<p>I've been accepted to my dream school, Harvard, but I feel like I should still send the rest of my applications. I am pretty sure I'll be going to Harvard, but I'd like to have options in the spring. </p>
<p>I was planning to apply to six other schools (Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Brown, and Duke). I've completed all of the essays, so that isn't a problem. Now it's just what makes sense financially. My parents, obviously, don't see the point in it since I've dreamed about Harvard for so long. But I would definitely consider these other schools. </p>
<p>Am I looking at this the wrong way? Should I just take my Harvard acceptance? Are there any advantages to applying to all of them (or maybe just applying to my top 3-4 out of the six)? </p>
<p>Thanks so much in advance!</p>
<p>Edit: We also technically don't know if we can afford Harvard yet. We haven't received the financial aid package...</p>
<p>If you want to go to harvard and can afford it, it seems like a waste of time and application fees to apply elsewhere. Wanting to say that you got to choose between harvard and all those others isn’t worth the admission staffs time and. Your parents money.</p>
<p>If you end up unable to afford Harvard, you most likely wouldn’t be able to afford anywhere else on that list since they’re the most apt for financial aid. </p>
<p>You need a financial safety. None of the additional schools you listed are safeties for anyone. Find a school you’re sure to be admitted to, that your family can afford, and that you’d be happy attending if Harvard doesn’t work out and apply there.</p>
<p>@austinmshauri Yes, I’ve already applied/been accepted to two financial safeties (two state schools). Now, I’m just considering other reach schools!</p>
<p>What my children’s entire cohort of graduating seniors is finding is that state schools are the LEAST affordable. Every one of them does better with financial aid from the private schools.</p>
<p>It is a much bigger challenge to get in Harvard than it is to afford Harvard.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d take my Harvard acceptance and put my energy into the next four years rather than spending time and money applying to a bunch of other schools. You’re talking about enough money to buy textbooks for a term…pizza for a couple dozen study breaks…</p>
<p>Like some have suggested, I’ve decided to just take my Harvard acceptance and just submit my MIT app since I’ve already had my teachers submit recs. That’s much more practical. Thanks, everyone! </p>
<p>Since the educational experience is so different at school see you listed it seems obvious that your list is based on prestige. So why stop now? you’ve already got one feather in your cap, but why not fill out the collection by seeing but other top schools will take you? Then you can make sure all your friends know what top schools were clamoring to get you as a student. You the man!</p>
<p>You might also consider your high school classmates who are applying to these other colleges and might view them as their first choices. Although there’s not a per-school quota per se, colleges do compare applicants from the same high school against one another and you may be hurting your classmates’ chances of admission if you apply to the same colleges they are. So if you’re sure about Harvard, applying to these other colleges would not only be a waste of time and money, it would also be doing your classmates a disservice. </p>
<p>At my son’s high school, they had a policy that if you applied early and were admitted, even if the college didn’t make the early admission binding, the high school wouldn’t support your application to any other college (i.e., wouldn’t send transcripts, recommendations, etc.). They didn’t want the students who had already been accepted to their first-choice college to be competing with other students applying to other colleges. If you didn’t want to accept that restriction, then you didn’t apply anywhere early.</p>
<p>What if a student got an early acceptance but is still waiting for the financial aid offer which may not come until after other schools’ deadlines?</p>
<p>What if a student had applied non-binding EA or early rolling to a non-first-choice school in hopes of getting an early safety?</p>
<p>What if a student unexpectedly got an early acceptance from a school that does not promise notification earlier than April 1?</p>
This was an NYC private school where most students/families did not qualify for need-based financial aid. I think there was an exception for those who needed financial aid. If you didn’t qualify for need-based aid but wanted to chase merit awards, you didn’t apply early. Basically it put you in the same position as applying to a binding early decision school.
The policy basically turned an application to a non-binding EA program (e.g., Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Chicago) into a binding one, subject to the exception noted above for students who required need-based aid. Their attitude was, if you’re not sure it’s your first choice, don’t apply early. I don’t think it applied to rolling admissions schools.
If you applied RD, but for some reason got an early notification, that wasn’t covered. Only if you expressly applied to an early action program.</p>