Good point and you are right that you can’t save people from themselves. I have said for years now that 10 should be the max and more than what is probably needed.
Except that the colleges want all these applicants because it allows them to lower their acceptance rate, thus becoming more selective and increasing their place in the US News rankings.
But the school doesn’t increase the number of acceptances, or if it does, it’s not much. They put more applicants onto the wait list, creating more uncertainty.
It isn’t all about lower admit rates. They want the best class they can pull together. But if you’re not a match, maybe don’t even know what a match is, for those targets, you don’t improve your shot just by applying.
@Johnny523 first, USNWR has not factored acceptance rate or yield into their ranking formula for several years now.
Second, the colleges must accept a higher number of kids (though maybe a similar percentage) when faced with increasing number of applications from kids who have a diminishing likelihood of attending (which must follow since every kid only attends one college even if they send out 50 apps. )
I do agree that there probably is more use of waitlists (which does increase uncertainty) and early options.
I think the limiting should come from the parents. It’s an open market so not really practical to implement an official limit. nor should there be. However, just because a kid wants to apply to 30, doesn’t mean everyone involved has to play along (HS, etc.) . The HS could easily push the leg work back to the student above a certain number. D’s HS currently handles the sending of official records to our stsate schools. And that’s free. Anything other than that is $2 per transcript and up to the kid to mail to each school. Also been a hassle for her to get specific LORs / evaluations for auditions which at first seemed unfair until you realize this same teacher has to do this for every performing artist at her school (art magnet school).
Parents need to be up front about what’s affordable and a reasonable number to apply to. Looking back at our own experience we had S apply to way too many. Selectivity was the issue, but at the end of the day, he had no shot at 4 and wouldn’t have attended 3 so why bother applying. It’s expensive to apply. I don’t know much about the fee waivers but they should be monitored to make sure only the truly needy receive. Of course that would take money to implement and just add tot he cost for everyone else.
I just wish people were more realistic about their goals and options. Not everyone is “HYP” material, including my kids. Guess what, that’s OK. Don’t apply. Niece told me she applied to Harvard because there was “nothing extra needed so why not”? That’s a lousy reason to apply to a school. There was no way she was getting in. Smart kid, but c’mon. Let’s be practicul.
There are a lot of colleges in the US. Just because a kid sends out 20 apps it doesn’t necessarily follow that they’re throwing apps at the wall to see what sticks. It’s possible to send out 20 well thought out apps with each one tailored to a specific school.
People who don’t want to send a lot of apps are free to limit the number of apps their kids send out. But trying to set limits to cut down on the competition your kid will face is just another attempt to game the system. Do you tell prospective employers to limit the number of applications they should take because you think your chances will increase if they do? No, you apply and take your chances just like everybody else.
People should be able to apply wherever they want.
At the top colleges, admission is competitive and unpredictable. Look at the experiences of people you know as well as people on College Confidential. I know a kid who applied to multiple top colleges and got into only Brown among his top tier. There was a posting on CC from a kid who had multiple Ivy rejections but got into Harvard. On CC, there is someone whose kid who got into Bowdoin but not two other parallel top LAC’s and someone whose kid got into Amherst but not a parallel LAC or a slightly less selective LAC.
Should these people have limited themselves to applying to only two ‘most-selective’ colleges? If they had, they might not be attending these amazing colleges.
Someone even got into one college early-write after being deferred from a parallel college early decision! There is no logic to why this happens.
We even know top-performing kids from our local high school who were rejected by some of their slightly safer schools in the regular decision round. So they even needed multiple back-ups!
When colleges have tons of applicants in every category they seek, which particular applicant within each ‘bucket’ is chosen may depend on how a particular admissions officer reacts, which may be affected not only by personality but on when the application is read relative to other applications— i.e., factors totally outside the applicant’s control.
That is also an argument for applying early decision or early action— to be considered before applicants just like you already have been accepted.
Yes, it is a vicious circle. Every kid who reasons that way contributes to the problem of there being too many kids in each ‘bucket’ at each college.
But do you limit your own opportunities on principle, hoping others may do the same? Do you volunteer to sacrifice your own dreams? Some might choose to do so. But others will not make that choice.
With modern technology, guidance counselors and teachers need submit only one recommendation letter that can be sent to multiple schools.
One should be free to choose, just as one can apply to multiple jobs someday. It is each applicant’s future.
S19 applied to 8. That was our first rodeo and in hindsight it was too many. With S22 I definitely believe the number will be lower because we all have a better understanding of the entire process.
Would those advocating a limit on the number of college applications be willing to apply to no more than that number of jobs (8 or 10 or similar), and take an unemployed gap year before applying again if not successful?
As much as I think that applying to an excessive number (10+?) of colleges indicates that the students/parents haven’t done their research, I think people should do whatever they want.
