Page 8 - MDC-College-Handbook-2021

PRELIMINARY College List
The result of your college search is the Preliminary College List. It is also called “Colleges I am Thinking About” in Naviance. The colleges on the list should reflect the factors that are important to you. At the very least, most students include major, location, parental input and campus life. Your counselor will also add to this list by interviewing you and your parents and researching possibilities for you. You can add or subtract to your list at any time in Naviance.
The most important factor in making a Preliminary College List is to have a wide variety of colleges on it. Your grade point average (GPA) and test scores determine what category a particular college will be listed.
Safety
These are colleges where you will fall well within the admission statistics published by the school in both grades and test scores. Open access and community colleges are examples of safety schools.
Probable
Realistic choices should make up the majority of your college list. These are colleges where you fall within 100 SAT points of the middle 50 percent of admitted students, and where your GPA is a .5 range of the middle 50 percent of those students, or at least above the minimums published by the college.
Reach
Reach schools are colleges where your stats are considerably below the published stats, but that you have a strong desire to attend. Be aware of the fact that Ivys and the top 20 colleges are reaches for everybody. That doesn’t mean you won’t get in, but you have to be in the ballpark in terms of the basic SATs and GPA.
College Guidance Handbook