3 x 4: Maximizing Your Acceptances

As you survey the vast field of literally 1000s of schools to attend, you should keep in mind two, essential distinctions: school size (measured by number of students) and school location (identified by region of the U.S.). All of the various lists you create for your own research should be variations of these two distinctions — so 3 different sizes from 4 (of five) different regions. An excellent rule of thumb — build your list in multiples of 12 (12, 24, 36, or 48).

the three sizes (by student body)

  • small colleges

    These are schools with a student body of 500 - 4,000 attendees. Notable schools of this size are:

    Amherst College (Amherst, MA)

    Bates College (Lewiston, ME)

    Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)

    Colby College (Waterville, ME)

    Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA)

    Davidson College (Davidson, NC)

    Hamilton College (Clinton, NY)

    Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, CA)

    Haverford College (Haverford, PA)

    Pomona College (Claremont, CA)

    Reed College (Portland, OR)

    Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)

  • mid-size universities

    These are schools with a student body of 4,001 - 19,000 attendees. Notable schools of this size are:

    Clemson University (Clemson, SC)

    Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)

    Duke University (Durham, NC)

    Fordham University (Bronx, NY)

    George Washington University (Washington, D.C.)

    Miami University (Oxford, OH)

    Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)

    Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

    Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY)

    Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, TX)

    Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)

    University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL)

    Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)

  • large universities

    These are schools with a student body of 19,000+ attendees. Notable schools of this size are:

    Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

    Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)

    University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)

    University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)

    University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)

    University of Georgia (Athens, GA)

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Urbana-Champaign, IL)

    University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD)

    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI)

    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)  

    University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX)

    University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)

    University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

    University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI)

the five regions (of the U.S.)

  • NORTHEAST

    This region includes these states:

    Connecticut (CT)

    Maine (ME)

    Massachusetts (MA)

    New Hampshire (NH)

    New Jersey (NJ)

    New York (NY)

    Pennsylvania (PA)

    Rhode Island (RI)

    Vermont (VT)

  • SOUTHEAST

    This region includes these states:

    Alabama (AL)

    Arkansas (AR)

    Delaware (DE)

    District of Columbia (DC)

    Florida (FL)

    Georgia (GA)

    Kentucky (KY)

    Louisiana (LA)

    Maryland (MD)

    Mississippi (MS)

    North Carolina (NC)  

    South Carolina (SC)

    Tennessee (TN)

    Virginia (VA)  

    West Virginia (WV)

  • MIDWEST

    This region includes these states:

    Illinois (IL)

    Indiana (IN)

    Iowa (IA)

    Kansas (KS)

    Michigan (MI)

    Minnesota (MN)

    Missouri (MO)

    Nebraska (NE)

    North Dakota (ND)

    Ohio (OH)

    South Dakota (SD)

    Wisconsin (WI)

  • SOUTHWEST

    This region includes these states:

    Arizona (AZ)

    New Mexico (NM)

    Oklahoma (OK)

    Texas (TX)

  • WEST

    This region includes these states:

    Alaska (AK)

    California (CA)

    Colorado (CO)

    Hawaii (HI)

    Idaho (ID)

    Montana (MT)

    Nevada (NV)

    Oregon (OR)

    Utah (UT)

    Washington (WA)

    Wyoming (WY)

The 3 x 4 Strategy Explained