Haha. Good I’m not the only one @Itisatruth. My spreadsheet from last year had so many columns I had to hide a few and print in landscape on legal paper and even then the print was real small. Lol. The college guidance counselor had never seen such a thing. ??? And in my case too my DS never really bothered with it. Eventually though all colleges he applied to came straight out of that spreadsheet.
Unless you are chasing prestige are there honestly that many schools you love?
Or is just trying to get into the highest ranked school possible?
@frozenyyogurht, I can’t list all of the schools that have early app requirements for scholarship consideration, but here is what Ohio State says:
We must receive your complete application (your admission application and all required materials) by midnight (EST) on November 1 if you wish to be considered for an engineering major and most university merit scholarships (larger awards require additional steps).
While not required, we strongly recommend meeting the November 1 deadline if you wish to be considered for the Morrill Scholarship Program and Honors and Scholars Programs.
I believe other schools operate this way also.
Why apply to so many? Identify the ones that meet the most criteria you are looking for, and cut at least 10, IMO.
My kid at one point in time had a much bigger list, many of whom were T20s or T40s. And by the beginning of his senior year he eliminated a bunch because he realized his odds of getting in was really low, or the CS program wasn’t all that great, or was out in areas where ethnic diversity was going to be an issue. To the OP, once you really decide what is really really important in a school to you, I’ll bet you can get down to 10-12 schools pretty easily.
@jym626 - Chasing merit can lead to really long application lists if the student doesn’t want to have to settle for a homestate public U or one of the automatic merit options. The OP has a couple of those in the bag. The trick now is for the OP to build a good list (however long it turns out to be) that is composed of institutions that are more desireable and where big merit is possible.
OP said elsewhere that the parents added 5 under reaches. That’s on top of a list that already has high reach Need Only schools.