“Safety Schools” and “Reach Schools” and Do I Need Them?
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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!
Ready 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.
