Will I get accepted to my dream college?

Princeton University (photo by Rana Slosberg)

High school students often worry whether they will get into their first choice college or university. One way to assess their chance for admission is to use Naviance scattergrams as described in this Forbes article.

Here are three additional considerations when using Naviance scattergrams. If:

• Very few or no students from your high school have attended the college you are interested in, there won't be a scattergram for you to use. Don't let that discourage you from applying. You can still assess your chances for admission by looking at data like acceptance rate, GPA distribution, and mid-50% ACT or SAT scores of accepted students. This data is generally available on the college's website and/or or college search sites like the College Board's Big Future (which includes it under the "Applying" tab for each college).

• There is a Naviance scattergram with only a few points, the scattergram will be less reliable than if many students from your high school had applied to this college. You may want to use the techniques listed in 1. to better assess your chance for acceptance.

• The college you are looking for has an acceptance rate of less than a third, the college will most likely be a reach school.