<p>I know I’ve said it before, but–unless you have a good option at home–applying to just 4 or even 5 schools, particularly if you need FA, is taking a big risk. Yes, applying to 4 worked out okay for my kid–but I can’t help but remember all those other kids on CC on March 10 who were waitlisted or rejected by all their schools. Applying to just a few more (I think neato’s formula was the smartest) might well prevent that heartache.</p>
<p>I think 4 or 5 should be fine, as long as we have chosen these schools wisely. I feel that my son will be able to produce a stronger app if he has fewer of them to complete. Only a few of the schools he is contemplating accept the common app. He’s a busy kid with lots of extracurriculars and my goal is to help him whittle his list to what seems an optimal size.</p>
<p>I can’t really argue with that Rellielou, especially as applying to 4 worked out fine for my kid last year. And if you don’t need FA, you probably will be okay. I can’t help but put my two cents in here though because of the many, many highly qualified, very very disappointed kids last year…and the observation many made was that they wished they had applied to more schools. The people on this board right now are the parents of the highly qualified kids who lucked out. Okay, now I promise I’ll shut up. :)</p>
<p>I see your point, CM. If we needed full aid, we’d probably be doing things a bit differently. Please don’t shut up, as I enjoy your perspective!</p>
<p>@classicalmama: Since we have a back up we can live with, I’m okay with capping our “apply to” list at 5. Will be interesting to compare notes April 11.</p>
<p>5 seems sufficient esp with the bird in the hand dayschool already.</p>
<p>Be prepared for wait list status however, which really seems to me like a waste of time if the HADES schools truly don’t anticipate using them</p>
<p>Although son was glad he got WL at one of his four, and made rejection a little easier to take, in the end if the schools never use the waitlist, it’s meaningless</p>
<p>@RBGG: I guess I feel like if she gets in to any of the 3-5, great. If not, still great. I don’t want her to apply to more schools just to have a “safety” if we feel that the added schools don’t offer that much beyond our day school (besides less time spent in the car back and forth from home).</p>
<p>I feel that there are so many moving parts/black boxes to the entire process that it’s really hard to say that what’s “worked” for one family will “work” for another. Even with equivalent scores, grades, reccos, ECs, there is the simple fact that each child/family has a unique personality.</p>
<p>In that book I’ve mentioned elsewhere, “Through the Woods”, about a mom and daughter figuring out the process all us prospective parents are going through right now…the author and her child visit/interview at something like 14 schools. That was just never going to happen for us. Aside from the time it would take (we’re only missing 1 day of school to cover our 8, btw), I can’t imagine processing all of that data. That’s about as many viewbooks as we have requested. Maybe we’re not that committed to the process or just not that desperate to send her to a BS. Whatever the reason, it’s just not the road we plan to go down.</p>
<p>Again, looking forward to comparing more detailed notes with the rest of the applicant families on CC on April 11.</p>
<p>@SevenDad: I agree with your black box theory.</p>
<p>that being said, for son we only applied to 4 HADES schools (and actually 2 day schools) and he is now enrolled in one BS. So yeah, I have an idea of how much work goes into applying to this many schools.</p>
<p>For daughter, my prospective list (all BS): Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Choate, SPS, Groton, St. George’s, Milton and possibly Miss Porter’s.</p>
<p>We also don’t see the point of a safety because we have a great public school as backup. Since we already visited 4, we’ll revisit those and see four more. I know the # of apps is high, but I’m hoping for at least 2 acceptances with a choice for DD.</p>
<p>Schools do go to the waitlist but don’t project that information to parents and other applicants and don’t post it on their sites because it gives false hopes to those applying (and/or waiting) and might cause some students to forgo a definite choice while waiting for a maybe.</p>