Every year, some high school students find that they've been rejected by all the collegess to which they applied. In many cases, the problem can be traced to some miscalculations when choosing schools. The standard advice most students receive is to apply to a mix of safety, match and reach schools. However, in these six cases, what seems like a match might actually be a reach.
1. Highly Selective Schools
If you have great test scores and a high GPA, you may be tempted to view the top colleges and universities in the country as matches. However, most of these highly selective schools have acceptance rates well below 20%. Whatever your scores are, these schools should be considered a "reach." Many well-qualified applicants will be rejected.2. Low Field-Specific GPA
Imagine you're applying to an engineering school and your high school GPA and class rank are a match for the school. However, your math and science grades are the lowest on your transcript. Since the engineering school is looking for particular strength in math and science, those individual grades could reduce your chances of acceptance.3. Shifts in Selectivity
It's easy to miscalculate what schools are a match if you have out-of-date data. Recent admissions cycles have been some of the most competitive on record because of a surge in the number of applicants. A school that used to accept 50% of applicants may now accept only 30%. As a result, many schools that would have been a match a few years ago are suddenly reach schools.
