I’ve decided to reapply to The Gunnery, now known as The Frederick Gunn School. Out of all the schools I applied to last year I felt like I had the most genuine connection with them. I feel confident in placing FGS on my list for this year.
Thank you to all those who have contributed to this thread!
Advice: if you need 70% FA, then don’t be afraid to apply for a application fee waivers.
Opinion: 25 is way too many. 15 is still way too many.
Even schools with small endowments (<$20 million) will offer financial aid to the students they really want.
What you need to do is focus on your strengths and weaknesses and determine the best fit.
For example: You suck at math? Make sure the places you apply to have the sort of academic support you need to improve in that area. There’s a whole thread with a sticky in the Parents Section that addresses this.
It’s NOT the NUMBER of schools that determine your success - it’s how well you have chosen the schools. You can only go to one.
My kid applied to 2 (t-w-o) schools, needing over 90% financial aid.
Neither school was an acronym school.
Both schools had endowments <$100 million.
Kid was accepted with FA requested at the school with the smaller endowment.
I respectfully disagree with you @stalecookies. First and foremost congratulations on your child’s admissions success. I think your experience is an exception though. BS admissions for FA students is insanely competitive. Even at hidden gems it truly is a crapshoot for an unhooked student like me. Yes pulling out a basket of 15 schools to apply to out of thin air is ridiculous and brings no advantage. But having a carefully constructed list of 15 in my opinion is a giant boon to an applicant’s chances.
Hmmm…I’m gonna disagree that 15 is a “giant boon”. Statistically speaking, each school is an independent event, so there is no cumulative statistical increase in “chance” or probability here. The goal is to apply to enough schools to achieve “fit” and substantially increase your “chance” at that one school. You’ll likely achieve that in less than 10 schools, if you carefully and thoughtfully choose the schools you’re applying to. More effort toward fewer well-chosen schools is likely to pay dividends.
While I said uptrend that 25 sounds like an awful lot and probably too many, I will offer this to the OP… IF you end up without acceptances on M10, will you feel satisfied that you gave it your all only if you applied to 25?
I don’t generally make decisions based on how I would feel if I don’t succeed. But sometimes, you need that to feel like you did everything possible to have closure and move on.
Of course, the goal is an acceptance!
I’ll also add a few thoughts @metsfan5150.
First, I applaud your scrappy energy and your commitment to making your dreams come true!
When folks talk about applying to 15 schools, often about half of those are truly reaches, which means they are only applying to 7-10 matches/safeties. (I know some folks don’t like those terms, but just in the interest of clarity, I’ll use them). You don’t seem to be at all interested in applying to those tippy-top reach schools, which I applaud! But it also means you can probably reduce that recommended number a bit and still be statistically in a similar place.
Not to get too far into a stats discussion, but while each individual school application/result is an individual event, the overall event of “you getting into a school” is indeed the sum of those smaller events, which does go up when you apply to more schools – UNTIL the tipping point where the high quantity of schools compromises the quality of each application. In other words, at some point, the fact that you are applying to so many schools means you will be spread too thin to do a thoughtful job on the individual applications, and the individual event probability will go down enough to compromise the overall acceptance event probability. Ignoring that decrease in the application quality and just applying to a ton of schools anyway, quality/thoughtfulness/fit be darned, is the “throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” approach. If you were my child, I would guide you into taking a more thoughtful, proactive approach to life’s challenges because I think it will yield more success, and more joy, in life.
25 is indeed a lot – even if the essays are mostly the same (assuming you use SAO), that’s still a lot of interviews (and research for each one) and application fees and logistics of extra little things here and there. Also, you would need to craft a battery of essays that show fit at 25 schools. That’s a tall order for 4 common essays. 25 feels like the spaghetti on the wall approach. It seems unnecessary, expensive, and stressful. More importantly: it isn’t an approach that will serve you as well in life in the long term, in my opinion.
But you know yourself. If that is how you want to approach this, then I absolutely honor that you might ignore people on the internet and just go for it. (agree with @gardenstategal wisdom above). If you were my child, though, we would stick to your 15 number (or lower) and make those applications meaningful.
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I have no experience with boarding schools, but my son needed a higher percentage of FA than you to attend a private university. We laid out a plan to apply to more schools than you. The collected wisdom of CC said applying to more than 20 schools was not smart. We did anyway. He ended up with multiple affordable options, chose the one he felt fit him best, and is now attending a private university where he is very happy.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. Is it more work than applying to 5 schools? Of course, but your need is much greater. IMO, when you have greater need you should be prepared to do more work to achieve the same goal. My son and I were prepared to put in the work and that hard work paid off.
It’s hard for some people without financial need to fully understand what families in severe need see clearly. What some might consider overkill, lower-income families consider par for the course. For that reason, remember that not all advice should be weighed evenly.
My advice? Apply to as many schools as you see fit. If you want to go strongly enough, and if you are able to do the necessary work with applications, do it. Whether you choose 15, or 25, or 30. This is your journey and it need not match others’ past experiences or expectations.
In the end, you will never look back and say, “I got into school #11, so I really regret applying to the following 14 schools.” But if you apply to only 11 and fail to get into any with the needed FA, you will very likely wish you had applied to those other 14.
Best of luck to you!
