I have to disagree with the news articles (morning shows, news and print). that glorify students who apply to/are accepted to a ridiculous number of schools. It feeds the application frenzy, IMO. This young lady is certainly impressive, but she said on her TV clip that she didn’t even recall applying to several of these schools. IMO that is not something to be encouraged or emulated. She has been accepted to over 50 schools. While there was certainly a desire to find scholarship $ (and they state she has, in totality, been offered over $1M) I really wish they’d stop glorifying this absurd application strategy as if it was a good thing https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/national/georgia-teen-accepted-colleges-earns-more-than-scholarships/fOYoHJcGJI8JGQi8mNW3LM/
You don’t have to soften the criticism by calling her “impressive.” It’s obnoxious. This completely emphasizes what is wrong with the college application process.
How did she even finish all those applications?! Did she not sleep Aug-Jan?!
“Obnoxious” sounds about right.
Mine only applied to 3. Granted he wasn’t chasing money, though. My younger S will have to look for some merit, so I’m sure just 3 won’t cut it. He’ll probably do more like 7-12, depending. But more than that?? And more than that by a factor of 5??? I’m just incredulous.
This story was on Good Morning America this morning. The hosts were acting like it was such a great thing. If she is chasing merit money how did she afford all of those application costs? And I agree it was obnoxious when she said she doesn’t even remember applying to some of the schools. And a million dollars from over 50 schools is not that impressive. If she got one full ride, that could be worth $280k.
This will obviously just help to make even more people apply to more schools. What about all those people that she took the spot of that actually remembered applying to these schools? Just seemed like a game to her.
Totally agree! We hear these stories every year and it just feeds the frenzy. Next comes the kids who were excepted to all the Ivies. Who truly believes Columbia and Dartmouth could be a fit for the same kid? Who really needs to apply to 50 schools to get the best aid? Ugh!
I don’t agree with it but it does show you just about anything can be done if you decide to do it.
Copy /paste the essays with a template. Many essays are very similar. Especially the “why” this school one’s. Most everything else is databasing. My son did like 2-3 applications at a time this way. For him it was just more efficient. He would adjust the essays per school when needed.
Well she got into some great schools so she must of had the goods also.
Why is the million dollars glorified? She can only go to one college; she can only accept money from one college. The money she declines goes to someone else, not in a Swiss bank account for her to hoard. This feeds the frenzy that colleges are throwing money at kids. Which is why we see so many sad threads here (and hear about it in real life) that “My kid is an A student and “only” got a 5K merit award from his favorite school and we can’t afford it” or “I was told that colleges would “pay us” to send our kid- but even with a 10K scholarship, we’d have to take out Parent Plus loans of 15K per year- how are we going to ever pay that back?”
Apply wherever you want. But the media getting into a frenzy about money which does not belong to the kid unless they matriculate is irksome.
I’m guessing they had application fee waivers, because if you can afford that much in app fees you are usually not chasing merit.
I think it would have been better for her if she’d had an admissions savvy adult help her craft a list.
I think this is the same person who was quoted in some of the recent articles about the USC scandal, and in those articles it said she was using a consultant. $1M isn’t very much if spread over 50 schools.
my kid’s HS likes to use that x total number of scholarship dollars for the senior class - it’s a weird and miskeading metric
Agree 100% with OP about these news stories. Like celebrating some glutton in the midst of a famine.
Wonder if it skeeved this student who was “only” accepted to 39 colleges ?https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/jordan-nixon-georgia-high-school-student-accepted-to-39-colleges-awarded-1-6-million-in-scholarships/
$1,000,000 divided by 50 colleges divided by 4 years is $5,000 a year.
Did they mention that this makes college unaffordable?
What is the “Common Black App” referenced in that article?
And I wonder what the guidance counselor says about all these apps? Seems like an awful lot of work for them.
The Common Black App is for the HBCU, so she was able to apply to about 20 colleges all at once (if she wanted that many on that app). Is she really going to go to Prairie View over Michigan?
This is the flip side of the scandal. 1% families with old money can afford to buy their way into top schools, pay the full tuition, and hire whatever tutors are necessary for their kids. A step down from them, they still have so much money they don’t know what to do with it, and use it to bribe their kids’ way into top schools.
At the lower end, you have the kids who qualify for fee waivers, so why not apply to 50 schools? Many of those schools probably don’t require official score reports from the SAT or ACT either - not until you decide to enroll. Not all schools will meet their need, but there are many that will. Meanwhile middle class kids, particularly families with incomes in the $80-$100,000 range face a real struggle to find a place that’s affordable based on their finances. They can’t afford to apply to 50 schools, because they DO have to pay the application fees.
Then let’s talk about the millions in aid… She accepts the offer from one school, and eventually frees up the money to be used for other students. But when does she do that? And who will get that aid? By the time she releases the money, some of the students who might have gotten the aid instead (these colleges only have so much aid to give, after all) have moved on, and turned down their acceptances. Others have accepted the offers they were given, so why would the colleges improve their packages? On one level it’s no different than the kids involved in the scandal - we don’t know who would have gotten the seat or the aid - but on another level it’s worse: the top colleges can probably add another seat to accommodate the cheaters, but these colleges can’t pull more money off a tree to accommodate kids who can’t afford tuition.
And I agree about the kids getting into all the Ivies. I almost wish they would move to a single application system with some of the other top schools - submit one application, ranking your preferences, and you are admitted to one school. (yes, ED does serve a similar purpose).
Let’s talk about how ridiculous the FA system is and the costs are instead and how college admissions aren’t actually based on meritocracy in many cases. And I don’t doubt this kid is impressive though I am not clicking that link. It’s also completely possible for an impressive kid to get passed by at competitive schools because they are too similar in profile to many other applicants.
I don’t fault kids chasing FA or merit applying to a bunch of schools. I think my kid applied to 10 or 11. He also applied to auditioned music programs for many of those which is another highly competitive game even at schools you barely hear anything about. Fortunately he came out with several offers we can afford.
But this adding up scholarships and acting like kids are heroes is ridiculous. Maybe they felt compelled to for money, I can’t imagine any other reason. It takes some level of privilege to be able to package yourself up for that many schools. I felt like my kid did a mediocre job on his 2nd half of applications while doing 20-30 hours a week of extra curriculars and being full time dual enrolled.
This https://abcnews.go.com/living/story/georgia-teen-accepted-50-colleges-awarded-million-scholarships-62007233. says she applied to 65 colleges, got fee waivers, and her mom, a retired veteran (so think GI bill, probably). “kept her on track”. I haven’t seen anything about her using a consultant, because not reasonable consultant worth their salt would encourage that # of applications.
What stuck out to me about the first girl is that she got accepted to Penn State. Clearly she didn’t research the schools she applied to. If she had been here on CC she would have known in the first 5 minutes there was no way she was going to be getting substantial, if any aid from there.
Didn’t her college counsler like tell her that, that is just too many colleges to apply to. I see stories like this in Chicago yearly and think it sends the wrong message. Like how do you research and actually want to go to 65 colleges?