Creating a college/ university list

Before we start, please remember to determine your "Best fit" college or university. In that section you can read what makes a college or university your right fit, and you can also work on the college planning worksheets and self-assessment​. 

The university search process can be an exciting and rewarding one, but it can also be confusing, and there is much opportunity for miscommunication. Please read through the following policies established by the VIS Counselling Office.

• Responsibility:

Each student is in charge of their own college/university application process. Colleges/Universities want to see an organised, independent applicant with internal motivation. While we will focus on giving good advice and representing the students to the colleges/universities, students need to remain aware and on top of all requirements and deadlines, either internal to VIS or external. At the end of the day, the student is responsible for researching colleges/universities, writing essays and statements, completing applications, enrolling, preparing and sitting for tests and keeping track of due dates.

• Building a Balanced College/University List: 

An ideally balanced list would have at least:

• 1 or 2 likely universities (sometimes called "safer/safety options"),

• target (solid) universities, 

• and additionally could have 1 or 2 reach (aspirational) universities

To understand what is a Reach, Target and Safety, look at the following table:

Some aspects to consider

• Any option must meet the category in both columns to be a true “Reach”, Target” or “Safety”; otherwise it is whichever is the “highest”

Examples:

• • Student has built their profile, and has 38 IB predicted points (or approximately a 3.7 GPA); university requires 36 IB predicted points (or approximately a 3.5 GPA), and has a 70% Acceptance Rate

Profile and academics = Target & acceptance rate = Safety = Overall: Target

• • Student has built their profile, and has 36 IB predicted points (or approximately a 3.5 GPA); university requires 30 IB predict points (or approximately a 3.0 GPA), and has a 29% Acceptance Rate

Profile and academics = Safety & acceptance rate = Reach = Overall: Reach

• • Student has a strong profile, and has 40 IB predicted points; university requires 30 IB predicted points (or approximately a 3.0 GPA), and has a 85% acceptance rate

Profile and academics = Safety & acceptance rate = Safety = Overall: Safety

• • Student has not built their profile, or has 36 IB predicted points (or approximately a 3.5 GPA); university requires 40 IB predicted points (or approximately a 4.0 GPA), and has a 18% Acceptance Rate​

Profile and academics = Reach & acceptance rate = Reach = Overall: Reach

We strongly recommend working towards this kind of balance in the list so that each grade 12 student has several acceptances to choose from.​ We also recommend students to fill the template of a college/university list that can be found below.

Recommended maximum number of applications 

• • In our experience, we find it is best not to apply to more than 10 universities (UCAS for the UK, CAO for Ireland and UC for California would count as 1). At the same time, we suggest that you consider the number of different application systems you are willing to encounter

This will:

• • Demonstrate to universities that your application list is well researched.

  • Reduce the stress of the application process by limiting the number of essays you have to write, and documents you have to manage.

  • Ease the application process because you know why you plan to apply to each university.

Remember to keep the balance: Reach - Target- Safety

One more comment on including safety options on a university list

Perhaps the most emotionally difficult aspect of constructing the college/university list, is choosing several universities to which the student is quite likely to gain admissions. There are some things that students can do to make the process of finding likely universities which would be a good match for them, easier:

• Consider the worst case scenario and check that there is a high probability for some of the universities of your list to admit you based on your academic performance.

• Remember that there are far more students applying to colleges/universities than in the past, and that average IB grades, GPAs and SAT scores are higher than before. Building your profile is also essential!

Example of a university list

Choosing which universities to apply to is really important for your future studies. We've shared an example list to help you get ideas, but feel free to make your own based on the aspects you consider important. Also, please keep your Unifrog account updated.