What makes me roll my eyes is when, every year, we hear news stories about kids who applied to 100+ colleges and “collected millions of dollars in scholarship offers!!!” When schools or news media brag about the total sum of offers–and often confuse need-based aid with merit aid–that encourages more application frenzy. Schools and media, if they collect this info. at all, should report only the value of the one merit scholarship that each student has actually accepted.
Tbh, I haven’t seen excessive applications at my kids’ school (top public district, large suburban school). Probably 3/4 of each class is going to State U. #1, State U. #2, or Local CC. Many kids–even if they are chasing merit aid-- have a school or two in mind and only apply to those. Those looking at reach schools typically have a few of those, plus safety State U. Vast majority are applying to 1-3 schools. Some 4 or 5. More than that would be very unusual here.
I suspect most, not all, parents that frequent CC have the ability to pay all or some of their kids tuition. Great. However, there are parents on here that can’t. We’re fortunate. We can help our kids. My S20 applied to 10 schools. Just about right. He has his safeties. He’s also has his matches and reaches that he needs some scholarship money to attend. Any more than 10 would’ve been a waste probably.
For those that can pay, imagine you’re a parent that can’t help your kids pay for college. You walk into the GC’s office and tell them you need all the FA and scholarships you can get. The GC looks at you and says “sure, here’s your 5 applications. Good luck”. How do you feel then?
Applying to jobs is not the same as applying to colleges - if all colleges were rolling admission then yes, you could equate applying to colleges and applying to jobs when generally people are spreading their job applications over a period of time and theoretically hearing back within a short period of time. Private colleges and some publics release decisions at one time or a couple times and “accumulate” all these apps allowing them to pick and choose from a bigger pool. If kids are limited to 10 or less colleges then that immediately removes some competition pressure from colleges who wait until spring to make decision. But really I would take a bet that most parents aren’t so anxious that they allow their kids to apply to 15, 20, 25 colleges and most kids aren’t so hung up on prestige that they feel they have to choose a scattershot approach to a whole bunch of similar colleges. The reality is limiting apps only impacts a small, small percentage of college bound kids and should be used as a sanity check for kids and their parents and a business decision for colleges to put pressure on the College Board and their greedy hands. It would not be terribly difficult to implement.
Limiting the number of applications would be completely unfair to students whose families are dependent on financial aid or merit scholarships. Such limiting would only be fair if the individual cost of attendance were transparent prior to application.
We are a merit scholarships family. The reality is that my older daughter got acceptances to equally ranked schools with very different merit offers. Had we had that information prior to applying we would have been happy to limit the number of her applications.
Perhaps the Common App should make it a rule that any school with under a certain acceptance rate the prior year has to use it’s own application. the Common App could have a link to their school application for convenience but the application wouldn’t be processed through the common app. That way students have to go through the data entry process for each very selective school they are interested in. It might curtail some students from just adding a school to the list to “see what happens”. Those that are less selective would benefit from the common app.
The Common Application is not the only shared college application that colleges can choose, so colleges trying to drive up the number of applications can choose a competitor if The Common Application is no longer friendly to that.
The only way to fairly limit the number of schools is for schools to be transparent about their academic selection process, merit award criteria, and need base criteria. Most schools (if not all) say there is no “cut-off” GPA or test scores, which we know is BS. Everyone hopes to be that special outlier, sure once in a blue moon you can’t ignore that outlier, but really is it worth the reason to give hope so the thousands?
As far as “fit”, it only applies to the students, not the schools. There are schools that are best fit for certain students. But I do not buy into the idea of schools find “best fit” students as an excuse to not being transparent about their selection process. What schools don’t like hard working, smart, passionate, generally good people, impressive background, not a criminal, etc. and a diverse student body? The reason for the lack of transparency is lure students as many students to apply as possible. More applicants means better rating, better reputation, more money, etc.
We should change the process, not people. People behavior (apply to many schools) is to adapt to the process. If we change the process, the behavior will change accordingly.
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Again, applying to more colleges doesn’t mean one bit that you’re qualified. Do you think it helps poorest kids to apply to all the Ivies without an idea they have any shot at all? Just because? Or because it’s a “free country?”
What I keep saying about transparency is, if you can’t find the info that IS out there, don’t assume they’re hiding it. Look at the utter volume of misconceptions on CC, the number of kids who quote, “I heard” or “someone said,” and never get to what the colleges’ own websites DO describe.
And then climing it’s wanting low admit numbers. Some news mag’s rating. Face it, “people behavior” is what drives up applicant numbers. Knowing you have a 5% chance doesn’t seem to hinder them from dreaming.
Yes, top colleges look for your fit. How you fit them.
So do jobs. Would you say that anyone looking for a job should be able to apply to only 8 or 10 jobs, and must take an unemployed gap year if not hired from those 8 or 10?
But this thread is about college apps.
Not some sashay into other issues. I want kids to do theirbest at finding the right targets and making their best apps. If I say 8, someone else says 9 or 12, no matter. You don’t want to crapshoot your apps.