There's no magic ratio, but with up to 100 choices available, thin lists are self-inflicted wounds. A balanced shape that has served many juniors well: roughly 20–30 reach choices (closing cutoffs above your mark — free lottery tickets), 40–50 target choices (multi-year closing cutoffs within a few marks of yours either way — your probable landing zone, so order it most carefully), and 20–30 safe choices (closed well below your mark in multiple years). Widen the safe band if your target colleges showed volatile cutoffs — swings of 50+ marks in one year happened at several colleges between 2024 and 2025. And every single entry, even choice 100, must be a college you would actually join. Classify each college into a band using its 2017–2025 closing-cutoff history on the free TNEAhelp College-Finder.
Try the free College-Finder » or ask your own question with the Ask AI button (bottom right)
TNEAhelp — free TNEA guidance since 2011. Verify all dates and cutoffs at tneaonline.org.
5 free questions per day
Disclaimer: All information presented herewith are predictions based on earlier TNEA statistics. Users are adviced to verify the same with other sources.
