Each college list should have "reach" schools, "target" schools and "likely" schools on them or in other words, "tiers".
Likely - a college or university where you believe that your likelihood of being admitted is greater then 90% regardless of what round you apply. A likely school must almost be a college you know you can afford to attend after applying any gaurunteed merit aid, financial aid and scholarship money. I would also like to HIGHLY recommend following this "rule of thumb": every college list should at least 2-3 likely schools on them.
Target - you have a 50:50 chance of being admitted to colleges within this tier during regular decision (your admit rate at each school in this tier should average out to be between 40%-50%). Having a more selective target school or reach school with a higher admit rate is a prime target (15%-25%) for an early decision 2 application.
Reach - Schools where the likelihood of admission is low (>15%) but you have a shot of being admitted, especially if you apply early decision.
Download this tracker for free on my website to help you keep your "colleges in a row" 😉! https://www.kallege.org/toolkit
On average, applying to 9-14 colleges (University of California application counts as 1 application even though you can apply to 9 different schools with it) is a healthy range to maintain no matter how tempting it might be to "just add 1 more college to the list".
There is so much value in having a balance between each tier (reach, target, likely) on your finalized college list, but remember that if YOU ARE THE ONE APPLYING TO COLLEGE then you should be 100% happy with every college on that list regardless of what "tier" they fall in! Why is that? Because guess what!? You're going to attend one of the colleges on that list so you better make sure you love each and every single one of them. Should always feel excited about each of the colleges on your list regardless of how selective a college is. You have to make sure you take the time to research and engage with colleges so that when it comes time to push submit, that you know you would be happy attending any of the colleges you're about to apply to if granted admission.
It’s best to work through these pieces with a trained professional, however googling “[college name] class profile” can give you a glimpse of what kind of students are being admitted at your schools of interest which should give you an idea if they are reach, target or likely school for you! Remember to put your best foot forward when writing every application and conducting your demonstrated interest (DI) pieces for those schools that track DI. If you don’t show colleges a lot of DI aka "love", then do not expect them to show any love back even if you thought you we're basically guaranteed admission to that college. Each application, each essay and each email should always be tailored and specific to the college of interest.
I recommend not comparing college lists with friends, piers or classmates as the college application process is a deeply personal process. Never feel obligated to share the details of your admissions process and if you want to share, share what you are only okay with sharing! People should respect that.
Parents, guardians, caregivers and friends, the person you are on this journey with needs your fair, healthy, kind and caring support. Remember you are on their team, not your own, so their vision, wants, needs and desires, as long as they are healthy and realistic, must always come first.
Wonderful humans who happen to be applying to college, remember that each admission acceptance you receive is simply an offer to join a community, most of which you will turn down. It is not a measure of how smart you are, how accomplished you are or how amazing you are. The college admissions process only gives glimpses, snapshots, of parts of your life that you have chosen to share. Nothing more, nothing less. Please do not measure your self worth on the results of this process, because if this process was about "measuring self worth"... you wouldn't even go to college... because there simply wouldn't be a college good enough out there to deserve you.
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