Setting up my college list junior year, I used so many resources to find colleges best for me. With dream colleges in mind and knowing I needed safeties, I turned to Naviance. Naviance is a website that aids students in finding colleges best for them. Using information students input (including activities, grades, and test scores, etc) they give you your likelihood of acceptance to schools, it then categorizes them into safeties, targets, and reaches. But I learned quickly you cannot just rely on what a computer tells you.
College admissions are always changing and shifting. It’s important to keep up with what colleges are looking for and what their impacted majors are, and also, if your chosen major is hard to get into. Naviance claimed that out of the 11 schools I applied to 2 were reaches, 3 were targets, and 6 were safeties. I didn’t get into some of my safeties…
When picking colleges, only pick places you would be genuinely content and happy with attending. It is easy to apply to targets and safeties you don’t know much about or do not truly desire to go to. Students just have their eyes on the dream school. I didn’t get into mine. And looking back, although I am excited about where I am going, I wish I had focused more on cultivating a list of schools I knew more about. I am attending CSU Long Beach this fall. I learned so much, but it was too late. This information would have been valuable when choosing to apply to more or less schools. Location, social climate, majors, etc; all important factors in decision making should be considered, not just somewhere that is easy to get into. Because what if you have to go there? The acceptance rate and naviance shouldn’t matter. Apply where you want to but make sure you have an equal array of schools to choose from.
Strive for success.