I applied to 2 of my target schools Early Action
Deferred for both. I didn’t want to apply Decision because I wasn’t committed to anywhere specifically.
Will apply to more safeties. Should I still bother applying to more matches?
Even matches can have a high level of competition. If you don’t already have a safety acceptance that you can live with then the common recommendation on this website would be to look for one or two more safeties. Not sure about more matches, but someone else will chime in.
Yes. Absolutely. You should be applying to more matches if possible.
The only rate-limiting steps should be your ability to afford the cost of additional apps and time to do the essays.
My D was accepted to her ED school but we had reaches and matches ready to go by 1 Jan if needed for the RD cycle.
Admissions are such crapshoots now that it seems a denial/acceptance at a school won’t translate the same way to a very similar school.
As Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
I’m not telling you to apply away because it does cost money to apply, but you won’t regret at least trying.
Keep us updated on your plans and let us know how you’re doing with your apps.
Good luck.
Thank you for replying. I will apply to more matches and safeties.
Now the question is – what about reaches? I know that i have to spend money wisely but it’s frustrating to even think about it because I couldn’t apply ED to my reach school because of financial aid.
@ChicagoSportsFn
Ideally, you should have had applications to any additional schools (that you did not prefer over the EA schools and did not have early deadlines) ready to go. If so, then you can just click submit on them and any needed test score reports, and pay any associated fees.
Have you already applied to an affordable safety? If not, that is what you need to apply to, unless community college is your safety.
@theprepkid You see it on CC on many occasions. If people are telling the truth, you see kids wait listed for Stanford and Columbia, yet get accepted to Harvard. You see kids get selected for Williams but get wait listed for Pomona.
It’s a crap shoot, in my mind. Just because one reach school doesn’t accept you (even in the ED around), it doesn’t mean another reach school won’t take you in the RD round.
Go for other reach schools. My D had reach school apps ready to go if she didn’t get her ED school (yes, it was a reach school too). She wasn’t going to let one reach school denial keep her from trying for others.
So long as you spend your app funds wisely, you should go for a couple reaches. Again, don’t do a shotgun approach. Do some analysis.
If you want, PM me your stats and which schools deferred you. I can give you my opinion if you’re wasting your time with the reach schools.
A friend’s daughter was turned down by Pomona and CMC but accepted at Stanford and Berkeley. Another friend’s daughter was turned down at Stanford but accepted at Yale and Dartmouth. And yet another was turned down by Tufts and accepted at Harvard. My sense, having spoken to a couple of people who have run admissions at highly selective schools, is that the stats are used merely as a screen. If you make it past that, it’s all about “institutional needs” and luck. If you look like a good candidate on paper, apply. And of course, have a couple of safeties that you wouldn’t mind attending if it came to that.
You don’t say where you’re from, but some of the State schools have really good honors colleges, so if you’re trying to do something that makes sense financially and that’s an option, you may want to consider it. One of my son’s friends chose UNC’s honor college over Duke (shock!). She’s now a sophomore and has no regrets. Good luck!