Framing the College Application Process to Ensure Students Have Options 

For high school seniors, deciding where to apply to college is a critical decision that can impact their long-term trajectories. This decision is the gatekeeper for their postsecondary options. In other words, if a student does not apply to a school by the required deadlines senior year, they eliminate it from being a possibility. 

Students approach this decision in a wide variety of ways. Some are set on a single school for years before they actually apply. Whether from an association with a school that friends and family have attended or a location that they love or allegiance to a sports team, these students have placed all their hopes and plans on their “dream” school. Others underestimate their competitiveness or the kinds of financial support that are available and only apply to colleges that are local or have high acceptance rates. And still others do the metaphorical “throw spaghetti at the wall” and apply to a large number of schools and hope a good one sticks. All of these approaches risk students limiting their options and ending up at a school that is not a great fit for them. 

Counselors can help provide students with a framework for determining how many and which schools to apply to given their specific qualifications, preferences, and strengths. By approaching this process strategically and thoughtfully, students can maximize their choices and increase the likelihood that they end up at a school that aligns with their future hopes and aspirations.

The Benefits of Applying to Multiple Schools

By limiting applications to only a single school, students risk having no options for the following year. Many schools have specific, rather than rolling, deadlines. If students do not get into the school they apply to, they have often missed opportunities for applying to alternatives. 

Common wisdom suggests that students apply to between 5 and 8 schools. This approach can be critical to students securing adequate financial assistance. When students get into multiple colleges, they are able to compare a variety of financial aid packages. This gives the student and family choices to find a school that matches their financial capacity and empowers students to leverage better offers to negotiate with schools. College applications can be costly. Students who qualify for free and reduced lunch may be eligible for application fee waivers. 

And as testing optional policies have been adopted and the common application has made it much simpler for students to apply to additional schools, many colleges have seen huge increases in the number of applicants. This has resulted in lower acceptance rates at some schools, with a more competitive process and pool of applicants. Because of this, the average GPA, test scores, and set of extracurricular activities for specific schools have rapidly changed in just a few years. Schools that previously were a likely acceptance for a certain profile of students may now be out of reach. This changing context means it is even more important that students who plan to attend college apply to a range of schools to make sure they are accepted to a school they would be excited to attend.  

Reach, Target, and Safety Schools

Counselors can help students take a tiered approach to this process of determining which schools to spend time, energy, and money to apply to. Guiding students to identify multiple safety, target, and reach schools can be a way to ensure they keep their hopes for their dream school alive while also making sure they will have a good set of choices for their decision. In determining their schools, students should research the acceptance rate and the average GPA, test scores, and extracurricular qualifications for accepted students and think about how their credentials compare. 

• Reach Schools: Reach schools are schools that a student would really like to attend but may have difficulty being accepted given their grades, test scores, and extracurriculars. Any college or university that has an acceptance rate under 15% can be considered a reach for just about all students as even students who meet or exceed the standard qualifications may not be accepted. Many experts recommend applying to 2 schools in this category.

• Target Schools: These schools are schools where a student has a good chance of being accepted–meaning their GPA, test scores, and activities are very close to the average accepted student profile–but are not necessarily guaranteed. It can be a good idea for students to apply to 3-4 target schools. 

• Safety Schools: Safety schools are schools where students are very likely to be accepted given their GPA, test scores, and other qualifications. When identifying safety schools, students should be at the high end of these averages for accepted students. It is important for students to find safety schools where they would still be enthusiastic  to attend. Students may want to apply to 2 schools in this category. This often guarantees that students have at least 2 options when making a college choice. 

Finding the Right Fit

The most important component of applying to and selecting a college is finding the best fit for each student. As counselors talk with students about the college applications, emphasizing the need to find the right school for the student can be a powerful message in this often overwhelming process. And there is no algorithm to do this. Each student must reflect on their preferences and hopes for the future; understand what kinds of environments fuel their growth and wellbeing; and use that to guide their college decision-making. No matter how high a school’s ranking is or how impressive it looks on paper, if a student is not happy or engaged in a college community, they are unlikely to persist and thrive.