools to your list you wouldn鈥檛 be willing to attend if admitted; that鈥檚 just adding work to your plate for no reason.
The total number of schools you want on your list will vary based on your college goals, but for most students aiming to attend a top-tier university, we recommend they apply to 15-20 colleges in total. This is a lot of work, but with acceptance rates at historic lows, and showing no signs of improving, you want to give yourself the best chance possible to get in.
How to Trim Down a College List
This is a much rarer problem to have; especially as acceptance rates decline, applying to an ever-growing number of schools is increasingly popular for students. Too much of a good thing is, however, still an issue to consider here. Having too many schools on your list, especially too many schools of the wrong type, can leave you doing extra work for no purpose.
Having Too Many Safety Schools
Generally you only need one or two safety schools on a college list. Much like a net under a tightrope, you only really need one sure thing to catch if things go wrong. Having too many more is unlikely to add too much work, but you can only apply to twenty colleges through the Common App, and this can impact which schools you can add through there.
One exception is if you are applying to schools that would normally be safeties in order to pursue honors colleges or prestigious merit scholarships. Many less competitive schools try to draw in impressive students through merit awards, and we have worked with many students who have pursued these. If this is your intention, we commend it; just make sure you are doing so intentionally.
Having Too Many Reach Schools
What counts as too many reach schools is a relative term. We have wired with students who have chosen to apply to thirty colleges or more, but these are by far the exception. Doing so is a lot of work, and requires a lot of organization. For most students and circumstances, twenty colleges suffices. Here are the most common cases where a student wants to apply to more than the average number of reach schools:
- The student is aiming for the very competitive BS/MD programs, and also wants to apply to a number of top-rated pre-med programs
- A student wants to maximize their chances of getting into a top college
The second motivation is more common, but here too most students will do fine with 10-15 reach schools on their list. If you have more than this, it may be worth pruning. These schools often have a lot of prompts, and even with cross-application, it can be a lot of work to write and edit all the needed essays.
The best way to trim this down is to do more research on all of the schools on your list and decide how much you would like attending them. While the term 鈥渢op colleges鈥� can make the group feel like a monolith, there are vast differences between them. Some students may thrive at both Brown and Caltech, but they are very different schools, with very different cultures. Decide which of these you would really be interested in spending four years at. Any school where you wouldn鈥檛 want to spend four years studying there shouldn鈥檛 be on your list.
Having Too Many Target Schools
This is generally not a problem. At most, the balance of your list may be off, but how many target schools vs reach schools you want to apply to depends on how much risk you鈥檙e willing to accept in your application strategy. In general, we advise students to aim for five or so target schools, but if you would rather take a more cautious approach, you can increase this number.
If you are only applying to target schools, rather than reach, then we do advise a rebalance. Having a few reach schools on your list will lead to a bit of extra work, but we frequently encourage students to dream big.
Final Thoughts
Building a balanced college list, like many other aspects of college admissions, is hard. It鈥檚 completely unlike anything you鈥檝e had to do before, and there鈥檚 a lot of pressure to get it right. We hope that this article helped clarify things, and showed you some common missteps that students make along the way. Our goal is to make your path to college easier and less stressful.
If you have questions about your specific college list, or about other aspects of the application process, then we can help. Our mentors excel in helping each student find the right university to support their needs and circumstances, and advising you on how best to approach your college journey. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more, we鈥檙e always happy to hear from you.
