Lindagaf is extremely harsh to use the word “distasteful” towards the kids that applied to “20” colleges. Ouch!!
I am just curious what people think about “elite” colleges receiving 50,000 applications and pocketing 50,000*75!!!
How “honorable” is that?
Since its a “elite” college and since they love “hand crafted” (that took longer to sculpt than a Mughal sculpture) essays its OK for Harvard to be that way?
Harvard apparently has $5 BILLION or $10 BILLION in endowments!!!
I want to know why they cannot return the application fee of the 48,000 kids they dont “accept”
I dont think colleges sweat too much in taking money from half the high schoolers in the country under the pretext of “holistic reviews” 
The University system in the United States teaches kids to cheat, and game the system. It doesnt even have the population pressure of India and China, yet Universities are so greedy
They would rather recruit a wealthy kid from Jordan or Jamaica instead of a top performing local kid
Parents do their best to get their kids into colleges
Some parents declare their kids spent 15,000 hours “crafting” ONE common app essay, some spend $2000 sending applications to 30 colleges
To each their own 
Try $37.6 B. And a very generous financial aid program. Your point?
If applications were free to Harvard or Yale or Williams, they’d get 100,000 applications. If it is a free lottery ticket, why not take it? If it at least costs $75 for the application and $16 for the CSS and $11 for the scores to be sent, some will decide they have no chance and keep their $100 bucks.
Twoinanddone: not sure if you were agreeing with me. But sounds like you are… I agree… when all it costs is $120 an app, if the parents have money, why not hit Send “100” times?
Who knows… the kid could luck out without a handcrafted essay
Not everyone can cure cancer. And promise to improve race relations or write like JK Rowling, 99% of the population probably “plays the lottery”
The system is that way
On balance, this isn’t true… @JulyRains
You’d think kids applyng to Harvard could at least think, eh? No one forces anyone to apply. But if you will, you should know the stakes and what it takes to have a shot.
Caveat Emptor.
Lookingforward: I fully agree, nobody forces them to apply, but if the parents have the money, they WILL
apply to 50 or 100 colleges, just cuz…
I was shocked to read the condescending tone of it being labeled “distasteful”
A little hyperbole there… not sure why you are going down the rabbit hole of the cost of applications in this thread. No one spends “15,000 hours” or anything close to it. Certainly some kids & families spend a LOT of money on applications (although I would maintain that a well thought out list of reaches, matches, and safeties with strong essays means that most students don’t need to apply to tons of schools and spend that much money – spending money on applying to the top 30 schools without adequate effort on the essays will likely result in 30 rejections anyway).
Also Intparent I was drawing parallels by saying “wealthy” colleges earn $10m in app fees" “Wealthy parents let their kids apply to 20 colleges” Thats all!!
I did not know I was not supposed to do that…
Actually I think many of the students applying to 20 colleges are chasing merit money which can be quite unpredictable.
Arent there “many” paths to success?
Path A 100 hours for an essay+500 hours researching 10 colleges
Path B 10 hours on essay+ visiting 20 colleges
Path C 5 hours on essay,+ applying to 50 colleges
Should everyone follow the same path?
Not everybody writes well (even after 100 hours of writing it) or is super talented or has parents that can contribute 100s of hours helping proof read essays
Wealthy ones may instead choose to apply at more places to improve their chances with a mediocre essay?
I am yet to read a college website that says they wont accept an essay thats written in less than 100 hours
Millions of kids have to show up at full time summer jobs, many times two jobs a day, those kids dont have the 100s of hours to research every college, and write an essay for 100 hours, they might choose instead to save up enough money to apply to more colleges to improve their chances.
Even 40k apps at $100 each only adds to 4 mil. UC gets more than 200k apps. Are they greedy, too?
Rather than scattershot your kid’s efforts, why not try to really match? It’s not that hard for a kid to put forth his best. And if he wants a “best” college, he needs to go in with some savvy. Then, you have managed time and future wisely. That simple. It starts with a Fiske guide and an interest.
I don’t know why this thread is suddenly going OT. Or why you’re using extreme examples. It’s way better in the end to try to understand the process than to just get mad. No one is saying spend 40 hours/week on this, just to be mindful. That’s what brings success, in admissions and in life.
Is anyone considering the coalition application?
I think it is a good idea for schools to charge a fee for the application, and I don’t think the schools should refund it if the student isn’t admitted. If it were free to apply to the elite schools (some schools are free to apply to), everyone would do it. At least the application fee defers a few.
I agree with the schools who only let their students apply to 10 schools. I think students should have to do the research on the front end, look up which schools are a fit, which will give merit money. Look at all the posts on CC where the students apply to a school then say “But I’d NEVER go there!” So why apply? It takes the high school time to pull together the transcripts and the GC to follow up with questions from the colleges and it takes the colleges time to review the applications. The application fees don’t cover the costs.
Daughter’s school has an online application which is free, and also accepts the common app but you have to pay for it. Yes, some people would rather pay and just push the ‘send’ button for the common app than re-enter the information on the very short online school application. People are lazy. It doesn’t bother me that the school charges them and doesn’t refund the app fee if they aren’t admitted for using the common app.
Besides the reasons already given as to why this is not a great strategy, over half of the incoming freshmen change their major at least once. Admissions knows this. So the applicant may not ever take a lecture from that prof, even if he is still at the school. Plus you have to know you are not the first to think of that. Without a lot of meat on that bone, it will come across as superficial. To add the meat takes time.
I only half agree. a little more than half at the most elite schools. But otherwise it is a two-way street. To use PG’s example, some girls want to know both why you are interested in them as opposed to Jennifer or Elaine, as well as why they should invest their time in a date with you. PG’s answer skews towards the super-hot girl who knows everyone wants her (i.e. the most elite schools).
^Are you making that up? I don’t think I’ve even known a woman who wondered why someone interested in them was interested in them vs. some other woman they know.
Not at all. I certainly was asked “Why me” by some women I asked out when I was dating, especially if I didn’t really know the woman that well yet but had heard something or seen something that made me want to know more. The part about Jennifer et. al. was more to demonstrate the point, not that they would usually literally say that, although even that was true a couple of times when I asked certain young women to certain events and they thought I was going to ask someone else. I mean it wasn’t the first thing out of their mouth, but it eventually came up. To be clear, that last wasn’t true after high school.
But let’s keep this focused on colleges, and I think it is safe to say that many, maybe most colleges like to hear both what you bring to them and why they have unique features that will benefit you. There is some part of them that still has that as their core mission, after all.
If you know of a few schools which are guaranteed to be affordable and are your top choices, there’s no reason to apply to 20 schools. That’s a waste of time and money
I guess those applications just get magically read by some volunteers, no office space and equipments are needed. Many elite colleges claim they read all applications, often more than once. If so, then 75 doesn’t cover all the costs of processing an application.