The entire college admissions process can be overwhelming and time consuming. For that reason, you want to make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success and not wasting tons of time with your applications. This starts with the college selection process. Which schools should you apply to? As you create your perfect list of colleges, we recommend that you aim for a minimum of 6 schools: 2 safety school, 2 target schools, and 2 reach schools. Here, we’re taking a closer look at how to create your college list, what these categories mean, and how to make sure that you have a healthy combination of each before sending off your apps.

The college application process needs to start with one specific thing: deciding which schools you will apply to. Without this first crucial step completed initially, you face the risk of being disorganized throughout the application process, adding random schools along the way and trying to follow deadlines that are all over the place. What’s more, you run the risk of not including a healthy combination of safety, target, and reach schools in your applications, which may have dire consequences come decision time.

What is a safety school?

The term “safety” school refers to a college whose academics will be easy for you. These are colleges that you’d be surprised if you ended up getting rejected. In order for a college to be considered a real safety school, consider the average GPA, average test scores, and percentage of students that are accepted. If your academics are well above the average range for the school AND the acceptance rate is not tiny (like 12%), then this is a safety school for you.

What is a target school?

The term “target” school refers to a college where your academics are on point with their standard student. These are the schools where you know you’ll fit in academically but where you will still have to work hard to get good grades. For these schools, your GPA and test scores should fall into the average range of the students they’ve admitted in the past.

What is a reach school?

The term “reach” school refers to a school that may be just a bit out of reach academically for you. Once again, consider factors like average GPA, average test scores, and how competitive the school is. These are the schools whose average GPAs and test scores fall well above your own and/or schools that are incredibly competitive and accept a low percent of applicants.

How many schools should I apply to?

It’s becoming more and more common for students to feel the need to apply to upwards of 20 colleges. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is certainly not necessary either (and the application fees do add up very quickly! On average, college application fees are around $70 per school!). By being strategic about your school choices, you can lower the number on your list and still be confident that you’re going to be accepted and go to the right school for you, your goals, and your academic level.

We recommend a minimum of 6 colleges when applying, with 2 safety schools, 2 target schools, and 2 reach schools. Why? This creates a strong application that has an insurance policy intertwined (the safety schools that you’d be shocked if you didn’t get accepted to). This method still allows you to reach for your dream school (your 2 reach schools) but know that if you get rejected you’ll still be super happy at a school where your academics are a better fit.

Note: you still can choose to apply to 20 schools if you want. Our one word of advice is to still include 2 safety schools. These safety schools act like your backup, backup, backup plan just in case the universe is not on your side with all those target and reach schools.

Don’t pick just any schools, though

When we say to choose 2 safety schools, we aren’t recommending that you choose random community colleges in your hometown that you would hate to be caught dead attending. No way. There are GREAT schools at all academic levels. Expand your searching, and find a couple of schools that will still fit your goals for what you want to study, the types of people you want to surround yourself with, the clubs that you hope to join, etc. (Read more about finding colleges that are a good fit for you here!)

We love Money.com’s college ranking tool that lets you filter American colleges based on different factors. Try searching for schools that fall into your safety school range for GPA and/or test scores, and see which ones jump out at you. Just because it’s a safety DOES NOT mean you should hate the idea of going there. Quite the contrary — if all else fails and you end up at one of your safety schools, you should still be excited and proud and rest easily knowing you’ll still accomplish your longer-term goals. If you don’t feel like that’s the case with your safety schools, you have the wrong schools and should keep exploring.

Good luck, and happy applying!

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