How to Choose Dream, Target, and Safety Schools (2024)

FAQs

How to Choose Dream, Target, and Safety Schools? ›

Although you can never be sure whether a school will admit you, compare your SAT or ACT scores and GPA to their student body average. You should be in the 75th percentile or above for a campus to be considered a safe bet. Put another way, safeties are colleges that accept the majority of applicants.

Although you can never be sure whether a school will admit you, compare your SAT or ACT scores and GPA to their student body average. You should be in the 75th percentile or above for a campus to be considered a safe bet. Put another way, safeties are colleges that accept the majority of applicants.

A safety school is one where your academic credentials exceed the school's range for the average first-year student. You should be reasonably certain that you will be admitted to your safety schools. Like your dream and target schools, these should also be colleges you'd be happy to attend.

On BigFuture, if your SAT Score (or GPA, which we convert to an SAT Score) falls within the 25–75 percentiles for that specific school, we consider it a match. If your score is under the 25th percentile, we consider it a reach and if it's above the 75th percentile, we consider it a safety.

Reach schools are typically the school of your dreams. For example, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC etc... Reach schools are the schools you need to put extra work to try and meet the admission requirements OR maybe you know you won't be accepted but still want to try and be okay with the outcome.

Most students should have an equal number of reach, stretch, 50-50, and likely schools. If your list is top heavy, then you will need to have more colleges on your list. Start with 8 to 10 colleges and see if that's enough.

Narrowing the List. By the end of junior year, students should have five to 10 colleges under consideration. This allows for some flexibility in choice of major, career plans, and potential financial aid or scholarship options.

A safe school is one where teaching and learning are not distracted; disruptions are minimized; violence, drugs, bullying and fear are not present; students are not discriminated against; expectations for behavior are clearly communicated; and consequences for infractions are consistently and fairly applied.

For example, if you received a 1420 on your SAT, a possible target school option could be UC Irvine (with the 75th percentile of the freshman class having received a 1410), while a possible reach school option could be Columbia University (with the middle 50% of admitted students having received between a 1460-1550).

What are the 5 most important things to consider when choosing a college? ›

Key Takeaways

Before making your choice, consider these factors: cost, location, size, your interests, campus life, graduation rates, and the potential return on your investment.

Every year, prospective college students wonder, "How many colleges should I apply to?" As a general rule of thumb, some admissions experts recommend submitting applications to 4-12 schools.

What is a Safety School? A safety school is a university where you have a greater than 75% chance of acceptance. These schools consistently admit students with lower test scores and GPAs than yours.

A safety school is a school where your grades and test scores exceed the school's range. A target school is a school where your grades and test scores fall right within the school's indicated range.

A "Target" school is a school that has a reasonable probability to admit you if you were to apply. Not too easy (those are "Safety" schools), but not too hard either. A "Reach" school is a school that would be really hard for you to get into.

Target schools are schools that you are more likely to be admitted into and have an acceptance rate between 35 and 75%.

While you might not want to come outright and say it, there is no harm in telling your college that they are your top choice. However, you should use creative avenues to express your interest. Many college essays ask you why you want to attend, so this is the perfect opportunity.

It's Good Practice For Other College Applications

These “reach school” applications can be a little more difficult to master. But they're absolutely great practice for when it comes to your others. Completing these may give you more ideas for your essay or see where you can improve on your other college applications.

Target schools

These are the colleges and universities that are right on the money — they fit your GPA and standardized test scores on the money. While chances of being accepted are good, there's still the possibility of being waitlisted or denied at these target schools, especially the more competitive a school is.

Has a team ever scored 2 safeties? ›

Games in which a team scored only safeties

According to Pro-Football Reference, only 37 games in NFL history (including the AFPA, AAFC and AFL, leagues that were later merged into the NFL) and only seven since the NFL/AFL merger of 1970 have ended with one team scoring only a safety (or multiple safeties).

Even though a safety earns you the ball back, the play remains far less valuable than a TD. The average drive nets 2.1 points, meaning a safety's worth an average of about four points. The post-safety drive still makes a safety worth about three points less than a touchdown.

Admissions counselors generally recommend applying to 10 to 12 colleges, with two or three of those as safety school options and the others falling into the target or reach categories.

For example, if the median SAT scores of admitted students at a school is 1470-1570, and your highest SAT score is 1425, you're far below the middle 50% and might not make it past the first read of your application. If this is true for more than four or five schools on your list – your list is too heavy on reaches.

