Deciding on Application Schedule

Applying to College
1

<p>I am set on my overall list of colleges:</p>

<p>MIT
Stanford
Princeton
Northwestern
Caltech</p>

<p>Wash U
Cornell
Berkeley
Rice
Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
Michigan</p>

<p>Case Western
Northeastern</p>

<p>(Schools sorted into blocks based on Naviance, but in no particular order within blocks)</p>

<p>I will not go into my stats here, but I assure you that I am a competitive applicant for all of these schools, even the ones like MIT and Stanford.</p>

<p>I would prefer not to actually apply to all of these schools, because that would probably be over $1000 just for app fees, test scores, etc. Writing essays won't be a big problem for me. In fact, I have already written the common app and supplements for all but two schools on my list. My preferred school to attend would probably be Princeton or Stanford.</p>

<p>So far, I am entertaining two options:
(1) Apply EA to all the schools that I can (which are MIT, Caltech, Michigan), but not Case and Northeastern because they are my safeties, and I'll hold off until RD to see if I need them.</p>

<p>(2) Apply to Princeton/Stanford REA, along with Michigan EA because it's public.</p>

<p>FYI: You should probably know that my school hasn't had a Stanford admit in 8+ years, despite several admits per year to Ivies and other elite colleges.</p>

<p>Since I would prefer to attend Princeton or Stanford, I'm leaning towards (2). That way if I get into Princeton/Stanford REA, I could just apply to the other for RD and be done with applications, plus maybe some colleges where I would be competitive for merit scholarships. However, (1) is also appealing because I would get two chances at getting into a high reach school, and if I get one, I would just apply to Princeton and Stanford RD (plus schools for merit).</p>

<p>Any suggestions on what I should do?</p>

2

<p>Any advice would be appreciated.</p>

3

<p>All things being equal: I agree with you about going #2. Princeton and UMich or Stanford and UMich. Then see what happens.</p>

<p>Let’s say both accept you. Then you can apply to the other, Caltech, MIT and NU and see what happens. (your view of them may change between now and December)</p>

<p>Caveat: This assumes finances and/or scholarships aren’t a factor for you, right?</p>

4

<p>Yes, that is correct. The projected cost is within what my family is willing to pay, and though merit scholarships would be nice, they’re not essential. </p>

5

<p>On a related note, do you think I should use my REA on Stanford despite what has happened in the past? Or would Princeton be better? (I would still apply to the other RD). </p>

6

<p>Apply to all the schools on the list would cost you over $2000 for fees, scores, and CSS profiles. You should study a little bit more about the schools and narrow it down. Just think about the essay prompt on why this school. If you cannot come up with anything specific and convincing, you would not have a good essay and it would lower your chance. For school that offer EA, do apply EA. Very often it is required for merit aids. I would include one safety in the EA round just for the peace in mind. You may leave the other safety for RD if needed. Remember, applying to many schools not only cost you more in money, you will also need to write many essays. You may not have enough time to write high quality essays or even just to learn about the schools you are applying. These may actually hurt rather than help you chances at competitive schools.</p>

7

<p>Billcsho:
I touched on this in my first post, but I’ll expand on it here. The list I posted is just a list of all the colleges that I am willing to apply to, but I don’t want to actually apply to all of them. I have taken the time to research all of them and I have completed almost all of the essay first drafts (I’ll start editing once I confirm prompts and know my application schedule). In this thread, I am asking for advice about this schedule.</p>