You need to tell us what the school is. The previous poster who talked about the "close to 4.0, 1500)" as having a shot for top 25-30 is completely not relevant to a kid at Sidwell or STA. If you're at those schools then a close to 3.9/1500 will have a top 25-30 as a safety and you're almost assured to get into a top10. If you're at Gonzaga or Visitation it's going to be different because their grading is different and their matriculations are different.

Point is: any advice here is worthless without naming the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did their list of schools look like?

What did you and their college counselor consider Reach/Target/Safety for them, and how many of each did they apply to?

If your kid got into somewhere ED, or REA/SCEA did you have a list of where you'd apply if they didn't get in? If so, what did that list look like?

Assuming your kid gets As in all her junior year classes and she doesn’t have a pointy activity like MOP. Then she’s competing with a massive number of high stats kids (UW GPA close to 4.0, SAT 1500+, at least 8-10 AP classes with mostly 5s, decent/good ECs). With that profile, getting into the top 25-30 requires good essays plus a bit of good luck. But anything below the top 25-30 should be a fair bit easier. So it probably makes sense to cast a wide net for the top 25-30 plus at least 5 schools below that range.

OP here,

I agree with your assessment. She will probably apply to a few reach schools but knows those are a lottery. So, we'd love to look for targets and safeties. We did the "look local first" thing, and he liked UMD and GWU. But I have no idea what category they'd go in.

My high stats local private school kid (outside DMV, top 10% of class but not top 5%, SAT low 1500’s) applied to 11 schools- 4 reaches, 3 matches and 4 likelies. Rejected from one reach (T-25) deferred REA and then waitlisted RD at another (T-25), waitlisted at third reach, in at 4th reach (T-25) and attending there. Deferred and waitlisted at in-state public match EA, in at two other (private) matches- no merit. In at all likelies, with merit. When you say “local” I’m assuming your kid’s private is not a big feeder school, but does well with a few select T-25 schools each year.

Anonymous wrote:What did their list of schools look like?

What did you and their college counselor consider Reach/Target/Safety for them, and how many of each did they apply to?

If your kid got into somewhere ED, or REA/SCEA did you have a list of where you'd apply if they didn't get in? If so, what did that list look like?

Many uses 7:4:4. For high stats kids, you can cut safties to 2 if the school allows it. If not sure, keep it at 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into ED school. The rest of the list looked like this (though there was no need to apply anywhere)

Yale
Dartmouth
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore

Carleton
UVA

William and Mary
University of Edinburgh
University of Vermont

Are the bolded what your school considered appropriate safeties?

Yes.

Anonymous wrote:What did their list of schools look like?

What did you and their college counselor consider Reach/Target/Safety for them, and how many of each did they apply to?

If your kid got into somewhere ED, or REA/SCEA did you have a list of where you'd apply if they didn't get in? If so, what did that list look like?

Assuming your kid gets As in all her junior year classes and she doesn’t have a pointy activity like MOP. Then she’s competing with a massive number of high stats kids (UW GPA close to 4.0, SAT 1500+, at least 8-10 AP classes with mostly 5s, decent/good ECs). With that profile, getting into the top 25-30 requires good essays plus a bit of good luck. But anything below the top 25-30 should be a fair bit easier. So it probably makes sense to cast a wide net for the top 25-30 plus at least 5 schools below that range.

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into ED school. The rest of the list looked like this (though there was no need to apply anywhere)

Yale
Dartmouth
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore

Carleton
UVA

William and Mary
University of Edinburgh
University of Vermont

Are the bolded what your school considered appropriate safeties?

My kid got into ED school. The rest of the list looked like this (though there was no need to apply anywhere)

Yale
Dartmouth
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore

Carleton
UVA

William and Mary
University of Edinburgh
University of Vermont

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid just got into their SCEA school and had a long list of other “reachy” schools to apply to had they not. My advice is to rely on your school counselors. They were very upfront that my kid had the stats/activities to apply anywhere. Some classmates that were also great students but not at the very top got different guidance.

OP here,

I'm not questioning the school counselors, we just haven't met with them yet, and I'm looking down the road, but we'll definitely take the counselor's advice if it conflicts with DCUM.

My kid is one of those kids where it's worth applying to the very reachy school, but wondering what kinds of schools to look at for target and safety, and how many we need to find.

Far more parents think their kids should by applying to the “ reachy” schools that the actual number of kids who stand a chance.

Anonymous wrote:My '25 applied to too many safeties and targets in hindsight. At the time (maybe still is?) everyone was scaring people with yield protection. They got into all safeties and targets with significant merit to full-rides. They also got into UNC and UVA, one was oos. The in-state was a safety, controversial but true. Applied to long list of reaches, all high quality and not sacrificed for time.

How many of each did they apply to?

Can you give examples of a few schools you put in each category?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid just got into their SCEA school and had a long list of other “reachy” schools to apply to had they not. My advice is to rely on your school counselors. They were very upfront that my kid had the stats/activities to apply anywhere. Some classmates that were also great students but not at the very top got different guidance.

OP here,

I'm not questioning the school counselors, we just haven't met with them yet, and I'm looking down the road, but we'll definitely take the counselor's advice if it conflicts with DCUM.

My kid is one of those kids where it's worth applying to the very reachy school, but wondering what kinds of schools to look at for target and safety, and how many we need to find.

You won’t get any worthwhile advice on specific schools here.

My '25 applied to too many safeties and targets in hindsight. At the time (maybe still is?) everyone was scaring people with yield protection. They got into all safeties and targets with significant merit to full-rides. They also got into UNC and UVA, one was oos. The in-state was a safety, controversial but true. Applied to long list of reaches, all high quality and not sacrificed for time.

Anonymous wrote:My kid just got into their SCEA school and had a long list of other “reachy” schools to apply to had they not. My advice is to rely on your school counselors. They were very upfront that my kid had the stats/activities to apply anywhere. Some classmates that were also great students but not at the very top got different guidance.

OP here,

I'm not questioning the school counselors, we just haven't met with them yet, and I'm looking down the road, but we'll definitely take the counselor's advice if it conflicts with DCUM.

My kid is one of those kids where it's worth applying to the very reachy school, but wondering what kinds of schools to look at for target and safety, and how many we need to find.

My kid just got into their SCEA school and had a long list of other “reachy” schools to apply to had they not. My advice is to rely on your school counselors. They were very upfront that my kid had the stats/activities to apply anywhere. Some classmates that were also great students but not at the very top got different guidance.

What did their list of schools look like?

What did you and their college counselor consider Reach/Target/Safety for them, and how many of each did they apply to?

If your kid got into somewhere ED, or REA/SCEA did you have a list of where you'd apply if they didn't get in? If so, what did that list look like?