Why Selecting A Wise College List Is Essential For Your College Admissions Process?

There are less students applying to more colleges in the United States. As a result, colleges in the U.S. are becoming more and more competitive each year. With the growing number of applications and the decrease in acceptance rates, more than ever it is important to have a well-balanced college list.
A well-balanced college list looks like…
  • 2 to 3 Likely/Safety SchoolsThe student far exceeds the admissions criteria/grades, testing, and more and may have a 60/70% and above acceptance rate.
  • 2 to 4 Possible/Target schoolsThe student matches the admissions criteria or exceeds and may have a 40 to 60% acceptance rate.
  • 2 to 3 Reach SchoolsThe student either matches or exceeds the admissions criteria and may have a 30% acceptance rate and under.
The good news is that the majority of the colleges in the U.S. still offer roughly a 70% acceptance rate, so there are plenty of schools to apply to in order to have a well-balanced list. The problem arises when students want to apply to the more selective schools. This is where the admissions process becomes more challenging. The lower the acceptance rate, the more important it is to have a well-balanced college list.
Highly selective colleges and universities, tend to be the most well known by people, and are the schools that are the most challenging to receive admission. Every year they are getting even harder to get into. These school represent typically a 20/30% acceptance rate and under. When students only apply to these type of colleges, they can be disappointed in their admissions outcome. Even many of the highest achieving students with perfect ACT or SAT scores, grades and academic rigor, and stellar extracurricular activities are not getting accepted to these schools. When applying to the highly selective schools, they are not considered likely or target options for any student despite their academic background. They are hard to get into and have an unpredictable admissions process.
I am not discouraging students from applying to highly selective schools, but rather, I want to make sure that they have a successful admissions process with lots of great options, so covering their base by having a well-balanced college list is crucial.
The most important piece to the admissions process is for the student to be excited and happy about all of the choices on the college list. Since it is getting more challenging to apply to colleges, it is important for students to explore a wide range of options. Use the website College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA, Common Application to look up detailed admissions information per college. Pay close attention to the acceptance rates and the admissions criteria that is important at each school.
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