<p>... she's not into rejection ;-) Did any of you have surprising results in applying to reaches, or did you pretty much get in/not get in where you expected?</p>
<p>Oh yes lol. I wasn't really sure which colleges I was interested in were matches or reaches. I felt as if I definately had the grades but my SAT scores at my competitive high school but my SAT scores didn't match up. Schools I applied to:
Harvard (my mom was in love with their financial aid initiative so she made me apply. I knew I wasn't gonna get in lol),
Boston U
Cornell U
Georgetown U
Towson U
UMD-Baltimore County
St Joseph's PA
Drexel
Case Western
Arcadia U</p>
<p>My guidance counselor told me that Boston, Cornell, and Georgetown, and Harvard were gonna be reaches. Fortunatly, I got into all of them with the exception of Harvard :). I knew I had a chance at all the schools but Cornell and Georgetown had me a little iffy. Don't let her tell herself no, let the colleges tell her no. Just don't let her heart get set on one college. If she gets rejected, it'll make it easier. This Fall I'll be going to Georgetown and right now, I couldn't be happier.</p>
<p>If this were my child I would tell her I have very few regrets in life and almost all of them of things I did not try because I was in some form too timid to try (fear of rejection / failure). If there are top tier schools in which your daughter is interested her odds of getting in if she applies may only be 10%-20% but those odds are heck of a lot better than the odds she gets in if she doesn't apply ... then her odds are 0%!</p>
<p>My daughter is doing the same thing that your daughter is doing, sushi. Not only that, she's carrying it a step further by applying to her favorite match school Early Decision to further enhance her chances of getting in and to get this whole stressful mess over with by December.</p>
<p>This fits her personality. She doesn't like risk and uncertainty. She doesn't like the idea of being in the bottom half of the class, either (which is what's likely to happen if an applicant "lucks out" and actually gets admitted to a reach school).</p>
<p>I have no objections to what my daughter is doing. It's her life and her choice. And the way she's using ED may even be good strategy.</p>
<p>I am very bad with rejection, so I applied to like 7 safeties, 3 matches and 4 reaches. Those safeties were supposed to cushion my rejections, but I actually got into all of my schools except for a waitlist at one.I think it's silly to apply to so many safeties, unless you're searching for merit aid. Otherrwise, why? What a waste. Especially if you're paying app fees, I only paid one app fee for a match school thanks to free online and personal waivers from the school.</p>
<p>if none of the schools she likes would be reaches, then it shouldnt matter! the application season will be a lot nicer for you two</p>
<p>why would you be afraid of rejection. if you want to go to a reach school, apply. its the only way you will get in. I applied to 8 reach schools, and I wish I applied to more.</p>
<p>My daughter may take it one step further--she is considering applying only to an absolute safety school, i.e., one which automatically admits (and, further, freshman admits to certain desireable majors) if you meet certain numbers criterion which she does. Her reasoning is that the school in question, The University of Missouri-Columbia, is one of the top schools in the country in her intended field (journalism), she has been to, and loved the feel and program at Mizzou, and she doesn't want to attend the other top rated schools (didn't like the feel of Syracuse, Northwestern is 10 miles from our house and she wants to go away, USC is too far, etc.). She has thought about filing multiple appllications, and she's at least a match at a lot of other "more highly rated" schools (per US News' overall ratings), but her current thinking is to be one and done and enjoy her senior year.</p>
<p>I have a hard time arguing with her thinking process.</p>
<p>I think the reach/match/safety scheme works out as planned about 90% of the time... But even "matches" aren't set in stone, as I found out. I had a pretty interesting college admissions process... I was waitlisted at a couple of schools where my counselor said I was basically a shoo-in. My counselor also swore up and down that I'd never get into Wellesley, so you can imagine my utter shock and bewilderment when I received the big Wellesley envelope in the mail! After all the results were in, I was left with quite a few great options--reaches, matches, and safeties. </p>
<p>I guess the point of my story is that the college admissions process is random and unpredictable. You can match your SAT scores and GPA to a specific college all you want, but there's no way to tell exactly what your child has (or doesn't have) going for him or her academically, culturally, extracurricularly, etc., that will warrant an acceptance or a rejection. Getting into a reach school is absolutely possible and happens quite often... If there was absolutely no chance of anyone getting into their reach schools, then no one would ever even apply. </p>
<p>And you know what? Getting a small envelope in the mail isn't a big deal, especially when there are other great college options open to you. Sushi, it sounds like your daughter is smart enough to realize she needs to keep her options open, and I think that puts her in a good place.</p>
<p>I personally applied to quite a few reaches. I'm thrilled that I applied to these reaches because I got into one of them (Stanford) which I will attend this fall. I got a couple of rejections and really they don't hurt that much. I would strongly suggest she apply to a few reaches after all what does she have to lose?</p>
<p>One of my sons applied to 6 schools - one match, the rest safeties. Why? Because these were the schools he liked the best. He didn't shy away from schools because he was concerned about rejection, he just applied to schools that had the atmosphere and programming he liked the best. He applied to 6 so we could compare FA packages and because he wasn't really sure until spring which one he liked the best. He has just finished his sophmore year. He is quite happy and finds his classes to be interesting and challenging. He does not feel that he is smarter than everyone else even though his school was a safety. It fits him to a T!</p>
<p>excellent post shennie- took the words right out of my mouth!</p>