Encouraging Healthy Environments

Strict policies on school safety promote increased learning, feelings of school unity, higher levels of pro-social behavior and decreased levels of violence.

All U.S.-based part-time and full-time Target team members are eligible for debt-free education assistance for select undergraduate degrees, certificates, bootcamps and more. Head to targetpayandbenefits.com to learn how the benefit works and to get started.

Targets or goals should be SMART – that is, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. Performance against targets should be monitored on a regular basis to check progress. It is important that targets are taken seriously, but it needs to be a positive process.

Who are target audiences in schools? ›

A target audience is the particular group of people most likely to be interested in the content of your specific website or web page within a site. For this reason, your target audience should never be defined as “everyone.” In higher education, one of the most typical target audiences is prospective students.

Courses and Grades

A student's grades in college-preparatory classes remain the most significant factor in college admission decisions.

Considering that more than 20 million students apply to college every year, that means that approximately five million students in the U.S. are rejected annually from their dream schools.

With a score of 93.8 percent, Ole Miss earned the highest safety rating of all SEC institutions included in the study. The University of Alabama, Auburn University and Louisiana State University did not submit enough data to be included.

While the UCLA campus and nearby Westwood neighborhoods are generally safe, it is important that you help educate your student about personal safety. Some tips that you may want to discuss with your student are: Lock all doors and windows whenever you leave.

Can I get into college with a 3.5 GPA? ›

A 3.5 GPA will be highly competitive, and admission can be reasonably expected at many colleges. Still, it's not the most competitive at places like Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, which, on average, accept students with GPAs exceeding 4.0.

On BigFuture, if your SAT Score (or GPA, which we convert to an SAT Score) falls within the 25–75 percentiles for that specific school, we consider it a match. If your score is under the 25th percentile, we consider it a reach and if it's above the 75th percentile, we consider it a safety.

When it comes to the number of colleges you should apply to, many experts suggest students submit four to eight applications, though some experts recommend submitting as many as 15 applications. Regardless of expert opinion, your college decisions depend highly on your wants and needs.

If, according to the admissions calculator, you have between a 30% and 80% chance of gaining admission, you should categorize the college as on target. If the school has less than a 15% acceptance rate, you should categorize the school as a reach regardless of your GPA and standardized test scores.

What Does Selective Mean? A selective college admits fewer than half the students who apply. This means that any college with an admissions rate of 50% or lower could be considered selective.

(Responsive Educational Alternative for Children at Home) The Methow Valley School District values and respects individual choice and strong family-directed involvement in a child's development. The REACH program is an Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) provided by the district.

A Safe School Zone, according to the California Penal Code Section 626, is any area within 1,000 feet of a school and any area within 100 feet of a designated bus stop during regular school hours or within 60 minutes before or after any school-sponsored activity on the campus. Why do we need Safe School Zones?

Reach: A “reach” school is where your academic credentials fall below the school's range for the average freshman. Reach schools are long shots, but they are possible. (Far Reach: A “far reach” school is where your academic credentials fall far below the school's range for the average freshman.

Your chances of admission at a reach school are less than 25% on average. Some top US universities, including the Ivy League, are considered reach schools for all applicants, considering their incredibly low acceptance rates.

High performing schools have aligned curriculum with the state standards which staff implements using research-based teaching and learning strategies. Staff understand the role of classroom and state assessments, what the assessments measure and how student work is evaluated.

What are the 6 safe zones? ›

The UN Security Council declared six safe zones in Bosnia and Herzegovina early in the 1991 to 1995 war, specifically in Srebrenica, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zepa, Gorazde, and Bihac.

A calm down corner is a designated space in a home or classroom with the sole intent of being a safe space for a child to go to when they feel their emotions are running too high and they need to regain their emotional and physical control.

Pupils join us at the age of 4 (many having been to our Reach Up Nursery from the age of 2 years old) and progress seamlessly through transitions all the way to the age of 18 years old. This provides you, and your child(ren) with stability and a sense of 'home from home' that we believe school should provide to all.

If you want to know how to get into UCLA, know that admission is extremely competitive. UCLA would be considered a “reach” for any student. Becoming a UCLA Bruin will take much more than just meeting the UCLA GPA requirements or UCLA SAT scores.

How can you get into MIT? There's no golden formula for being admitted to a school as selective as MIT: it is a high reach for every student in the world.