With all of the standardized testing, report cards and college applications that you’re putting out there, you have to be pretty thick-skinned in order to handle all of your results. Even if you’re an over achiever and your results are much better than the average person, we all often wonder if we couldn’t do better. This makes it all the more difficult to put applications out there for schools that are less likely to accept you. Then again, all the time and work you put into those applications might have a huge effect on your likelihood of getting into many other schools, and who knows, you might be accepted. Here are five reasons to apply to a reach school.
1. To Better Gauge Your Capabilities
If you don’t apply to any reach schools and you get into all the schools that you apply to, then you’re going to always wonder if you could have gone to an even better school. The last thing that you want to do is spend a lot of money or put yourself deep into debt for an education that is sub par.
2. You Might Actually be Accepted
As much as you might doubt yourself, you might actually get accepted to your reach school. A lot of people doubt their likelihood of getting into a reach school because they may not meet the requirements for GPA and/or SAT scores. However, the great thing about some of those schools is that you will have the opportunity to present some kind of portfolio and you may even get an interview. It’s these opportunities that afford you the ability to showcase your strengths beyond all the raw numbers.
3. You Will Hold Yourself to a Higher Standard in All of Your Other Applications
Your application for a reach school is going to bring a certain level of effort and discipline out of you that most people don’t tap into when they are applying to schools they feel confident about getting into. In turn, most students end up applying a lot of that extra effort to the rest of their applications, which increases their chances of both getting accepted, as well as getting a better financial aid award from all other colleges.
4. You Can Use Your Acceptance as Leverage with Other Schools
The other thing to keep in mind is that you may actually be accepted; you never know. If so, you still have to make sure that you can afford your top school. That said, even if you don’t plan to attend that school, the mere fact that you were accepted could be used as ammunition if you want to negotiate for a better financial aid award from another school, like Vermont Law.
5. You Might Have a Better Chance in the Future
If you don’t get accepted, you may want to go to a different school, improve your grades and reapply in a year or two for transfer, or you may want to apply to the same school for your graduate degree.