@JohnGaltIII well there is no correlation to number of colleges you applied to number of colleges you admitted. However applying to only 5 colleges eliminates the possibilities upfront of admitting to 6 schools. Most applicants with medical route, keeps a mixed batch of direct BA/MD program vs traditional route. Also sometime you get admitted to best school but they want to charge you arm and leg and that is where another financial unpredictability plays role. Lots of expert and experienced people on this site have expressed clearly that you don’t want to load up debt for UG program.
There are 3 steps process for most of families. Apply to colleges you think of meeting your academic achievement and preferences (lots of kids struggles in this first phase itself for pre-med route), wait for decision and arrange them in your academic priorities, after FA are received weigh your options and pick best one that suites your need. Housing, campus, urban/rural all those criteria goes around this core steps. Of course there are always exceptions like genius late Stephen Hawking who will be accepted anywhere w/o even an application.
Just to put in personal experience, we had a high hope for instate school, restricted to only instate kids, and didn’t even get an interview and one with OOS less hope, excellent school, come up with very generous FA (completely unpredictable). Should my DC not applied, we won’t have that choice today and therefore you are out of options.
So applying to more schools may not improve chances and choices, however applying to less may hurt.
My D applied to 17 schools within a wide range. Some of them were perceived safety schools that would likely offer her merit (we do not qualify for FA). Although she has the numbers to be in the wheelhouse for most schools, when you apply to elite and ivy schools it becomes a crap shoot. Of course she applied to schools that she was unlikely to attend, but applicants never know if they will be admitted into any of their top choices. My D has friends with slightly higher numbers than her who have been deferred from almost every EA school they applied to. So far we have been surprised by the results. Schools that we expected EA admissions with merit, deferred her or did not give merit. On the other hand, for schools we expected EA deferrals and little merit, she received admissions and one school gave her a lot of merit.
The point is, this process sucks. I agree they all apply to too many schools, but the process being what it is, I think these days you need to cast a wide net and hope some schools connect with the applicant. You never know what a school is looking for at any given time. It all works out in the end. The vast majority of students end up in schools where they thrive and are happy.
Admitted:
Case Western Reserve University (EA)
The Ohio State University (EA)
Miami University (EA)
Waiting:
Washington University in St. Louis
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Accepted:
UT (auto-admit)
St. Mary’s (scholarship)
SMU (EA, honors, scholarship)
Deferred:
Notre Dame
Northeastern
Waiting:
WUSTL
Northwestern
Duke
Yale
Washington and Lee
UPenn
Vanderbilt
Rice
Accepted: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Macalester,
Deferred: Brown, UChicago
Waiting: WUSTL, Northwestern, Yale, UPenn, Bowdoin, Amherst, Carleton, Pomona, Wesleyan
Does anyone know if their counselor got an email today?
@kitkat2018 Just out of curiosity, what is “auto-admit”?
DS applied to 10 schools …
- 4 elites (10-20% get in) — one SEA rejection; 3 RD’s still waiting
- 1 selective (40%-50% get in) — still waiting
- 4 semi-selective (65-75% get in) — he was accepted with merit aid to all
- 1 safety (99% of applicants get in) — accepted of course
I don’t have a strong opinion on the right number to apply to, but I do recommend a mix as we did. Always have one safety school just to relieve the stress of not going anywhere. Get into a few quality regional schools as well. Then go for the elites if you have the resume for it.
Admitted:
Northeastern
The College of William and Mary (likely letter)
University of Miami
University of Vermont Honors
SUNY Binghamton (state school)
Waiting:
WUSTL
Lehigh
Boston College
University of Southern California
Emory University
@TryHard44 I think counselors get emails later. Around 1 pm.
@nobody76 I think someone said they’d be released on 15th
No one knows when they will be released, it’s all speculation. My advice is don’t get your hopes up and just forget about the decision and maybe an email will surprise you whenever it is meant to. Of course, it’s easier said than done but let’s still try that.
Accepted: Macalester College, Truman State University, Drury University
Waiting on: WashU, Grinnell, Kenyon, Smith, Wellesley
Students with very high GPAs and test scores have no matches, only safeties and lotteries. So the top colleges babble about being “holistic.”
I think it is unreasonable to expect high school students to choose extracurricular activities on the basis of what would look good on a college application. This results in too much stress, too much fakery, and not enough fun.
It is unreasonable to assign ultra-high-stakes essays, when some students have access to coaches, editors, and even ghostwriters.
It is unreasonable for guidance counselor recommendations to play an important role, when some counselors are able to know their students well, but others have so many students in their charge, they only have time to interact with troublemakers.
Then there’s the SAT. And the ACT. Some students take classes to do better. Some take the tests multiple times. Etc. etc.
This problem needs a solution, but what would that be, given our hodgepodge higher education system? (Public, private, flagships, directionals, athletic scholarships, National Merit, ED, EA, SCEA…)
Accepted:
Old Dominion University
Bradley University
Purdue
Northeastern
Florida Institute of Technology
Virginia Tech
Rejected: Georgia Tech
Waiting:
WUSTL
University of Southern California
UPenn
Vanderbilt
Columbia
International Applicant
Accepted: UIUC (CS)
University of Washington Seattle (CS)
Rejected: Cornell
UT Austin
Waiting:
Many more
@Hephaestion If you live in Texas and you are in the top 7% percent of your class you are automatically accepted to UT. However, you still have to apply for your major, which helps to weed out the students who transfer to easier schools to be ranked higher, or students who may be top 7% at a school but is not as good of an applicant as someone who has to apply from a much harder school. Honestly, I don’t like the system because I have seen too many talented hardworking students get capped even though they’re top 7.1% or top 8% simply because there is no room left.
It came out on the 15th last year, which was the wednesday of this week. Theoretically due to increase in applications it may not even come out this week but that would be unprecedented.
As prodesse wisely observed: “Students with very high GPAs and test scores have no matches, only safeties and lotteries.”
I’ve been saying basically this all along, though worded a bit differently: Based on my D’s SAT, GPA, extracurriculars, and other qualifications, the 30 most selective schools are her MATCH schools. Yet they admit 5-15% of applicants. What else can students in this position do but apply to 10 or more? Otherwise, bad luck can mean getting shut out.
Accepted: Grinnell with generous merit
Rejected: Pomona ED
Waiting: Bowdoin, Brown, Carleton, Kenyon, Scripps, Swarthmore, Washu, Wesleyan, Yale