SAFETY, TARGET AND REACH: What Metrics are You Using to Build Your College List?
Any search engine will explain building your college list using the following categories:
Safety: where you have a 75% or higher chance of getting accepted.
Target: where you have about a 50/50 chance of getting accepted.
Reach: where you have a 25% or lower chance of getting accepted.
This is the old-age methodology that has not considered the evolutions of college admissions such as holistic evaluation, test optional or test blind, institutional priorities, single digits acceptance rates, 25-35% increase in applications.
When students build a list solely based upon safety, target and reach parameters, those lists only focus on the one event of getting Accepted.
Bragging rights of receiving many acceptances or feeling of dejection upon receiving “Denied” from a so-called Target school is short-lived. Do not forget your college experience is going to depend on your academic and social compatibility. When students are able to express “why” they want to attend college and what they want and need in a campus, then students can relate to the process. Their research, visits, and applications will be meaningful and purposeful.
Safety, Target, and Reach categories will naturally evolve with clarity and transparency.
If SAT/ACT is optional and rigor is a stronger predictor than GPA…How are college evaluating students?
So, if the evaluation criteria at the colleges have shifted, shouldn’t the criteria behind creating the college list be updated as well?
A holistic admissions evaluation places the emphasis on who the student is, who they want to become and why. They examine the information you provide about past behavior and predict future behavior to determine your success rate (degree) and contribution to their campus community/culture. College shareholders have determined a blueprint of their incoming class. In turn, students should establish their preferences (needs and wants). When students are able to align those needs and wants with their value system, you have your “list drivers.” At this point, students are in the driver’s seat or it is a “buyers” market…they can begin to strategize with “traditional” metrics or scattergrams to predict admissions outcomes.
by Vicky Cunningham