I typed out a response that echos this ^^ and then never posted ?. I think the 15 school idea came about because year after year kids insist that they must apply to Andover, Exeter, Groton, Deerfield as those are the only places they can be academically challenged. And year after year there are a lot of disappointments. If you are applying to a “top ten” list, then yup, you need to apply to 15 schools so that you are applying to 5 reasonable schools.
But if you target very carefully you shouldn’t need to apply to 25, even with a FA need. I think the problem is that most kids (and most parents) really don’t know how to target for BS. They think “my kid is the smartest in the current school so they should go to a top ten.” I realize you are not doing this @metsfan5150 so I don’t think 25 is necessary. Scale down to 15 and do them amazingly well. Are there schools on your list where you would be a truly outstanding applicant for them? Maybe focus on those the most.
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@EconPop The OP asked for advice and BS parents (not college parents) have shared it. All views are anecdotal, but several BS parents have much experience to share that is directly relevant to the OP’s question and situation. Nobody is being a “naysayer”, which suggests pessimism or frank criticism. Suggesting that fewer applications may be a better approach is a valid opinion. And again, opinions are what the OP solicited.
“Don’t listen to the naysayers.” Really?! That’s just embracing confirmation bias (with an attitude). You’re just suggesting that the OP ask a question and only value responses that affirm applying to a large number of schools.
Fortunately, the OP seems mature for his/her age and happy to consider the thoughts and experiences of those who’ve been down the same path before (and multiple times for many of us).
@EconPop I’m glad to have your perspective here! There is absolutely something to be said for you sharing an approach that worked for you in a different arena. Just a gentle reminder, though, that this is boarding school, so it really is different, especially when it comes to FA. To give you a little background, the 15 recommendation IS for FA applicants. I know college is a whole different animal, though, and that may sound low. I love that you cared enough to pop over to this forum to deliver what I’m sure was meant to be a rallying pep talk. But, calling the very generous and helpful folks who are sharing deep boarding school experience (including needing financial aid BTW – not clear why you would so wrongly assume otherwise) and wisdom “naysayers” is unkind at best, but more importantly: incredibly uninformed. Growing up, we used to call this “getting all in the kool-aid when you don’t know the flavor.”
So: thanks for sharing your experience. But maybe take the time to read the room a little before sharing your advice and trying to school those who know a topic very well. (Again, including BS FA.)
@Calliemomofgirls and @Altras , thanks for your messages. I hope you continue to help anyone who needs your help.
I hope my statements did not offend you (or anyone) here. I simply hate to see anyone be advised to give less than their best effort in trying to achieve any goal. Some people have the benefit of being able to succeed with less effort. Others are in positions where anything less than their best and overextended effort will result in failure. My goal is to make sure the OP leaves nothing on the floor - if he truly wants it.
I’m sure the OP appreciates all the helpful advice provided in this thread and prior threads. And I’m sure your advice is appreciated.
Thanks for the follow up @EconPop. We never know — your pep talk might be the exact thing someone needed to hear in order to say to themselves: hey hand me the spaghetti! And that may be the very approach that works for someone else. There are many roads to Rome. (Still: sometimes it’s a good idea to get a map or advice from folks who have been there.)
I’ve decided, thanks to all the wonderful advice that has poured in today, that my chances would be better served by applying to around 15 schools rather than 25. I now realize that my previous approach may have been counter-productive in fact. I’ll be finalizing my school list this weekend. I know your’e trying to help @EconPop but I just feel that 15 would be the sweet spot for me. I wouldn’t be able to do a meticulous well thought out app for each of them if I applied to more than than 15 . Thank you to @Calliemomofgirls especially for her advice which led me to this decision!
Very happy for your decision, @metsfan5150 . I think you’ll feel much saner and like every school got your best shot. I was thinking about you and how much work it was going to take to be really well prepared for your interviews.
@metsfan5150 We are cheering for you and hoping for a great application cycle!!!
Thank you @Calliemomofgirls and @gardenstategal
Your support means a lot to me!
******My updated school list
- Woodberry Forest
- Westtown
- Brooks
- Salisbury
- Brewster
- Holderness
- Berkshire
- Trinity Pawling
- Episcopal
- Canterbury
- Proctor
- Kimball Union
- The Frederick Gunn School
- Suffield
- St. James
Only 2 schools on my list(St. James and Woodberry Forest) have an in-house application available. The rest only accept either Gateway or the SAO. So I’ll end up doing four applications in total. Not too bad ,although I am surprised that more don’t offer their own in-house application.
@metsfan5150 – Just to make sure you realize that Gateway applications are kind of a hybrid of “common” and “unique.” The essays are unique to each school, and the recommendations requested sometimes have some variations.
SAO – while it’s a true “common app” just note that some schools do have an extra little thing to do, like a question. Nothing major, but just note it.
I just don’t want you to be surprised.
I did not know this @Calliemomofgirls. I will keep this in mind since some of my schools only accept Gateway. Thank you!
On a side note I continue to update my school list. Here’s version 3
- Woodberry Forest
- Westtown
- Mercersburg
- Salisbury
- Kimball Union
- Holderness
- Brewster
- Proctor
- Episcopal
- Trinity Pawling
- St. James
- Canterbury
- Cushing
- Berkshire
- The Frederick Gunn School