3-3-3 Strategy

Now that's we already established what kind of colleges you may want to apply to (see Types of Colleges and College Criteria tabs), let's see how we should approach the selection. The legendary Michael Scott of Amat (not to be confused with some guy from The Office) gave me the 3-3-3 advice when it comes to how many colleges and their selectivity that I should apply to:

• 3 Safe Colleges: these are the colleges that you have a really high chance of getting into, based on GPA, standardized test scores and acceptance rates(which I will discuss later in the Application Process). For example: if your GPA and SAT scores are well above the average of the colleges you are applying to, especially ones with high acceptance rates (approx. 70%-100%) then it may be considered a safe college. However, college admission process is tricky, so it's best to apply for 3 safe colleges, just in case things somehow do not go in your favor.

• 3 Match Colleges: still using the GPA and standardized test scores as means to measure your acceptance possibility. If your stats fall into around the average admits then you have found your match schools.
• 3 (or less) Reach Colleges: I get it, you most likely have your dream school, whether it has been engrained in your development since kindergarten by your parents or your personal preference. Often times, they are called "dream" schools because they are hard to get into. In my case, it was the Ivy League. I applied to, not three, but FIVE of them and got rejected by, you guessed it, all of them.
  • My stats were at the average range of their admits but I reckon it was my limited extracurricular activities that resulted in those rejection emails (they did not even send me physical copies of rejection letters).
  • My point here is even with seemingly qualified stats, I still had a very very slim chance of getting admitted by those schools, because they were too selective with single-digit acceptance rate.

Note: It is totally acceptable and even preferable in some cases to apply to fewer schools. If you are sure what colleges you can get into and where you want to study in the next four years. College applications are absurdly costly anyway, you're being smart by saving your money. Trust me, I applied to 16 of them...

On the other hand, it is fine if you want to apply to more than 9 schools too. Just make sure you have done enough research on them before applying with different criteria.

Above are the stats of the UC Santa Cruz's freshman admission. You probably want to fall between or higher the middle 25%-75% range. It is not impossible to get to UCSC with lower stats but you need outstanding extracurricular activities, personal essays and other aspects of your application to compete with other applicants.