<p>I have to say it wasn't nearly as painful as it was made out to be. I don't know if someone looking down on us thought my S and I had already been through enough (read: single mom, pretty type A, with underachieving son), but I have to say I'm amazed.</p>
<p>My S is the classic 'underachiever'. He's bright, but not highly motivated. We came up with a list of 10 schools that contained some safeties and a range of 'match to mild reach'. The issue with him is that he had a good SAT score, but his grades don't match. We took the list of schools to the GC and she said he should apply to all, because that should leave us with 'a few to chose from'. Well here we are, with 10 acceptances in hand.</p>
<p>So the moral here (especially for me) is that there is something to be said for not reaching for the same too-competitive schools to which everyone is applying. Yeah, he didn't get into Stanford, but he didn't apply to Stanford and get rejected like the valedictorian. He didn't get into MIT, but he didn't sweat 'being good enough'. His confidence is boosted, he feels good about his options and all in all it's been an empowering experience for him. He's got great options for a fine (world-class) education over the next four years. His choice won't be 'second choice'. If he sees a reason to go to Stanford or MIT, we'll leave that for graduate school and he can figure out what he needs to do as an undergraduate to make that happen.</p>
<p>The interesting thing to me is that he was accepted as a couple schools that his friends with higher grades and more ECs didn't get into. Was he just lucky? Is there something to be said for being less competitive and just doing what you feel is right for you? I give him a lot of credit for not getting caught up in the 'race to the highest rated school possible'.</p>
<p>Maybe he was just lucky, but I wanted to say that there is something to be said for not getting caught up in 'reaching' and instead looking for a good match. We don't have the stress that we see in other families, he's had all his decisions for a while and he's in the process of selecting based on where he knows he can go.</p>
<p>What a great story! Thanks for sharing it with us. So glad your son will have so many suitable schools to select from. Sounds like THAT will be his 'stress' rather than worrying if he'd get even one acceptance.....</p>
<p>Dreaming a very inspirational story, particularly to me as my second son sounds much like yours. When you say he had lower grades, what are you talking? How good was his SAT? And last what type of colleges did he apply to as safety and reach? That is so great and highly unusual that he got into all of them, perhaps yes the colleges recognized that this was not a college obsesses kid with perfect everything, go figure! good luck.</p>
<p>dreamingofsnow- thanks for your story and CONGRATULATIONS to you and your son! Your post just makes me happy. My sophomore is just like your S- so I am feeling hopeful after reading your story. Tell your son that he is an inspiration for me and S!</p>
<p>dreaming of snow
you, and your son did things right! Congratulations on understanding the process and the great outcome your S has had.Now comes the fun part...figuring out where to go!</p>
<p>here's a tangent--it fits with the thread title, but not the content of the OP's post.</p>
<p>We have also had a remarkably good application experience. I think I'm a typical mom in that of course I think my son could have achieved more, but he still had great stats even with what he did do. But I'm really happy with how our application experience went. I feel like we succeeded in finding a balance between doing what we needed to do so son could get in to good schools, and not letting the process get out of hand. We didn't feel like we had to visit every single school or find a ton of creative ways to constantly show interest. Son sat down with the applications, wrote the essays in as short a time as possible, and we moved on. We didn't hire anyone to help him with essay writing, or to help figure out where to apply to or whatever like some people in our town did. (Not that there's anything wrong with that if it's something you have money to do and you feel it's helpful).</p>
<p>It's a good thing doing things in a low key way can work, cause next round we have twins applying...</p>
<p>A similar positive experience here (only 1 rejection out of 9 apps). S has a clear favorite in schools, but we have visits set up at his top choices over the next month just to be sure. And I thought that all the driving and walkthroughs were over...He has some nice choices, but was realistic in terms of where a potential match would be.</p>
<p>Congrats to you and your kids. It looks as all will have many great options and schools to choose from. Decisions, decsions decisions. </p>
<p>Don't worry there is more stuff coming; where the go, how much, XL sheets, how to get stuff from your house to the dorm, leaving home, your separation anxiety so you will have some time to feel a bit stressed :)</p>
<p>This is a great thread, especially as we're all getting stressed out with decision-making for May 1st! I'm a student, but I hope you don't mind my sharing my experience as well. </p>
<p>I had the most fantastic time with my college application process. It was invigorating and amazing and stressful, too, especially leading up to my early action decision. Luckily, almost every step in the process (writing the essays, interview, etc.) was memorable and worthwhile for me. While every once in a while I think to myself that I should have applied to more colleges, I think my list of 5 has really streamlined the process for me and lowered my stress levels (I've been thinking of college decisions for 4+ years, and seriously for 2, so I had time to really cut my list).</p>
<p>I've had a great time doing this; my fun-memorable-stressful-once-in-a-lifetime experience came in mid-December and peppered throughout March with informal advance notices, so I won't be partaking in the March 30 madness. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. </p>
<p>Thanks to CC for all the help you provided in the process; now let's get on to making some tough decisions!</p>
<p>Dreaming, this is exactly the approach our son took, except he applied to "only" seven colleges. It was a painless and easy process for him too. And in the end, he had 7 acceptances(3 early ones) in hand with in more than $350,000 in merit scholarships to consider.</p>
<p>He was accepted to colleges like Case, Oberlin and Rensselaer and felt that they really wanted him to attend on his own terms. All in all a very positive experience.</p>