Why Balance Is Key In Building a College List

This past spring, the same Wall Street Journal article at the bottom appeared three weeks in a row at the bottom of the weekly Harvard alumni magazine newsletter I receive via email.  “To Get Into the Ivy League,” the title warned, “’Extraordinary’ Isn’t Always Enough These Days.”  On the one hand, it seemed like my alma mater was implying to its readers, “You probably wouldn’t get in today.”  (No doubt, they’re right!)  But as a college counselor, I was annoyed by what author Douglas Belkin left out: by applying to at least eight schools whose acceptance rates were in the single digits the year before, Kaitlyn Younger, the “academic standout” profiled in the piece, was playing a dangerous game.

As a public high school student who did not hire a college counselor, Ms. Younger can’t be blamed for her lopsided college list.  And her guidance counselor is right to call this young woman – with her 1550 SAT score, 3.95 GPA, 11 AP courses, and active member of her school and community – “extraordinary.”   She certainly is extraordinary when measured against other members of her Texas town. 

Photo by @arcidi on Unsplash

However, as a white, middle-class female applying to college in the 2020s, her list of impressive achievements just don’t “stand out among Ivy League applicants” with her similar demographic profile.  The $1200 per hour college counselor consulted for Belkin’s piece opined, ““Twenty years ago, Ms. Younger would have had a good shot at an Ivy League school.’”

But it’s not 2002.  It’s 2022.  So, what’s a girl – or boy, for that matter – to do?  Though I don’t charge $1200 per hour (or anywhere near that amount), it’s likely that my advice is similar to that college counselor: build a BALANCED college list.

Photo by @miracleday on Unsplash

What Does a Balanced College List Look Like?

While much of college counseling is art rather than science, I hew closely to one rule when I build college lists for my clients.  Apply to three “reach” schools, five “target” schools, and four “safety” schools.  If you’d like to learn more about how I build a balanced college list, feel free to check out my webinar here.  (Please SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel while you’re there: subscribing helps the channel to grow and it’s a great way to say, “Thanks for the helpful content!”)

The most difficult part of this process is, of course, figuring out which schools will be a reach.  Ms. Younger might’ve thought that her academic and extracurricular credentials rendered “Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of California, Berkeley, and Northwestern” all targets.  I’m not sure.  But as someone who’s been working as a college counselor for almost a decade now, I can tell you that any school whose acceptance rate is in the single digits – as most of these schools that rejected Ms. Younger are – should be considered a reach school, especially if you are in the most-overrepresented demographic among college applicants: white, female, and middle-class.

Limit Reach Schools

Had I been Ms. Younger’s college counselor, I would’ve advised her to make a choice to cull down her “reach school” list to no more than four: do you want to attend college on the West Coast or the East?  Then, I would’ve encouraged her to pick some less selective schools, colleges with acceptance rates, say, in the 20-50% range.  She did have some safety schools on her list – she’ll be attending Arizona State University, which has an 88% acceptance rate, in the fall – but she missed a crucial opportunity to bulk up the middle range of her list. 

Consider Lesser Known Schools

While there’s no single “right” way to build a college list, there’s definitely a dangerous way – and that’s the path this young woman chose.  By choosing nine of the most selective schools in the entire country to apply to, Ms. Younger shut herself off from pursuing an education at colleges whose names might be less well-known, but from which she might’ve gotten an excellent education – and been happy.

If you’ve watched my webinar and still have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me to set up a complimentary consultation.  With proper planning, your family can build a balanced college list for your child – one that will set them up for both happiness and success.