<p>Okay, I can understand this at the public universities, especially the elite ones where it makes sense for in-state applicants. But they are also seeing a surge in OOS applications. Many elite LACs and Ivies are seeing record or close to record numbers of applicants as well. Early action has exploded higher. Is there an echo baby boom?, Are OOS applicants applying to UM, UVA, UNC, UWIsconsin, simply to save 10-15K a year over an elite Ivy or LAC? I thought the horrible economy and wealth destruction among parents of college kids would lead to a soft application year, what gives? Even NYU and Bucknell, among the most expensive in the country are seeing more applications.</p>
<p>More applications may result in more financial options to compare. EA is necessary for merit consideration at some places…</p>
<p>If $ wasn’t a factor my D would have applied to 3-4 private colleges and one public in-state. Instead I urged her to add 3 more publics to the list.</p>
<p>“I thought the horrible economy and wealth destruction among parents of college kids would lead to a soft application year, what gives?”</p>
<p>Not every parent pays for application fees. I had to pay for my own. I recently spent another $300 applying to schools. </p>
<p>Students apply to those expensive school names because of the prestige. That is the only reason. Why would you spend 40k a semester or w/e when you can spend 40k a year at great university? </p>
<p>Plus its not about what undergrad you go to, its what graduate school you attend. Therefore, any university will have the same materials given, given all accredited, so why spend 20k more at an ivy?</p>
<p>that explains some of it. But Bucknell is need aware and NYU is notoriously stingy w/aid and yet applications I believe are booming. It is almost as if students feel a very strong school is the only way to secure their future in a harsh economy no matter how much debt they will incur along the way.</p>
<p>I agree if you know you are going to grad school, business, med or law school, better to same the money for that and spend less on the undergrad education. Otherwise you could come out owing $300,000 or more easily. Maybe you breakeven on that at 35-40 yrs. old, maybe not.</p>
<p>Even if NYU is generally stingy, they might not be stingy for you. With both admissions at elites and financial/merit aid almost everywhere being crapshoots, more applications means a better chance at both, or at least one, as long as you have enough time to do a good job filling all of them in. The application fee is a small bet compared to the possible payoff.</p>
<p>Bad economy, there is no job for high school grads and the life time prospect for people with no college degree has been well publicized lately.</p>
<p>blazinbboy - prestige is not the only reason to apply to top tier schools. Top tier schools also mainly give the best financial aid. Based on net price calculators my family would pay less to attend an ivy than to attend our state flagship. Since admissions are so difficult at these schools, students tend to apply to a few with the hopes of perhaps one or two acceptances.</p>
<p>The weak economy drives more applications to top schools. I know I am only applying to so-called “elite” privates, because those are the only schools affordable due to their generous financial aid policies - even my in-state public is pushing the budget limit at 20k/year, compared to, say, UChicago for 3k/year. When you need financial aid to not be a financial burden, applying to all the ivies and similar schools to maximize acceptance probabilities is the most practical option.</p>
<p>Why anyone would go full-pay at a lower ranked private school (like, say, NYU except for Stern) is beyond me however, unless they have huge amounts of cash and a burning desire to blow it.</p>
<p>Some of the super-elite schools are generous with need-based financial aid for the few whom they do admit (so that attending Harvard is probably cheaper than commuting to an in-state public for lower and middle income family students, and probably cheaper than a residential in-state public for upper middle income family students).</p>
<p>But that does not explain more people applying to expensive-with-little-financial-aid schools like NYU or many out-of-state public universities.</p>
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<p>If you are only applying to “elite” privates which are admissions reaches for everyone, then is your safety plan community college (since you imply that in-state public may be too expensive)?</p>
<p>Community college followed by transfer to a four year school to complete a bachelor’s degree can be a good low cost option for many students, but it seems that few students seeking “elite” privates consider that option (unless they get “shut out” in April).</p>
<p>^ I suppose I phrased that comment incorrectly; I am applying to my public flagship, though attending would be a difficult last resort. Basically I am betting that between [my</a> stats](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1231135-final-chance-string.html]my”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1231135-final-chance-string.html) and 13 applications, I will get in somewhere I can afford without issue.</p>
<p>MIT or Stanford would likely be better choices for engineering than Harvard or Yale, when comparing among the “elite schools which are generous with financial aid”.</p>
<p>But you need a safety plan that you can comfortably afford. If the public flagship does not give enough financial aid, then you may have to consider other plans. (Put “net price calculator” and “financial aid estimator” in its web site search box and see what comes up.)</p>
<p>Also, for engineering, check [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) accreditation.</p>
<p>Nor for that matter do I believe that all such schools are reaches for everyone. While applying to HYP might be tantamount to buying a lottery ticket, schools like Northwestern and Rice (both excellent schools I would love to attend) have reasonably predictable admissions patterns for students with sufficiently high stats.</p>
<p>Oh, and of course Stanford and MIT are incredible engineering schools, but remember - my goal is to maximize my admissions chances. I have fairly diverse interests so there’s no clear winner between the schools (yes, I have visited and toured them all), but engineers are underrepresented at Harvard and particularly Yale, so applying there early maximizes my chances of success.</p>
<p>This is from a recent Daily Northwestern…</p>
<p>"Northwestern saw an increase in early decision applications for the Class of 2016 this fall, with the number of applications rising to 2,450.</p>
<p>This 15.2 percent increase builds on the trend from last year, when applications jumped by 26 percent, according to a Northwestern NewsCenter press release…</p>
<p>(current) Weinberg freshman Alex Dinos said she applied early decision to NU after taking a tour of the campus.
It kind of shows we’re more dedicated to the school, Dinos said.</p>
<p>However, Dinos said she did not receive as much financial aid as she would have liked and is now hoping to obtain a high-paying job after college."</p>
<p>Hoping???In this economy???And if you don’t???</p>
<p>That would be why I did not apply ED.</p>
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<p>Not at an 18% admission rate, Northwestern doesn’t. I think people need to get real that all of the top 20 schools are lottery tickets. ALL.</p>
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<p>Which branches of engineering are you interested in?</p>
<p>Yale only has chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering in its ABET accreditation list. It also has a non-ABET accredited environmental engineering degree program that appears to be under its chemical engineering department. This would likely be different from most other schools’ environmental engineering degree programs which are more associated with civil engineering, and where ABET accreditation is important for PE licensing.</p>
<p>Harvard has a general engineering science degree program under which the student can specialize in a particular branch of engineering.</p>
<p>I highly doubt people apply to ‘reaches’ for the prestige…who would know anyway, one can say they applied to anywhere,can say they were accepted anywhere, and then say they decided not to attend…why would anyone be impressed by that?</p>
<p>I am looking into Electrical/Computer engineering, which Yale does offer through a joint degree with the CS department. Furthermore, their course catalog reveals a reasonably extensive collection of integrated circuit engineering courses (though their offerings in power engineering are admittedly a bit thin).</p>
<p>Regarding t-20 schools always being reaches, again I must disagree. Take the University of Chicago for instance, since people do not regularly post their Northwestern decisions here on CC. Based upon the U Chicago [class</a> of 2015 RD decisions thread](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1105236-official-university-chicago-class-2015-rd-results-5.html]class”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1105236-official-university-chicago-class-2015-rd-results-5.html), of the ~120 decisions I examined, out of the 17 students reporting 2350+ SAT scores and subtracting URMs, international students, and those with major awards, 13 were admitted. Not a true safety (and there’s likely some response bias too), but not bad odds overall. Apply to enough schools like that and with a reasonably solid app admissions chances at at least one are decent.</p>