All schools (all 21) had the potential to get us to the target. But of the 17 acceptances not all got us to the financial target - because some schools that offer aid did not provide any or enough to hit the #.
We knew that going in -but we had the all important schools that we pretty much knew would hit target - and that’s the most important thing.
Ideally you have an assured school.
If not, then you have a few - I’m pretty confident it’ll get me there.
As long as you have that - the percentage isn’t relevant - assuming of course, you’re on board with attending those “financial” safeties - which in our case, my kids wouldn’t have applied if they weren’t.
Mine each applied to just one, were accepted, and that’s where each attended.
One was a recruited athlete so it was all much more directed. She was accepted in late Sept or Oct, and signed her NLI in Nov. She could have applied to other schools in the spring if things didn’t work out, or she could have taken a gap year (which she knew and was considering anyway). In those days (hs class 2014 so applying in 2013), you didn’t file FAFSA until Jan and didn’t find out the financial things until late February and when the merit award came out it was lower than we thought. We got that corrected and it was fine. That was really the only stress in the process. It was nice to ‘be done’ early.
The other child, also a 2014, also applied in September and knew she was accepted early too.
It didn’t make sense to apply to more schools as they got into their first choices, and were willing to take the gap year if they decided on another path.
D altogether probably applied to about 10 total. The UC and Cal States were on one application portal.
S applied to about 8…
It really does depend on the kid. Keep in mind applications cost money too…and you don’t want to spread yourself too thin
Applications don’t always cost money. Some are free.
My D22 only applied to schools that we were sure would be affordable and where she could see herself. It was 5 as I mentioned upthread and she got in all. None were reaches. We could have afforded any of them (avg annual cost around $25-30k). She got merit at most. Applied to 3 privates and 2 in-state publics. Got merit at all the privates.
How many got to the financial target (i.e. successful results)?
Did the successful / unsuccessful results mostly match up to initial reach / match / likely / safety (including accounting for likelihood of getting to the financial target) estimates?
D24 has about 12 on her list right now. Her intended major is portfolio required and typically small due to required studio space, so colleges that would be safeties based on academics alone have that extra uncertainty (probably averages about 10-15% acceptance rate).
So many things could change in the next 7 months…I want her to have some real choices at the end of this, even if she has to compromise on location to get freshman admission to her major.
On the other hand, her two cousins who graduated last year applied to Kid1) 1 rolling admission school, knew by October, and Kid2) 3 in-state publics (got into all of them and chose the one with the best offerings in the intended major).
Interestingly, two of the 12 weren’t under consideration. One she applied and paid her own $$ - Alabama. It was simply - all my friends have an acceptance and I don’t. We told her it was unnecessary.
One we didn’t visit until after acceptance - Miami of Ohio - and while I loved it, she hated the isolation. Still it was right to apply because it seemed to fit and she didn’t know at the time. Perhaps we had to do better with - she likes to be adjacent to the city or in the city. It was similar to Elon which we visited before applying - I thought it was beautiful but she nixed it driving up although she did do the info session and tour. And JMU - another she intended to apply but nixed - because of the interstate running through campus - even though it doesn’t impact you day to day. I mean, my son wouldn’t apply to UVM because he said it should be UVT - so who knows what kids think or why.
Truthfully, I knew where she’d end up Junior year Thanksgiving - on our visit to College of Charleston. You just knew even though she said she didn’t and she loved visiting and I loved taking her (dad daughter time).
When we accepted, she had $12K merit - It was $39 or $40K ish, under the $50K budget. It wasn’t the cheapest - which I think was Florida State and Arizona. U of SC, her #2, was also cheaper by $10K or so.
Sometimes you just get dumb luck - she had done the Honors weekend but won no $$.
I was talking to mom from here in DM about her daughter having won - but then the daughter won the Presidential at SMU and took that instead. My wife took my daughter out to see FSU, UGA, U of SC and C of C again - and on the trip, they stopped in on the dean and Honors program director who were glad to say hi. Not saying it helped but the day after the student chose SMU, my daughter got a couple endowed scholarships and another $25K - basically to cover OOS tuition.
This is very true. My 2021 kid was rejected from 2 mid-level schools where Naviance showed 100% acceptance with their GPA. These schools did not require essays and kid didn’t have any missing requirements and was not applying to a highly impacted major. Past results can not be counted on.
Mine applied to >10 and got admitted to all but 1, where he was waitlisted and decided not to accept the WL spot. We had a small budget: initially $20k, got bumped to $30K after apps were in. All but 2 of the admits came in within budget, and even those 2 were close.
S23 ended up choosing a ~$20k COA school, but also had a $0K school.
