Continuing Education and Community Engagement
  • Home
  • Programs
  • Take a Class
  • Contact Us
  • Our Blogs
    • Go Learn Blog
    • Lifelong Learning
    • Test Prep Blog
  • Youth Ed on Facebook
  • Subscribe
September 21 2017

“Safety Schools” and “Reach Schools” and Do I Need Them?

business_school_0460CaptureReady to take that next step and get started with Grad School?  Visit our website and register today at prep.utah.edu or call at 801.581.5361.

Applying to grad school can be a daunting task, both time-consuming and expensive. As with any investment of time and money, you hope to be happy with the result. Making your application as excellent as possible is an enormous and critical step toward success, but choosing where to apply matters as well.  This blog post will give you some guidance on choosing where to apply.

First, let’s list some factors that people consider when deciding where to apply.  In no particular order, those factors might include:  location, cost of tuition, cost of living, potential job opportunities, rankings, specific programs, whether you want to work there when you’re done, whether you’re looking for adventure, whether you know someone, whether there’s a particular professor you want to work with, whether your company will pay for it, whether you have to consider other people in making your decision, etc.  In other words, the list of possible factors is endless.

Second, let’s talk about factors that schools consider when deciding who to admit.  Each program probably considers many factors about you – just like you’ll consider many factors about it.  A program may consider your:  GPA, test score, transcript, resume, letters of recommendation, life experiences, personal statement, interview, portfolio, writing sample, or other work product.

Now, how do you match those up?  On the one hand, you have factors that matter to you, and on the other hand, you have factors that matter to the schools.  The happiest student is the one who finds the best fit between those two sets of factors.  Researching schools can make an enormous difference to the likelihood that you’ll be admitted to a school you’ll enjoy.

Enter the concepts of “reach schools,” “match schools,” and “safety schools.” A “reach school” is like a dream school – a school that, given your GPA and test scores, it is unlikely you’ll get in, but you would really love to go there.  A “match school” is one where your GPA and test scores “match” the schools relatively well, but admission is not a sure thing.  A “safety school” is a school that, given your GPA and test score, it is very likely you’ll get in.

The general wisdom is to choose schools in three categories:  safety schools, match schools, and reach schools. You might decide to apply to a total of six schools – two in each category.  Or, if you’re not at all confident in your choices, you might apply to many more.  Twelve or even twenty-four schools is not unheard of, especially if a person’s GPA and test score are incongruent, or there are other factors that make the application more of a wild card.

Information such as average test scores and GPAs of admitted students can be obtained from the schools individually, from a resource like the USNews & World Report annual graduate schools rankings, from an admissions source like LSDAS or mba.com, or from a graduate school fair.

Applying to a variety of schools reduces the changes that you’ll end up disappointed – or wondering if you could have done better.  And the more schools you get into, the more choices you’ll have when it actually comes time to pick “the one.” Regardless, always follow this rule:  only apply to schools where you would actually be happy going.  No point in applying to schools you aren’t interested in, and then feeling stuck.  Happy researching!

CaptureReady to take that next step and get started with Grad School?  Visit our website and register today at prep.utah.edu or call at 801.581.5361.

What you want to know about ACT scoring Test Anxiety: How Do I Deal With It?

Related Posts

Biophoto2 (002)

Blog, Continuing Education, Lifelong Learning, Uncategorized, Writing

Instructor Profile: Ella Joy Olson, An Untold History

Campus Presidents Circle Sign

Test Prep

An Insider’s Perspective: Getting into Grad School

Capture

Test Prep, Uncategorized

GRE: Text Completion

Recent Posts

  • Instructor Profile: Ella Joy Olson, An Untold History
  • Are You A Part of Nature?
  • An Insider’s Perspective: Getting into Grad School
  • GRE: Text Completion
  • The Writing Sample: Keep it Simple

Archives

  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
Continuing Education and Community Engagement
Site Layout and Design by Marketing @ University of Utah Continuing Education & Community Engagement