Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:03     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:
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.


The way to do this is to determine the attributes that your kid likes in the reach-y school. Dartmouth is rural, Cornell is in a small town, Columbia and Harvard are in big cities. Likely there is no reason to apply to these four schools other than to brag. If your kid prefers a Harvard or Columbia then look for other schools in cities. If your kid prefers Dartmouth, then look at other smaller schools in smaller towns. Geography is important - if they want to be in the south, then Vanderbilt, Emory and similar would be on the same list. Once you cut down for semester versus quarter, size, setting (rural, suburban, urban) curriculum (open or rigid) etc, you can cull a list pretty easily.


Note this DCUM advice is directly the opposite of what "The Game" guy recommends, which is essentially that if you are a high stats student trying for a T20 winnowing the list down based on location/size preferences will massively reduce chances of ending up at any T20.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 13:28     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Top stats isn’t as important as relative rank as pp noted above. The school will try to get the top ranked kids into the best schools. If your kid has great stats but isn’t tippy top focus on top 25 LAC and top 25 universities and then look for best fit.


I am confused… hard to imagine any top ranked kids who are low stats. What are you talking about?


OP here,

I didn't write that. But my kid goes to a school where they don't weight classes. A student can have a 3.9 GPA and be in the top 10%. They don't publish ranks, but this is clear from the student profile.

At our local public school, more than half of the kids have GPA's over 4.0, because of generous ranking.

A kid from our school with a 3.9 has a shot at a T25. A kid with a 3.9 from public does not.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 12:02     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:Middle of the road stats, solid private:

Reach:
NYU
McGill
Brown

Hopeful:
UVM
UofMaryland College Park

Safeties:
St. Mary's
Washington
McDaniel

She ended up only applying to one safety that she really liked. She got into a hopeful and is waiting for RD at reaches.



Washington College - She's hoping to be on crew team
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:39     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:Top stats isn’t as important as relative rank as pp noted above. The school will try to get the top ranked kids into the best schools. If your kid has great stats but isn’t tippy top focus on top 25 LAC and top 25 universities and then look for best fit.


I am confused… hard to imagine any top ranked kids who are low stats. What are you talking about?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:21     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Based on the geo of the other schools, I'm guess that "washington" might be Washington College?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:17     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:Middle of the road stats, solid private:

Reach:
NYU
McGill
Brown

Hopeful:
UVM
UofMaryland College Park

Safeties:
St. Mary's
Washington
McDaniel

She ended up only applying to one safety that she really liked. She got into a hopeful and is waiting for RD at reaches.



Washington is UDub Seattle? Could you share her stats? Thanks.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:15     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Middle of the road stats, solid private:

Reach:
NYU
McGill
Brown

Hopeful:
UVM
UofMaryland College Park

Safeties:
St. Mary's
Washington
McDaniel

She ended up only applying to one safety that she really liked. She got into a hopeful and is waiting for RD at reaches.

Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:08     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
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 only need one true safety that your kid loves (or at least really likes) and would be happy to attend. For my high-stats private school kid that happens to be Mary Washington, which she fell in love with.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 08:57     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Very true
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 08:27     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Schools also will push safeties. Mine applied to too many — about five and two of the five DC did not want to attend.


Only applying to one safety is nerve wracking to parents and college counselors, so it isn’t ideal. I think 2 is ideal for a high stats kid. My DC was stubborn. DC’s school was pushing 3 safeties. My DC refused to apply to any school they would not be excited to attend. We found one safety DC liked a lot. Even going into winter break, college counselor wanted DC to add 2-3 more safeties. We found 2 that required no essays and college counselor agreed that DC would apply to these schools in January/RD if early return EAs (targets) did not yield an acceptance. DC was accepted EA to a school they are very happy with, so no more safeties.

If your kid likes Pitt, apply in September and be done with safeties.

This mirrors a lot of what worked for our high stats kid from a strong private. +1 on the recommendation to have 2 likelies, and using Pitt rolling admissions to get an early win for one of them.

OP, as you're getting your head around things, this article (https://support.collegekickstart.com/hc/en-us/articles/217485088-Differences-Between-Likely-Target-Reach-and-Unlikely-Schools) was helpful, though if you make a customized categorization table (which I recommend doing in Google Sheets), you'll probably want to adjust it for a high stats student.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 07:15     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:
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.


The way to do this is to determine the attributes that your kid likes in the reach-y school. Dartmouth is rural, Cornell is in a small town, Columbia and Harvard are in big cities. Likely there is no reason to apply to these four schools other than to brag. If your kid prefers a Harvard or Columbia then look for other schools in cities. If your kid prefers Dartmouth, then look at other smaller schools in smaller towns. Geography is important - if they want to be in the south, then Vanderbilt, Emory and similar would be on the same list. Once you cut down for semester versus quarter, size, setting (rural, suburban, urban) curriculum (open or rigid) etc, you can cull a list pretty easily.


Geography might be important, OR might not be important. You can’t assume it overrides all other variables. If a kid really really wanted to play football in college, and that trumped the urban/rural question, maybe applying to Dartmouth & Columbia would make sense.

Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 06:45     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
OP needs to give us some idea of likely intended degree. As an example only, STEM advice will be different from Nursing, Architecture, Arts, or Humanities.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 06:16     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Anonymous wrote:Schools also will push safeties. Mine applied to too many — about five and two of the five DC did not want to attend.


Only applying to one safety is nerve wracking to parents and college counselors, so it isn’t ideal. I think 2 is ideal for a high stats kid. My DC was stubborn. DC’s school was pushing 3 safeties. My DC refused to apply to any school they would not be excited to attend. We found one safety DC liked a lot. Even going into winter break, college counselor wanted DC to add 2-3 more safeties. We found 2 that required no essays and college counselor agreed that DC would apply to these schools in January/RD if early return EAs (targets) did not yield an acceptance. DC was accepted EA to a school they are very happy with, so no more safeties.

If your kid likes Pitt, apply in September and be done with safeties.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 05:40     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Schools also will push safeties. Mine applied to too many — about five and two of the five DC did not want to attend.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 05:37     Subject: If you had a high stats kid from a strong local private . . .
Top stats isn’t as important as relative rank as pp noted above. The school will try to get the top ranked kids into the best schools. If your kid has great stats but isn’t tippy top focus on top 25 LAC and top 25 universities and then look for best fit.