"Bottom-up" College Planning

Two types of college admissions stories break my heart. The first kind are when someone falls in love with a college that they realistically have very little chance of getting into. It's their "dream school" they'll say and, while they may grudgingly add a few more appropriate schools to their application pile, they never really look beyond that "dream school"...Until, of course, the rejection comes in the mail.

Then there are the people who build a list solely of what I call "lottery schools." These are schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford where the acceptance rate is so ridiculously low that no matter how good your grades and test scores are, getting in is never a sure bet. Unfortunately, like the "dream school" people, folks who build a list solely with "lottery schools" often have blinders on. Often, they've been told by parents, teachers, or a guidance counselor that they are a shoe-in for these schools because they are so unique and special. So, they never really look beyond "lottery schools"...Until, of course, the rejection letters start coming in the mail.

These two stories illustrate why I believe that college planning should be "bottom-up" rather than "top down." Bottom-up planning means taking a realistic look at yourself and your stats and beginning your college search by identifying several schools where you have a good bet of acceptance and - more importantly - where you'd be happy to go. These are the schools where your stats put you in the top of accepted students, or schools that accept a large percentage (more than 50% is my standard on this) of applicants. Once you've fallen in love with at least one good bet school, you can safely move on to more selective schools and, yes, even some lottery schools.

Let's take a look at how this might work in the real world. Paul is a straight A student, scored 750 math, 750 writing and 800 on critical reading on the SATs. Paul wants to major in biology and go on to medical school after college. His high school teachers love him, his parents love him, his friends tell him he is destined for glory. Surely, he only needs to apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and maybe Stanford as a back up, right? Wrong. Those are all lottery schools and, good as Paul might be, he needs to keep in mind that those schools turn away many people who are just as good. If Paul is as smart as his grades and test scores suggest, he'll pick 3-4 good bet schools and 3-4 match schools to investigate before he even clicks open the Harvard website. I'd suggest, for instance, that Paul look at schools like the University of Rochester, the University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve and possibly the honors college of his state university first. Then, he can check out schools like Emory, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell. Once he has narrowed his choices of good bets and matches down to 5-6, he can move on to those Ivy league schools. And, by the way, Stanford is never a back up school for anyone.

However, bottom-up planning isn't only for top students. More average students should also start with good bet and match schools before adding reach schools to their list. Sarah, for example, works hard but her GPA is just barely hitting 3.5 and her test scores are 580 math, 620 writing and 600 reading. She'd list to major in international relations and she's heard that Georgetown U. is the best school for that major. While Georgetown is a terrific school, it is a high reach for Sarah --- she's not even on the charts when it comes to Georgetown's stats. I'd suggest that Sarah put Georgetown aside for now and focus on finding some of the other excellent schools for international relations out there. Some good bet schools for her to check out would include the University of Denver, Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Butler University in Indiana, American in D.C. and Beloit in Wisconsin. All would be good bets for Sarah. Stepping up a notch, she could then check out schools like Boston U, Dickinson in Pennsylvania, and George Washington in D.C. as good match schools. All of these match and good bet schools have strong international relations programs but chances are that Sarah may never of heard of them if she stopped looking at Georgetown. So, should Sarah not apply to Georgetown? That's the beauty of bottom-up planning: now that she has a solid list of schools that she has a good to excellent shot of getting into, she can add one or two reach schools such as Georgetown, Tufts, or Colgate to her list knowing. She may not get in to those reach schools, but she'll know she'll be happy with the other schools on her list where she probably will get in.

So: If you're working on your college list, don't start at the top. Use a realistic bottom-up approach and you'll be able to start writing your applications knowing that ALL of the schools you're applying to, including your "safety" schools, are ones where you can be happy. Happy hunting!