And yes, the results matched up with admissions predictions. The merit was somewhat less predictable.
This held true for us as well – so many great options. Thanks to CC!
For S20 I had a lot of variables and financial need at play and the number was 50+. We maybe could have trimmed a few, but we (mostly me) worked out a system that kept everything on time. I was the ringleader, son was on-board with the process and did what was required. In the end, this was the right number for this particular student/situation and it worked out great. I wouldn’t change a thing for that one because it was my first time and I learned a lot that will help with my next two children.
Since that application season, I’ve assisted several other students through the process. Most recently was the son of a good friend. His situation was very different from my son’s situation. This kid had one #1 school clearly at the top of his list. His #2 school was a virtual lock for him, as far as admission+affordability. If it was up to him, he would have applied to those two and no others. His mother wanted to apply to 10-15, to include several “prestige” type schools and a few slightly slower ranked. The son said he much preferred his #1 choice (in-state, excellent university) over any OOS T30, and certainly over any OOS private (in the range of Fordham/Howard/American/Miami/Syracuse.) I convinced her to save the time+expense of those applications, but we added a couple of in-state super-safeties just to be safe. He applied EA to 5 in-state publics, was accepted to all, and chose the school he wanted most in the first place.
Out of curiosity what was the process to hit 50? Was it a ton of state school systems apps that each included a bunch of schools? Did you use the Coalition App?
Our youngest D really only wanted to apply to one school. It was a safety that she loved. We made her apply to 3 others (flagships both in and out of state). She was accepted to all and all were affordable. She went to her first choice and ended up there for graduate school as well. She studied Physical Therapy and only applied to the one school. A very risky decision. After her undergraduate experience we let her do what she wanted and made sure she understood the implications if it didn’t work out. I did and she is done and happy.
If it’s a financial and admission safety - both - then that’s fine.
We parents urge them to protect themselves (hence you had her add 3) and I think that’s great too. Kids don’t know how to assess risk.
But in theory, one would have been ok. But perhaps you were giving her a life lesson on risk or changing tastes, etc. too.
I think my kid wanted to apply to more - because the school district puts out how much in scholarships are earned (over a billion - but not really) and she loved getting the decisions - it was motivating to her.
But she could have gone from 21 to maybe 5-10 I think.
Her first choice was a financial safety. The flagships required more in the way of financial aid. In the end they all would have worked. Both my kids knew what they wanted to do and had a pretty good idea how they were going to get there. It was new to me as I’m still trying to figure out what I’d like to do. . I think if a student isn’t as sure then more options might be better.
Almost every application was via Coalition App or Common App. 3-6 (I can’t remember the exact number) were consolidated on the HBCU application site. Maybe two others were direct applications on the school’s site.
D21: applied to 10(2 likely/4 match/4 reach) ; D23 applied to 16(3 likelies that were matches for her older sister/5 match (that CC calls reaches for everyone because they are T8-15 range) /8 “reach-for everyone” per her counselor). School requires minimum 3 likelies now, used to only require 2(but encouraged more) —changed between my kids, as did the overall number recommended for most kids: they used to tell parents on average list will be 8-10, now they say on average list will be 10-12. The kids aiming for T10s and who actually have a very good shot typically have longer lists, as well as those who do not plan to ED tend to have longer lists. It is a private HS with very in depth college counseling that is personalized/involves family meeting as well as multiple individual meetings and small group meetings with students, starting at the end of 9th grade(very broad-based group meetings then).
I would recommend that, particularly if the results don’t come until spring (ie, not ED), it’s helpful to have choice. We see here that sometimes when the frontrunner is a sure thing and applicants don’tapply more broadly, there can be some remorse/resentment at not having options - even if that was the option they’d have chosen!
It’s also not unusual for tastes to change a bit during senior year, so leaving room for that can be healthy.
She got into almost all of her reaches (which were “reach for all” type schools - Pomona, Bowdoin, etc.) and almost none of her matches (Kenyon, Denison, Skidmore, etc.) Unhooked at almost all schools including those listed here. Her list was almost entirely SLACs which are admitting so few people that institutional priorities can have quite an impact… and the “matches” based on academic record/ECs among those SLACs are often need aware vs the reaches on her list being need blind so basically that $$ institutional priority was probably a big driver in her poor match school results.
Fortunately for her she ended up with a great list of reaches to choose from (definitely more of those options than we’d imagined), but of course that can’t be counted on at the outset.
In terms of affordability, the reaches she got into most often offered better bottom lines than the safeties. (The one she chose was less than half the cost of her two “safest” applications).
. I think if a student isn’t as sure then more options might be better.