<p>Exactly, blossom. My niece was a “high stats kid”, second in her large class, who was rejected by her reaches. her “safety” was a small LAC that awards “vals and sals” automatic admission and merit aid of 100% and 75%, had the combination of majors she wanted, was in a place geographically that she loved, etc. She was disappointed about the reaches, but perfectly happy attending her safety, where she thrived. Good thing that as a top student (as most of her college class was) she found a safety that did indeed have automatic admission that didn’t make her cry.</p>
<p>@oldfort. You know maybe in a wide open state like Texas it’s hard to demonstrate interest in twenty five schools but from the philadelphia area it really wouldn’t take much. There are well over twenty five colleges within an hour of our home. It’s not my D’s style to feign interest so the love she’s shown her top four schools has been real (only one of her top four is within an hour). But for a kid like her who needs merit money but has the stats to apply to Penn there are a lot of schools where she could be faking her level of interest while trying to maximize merit and her options. </p>
<p>Which brings me to a thought I’ve been worried about. Our D is easily in the top one percent of applicants at one of her top choice schools. This school accepts over 70 percent of its applicants so there’s no question she’ll get in. But the word on the street is that they have to believe you want to go there to give out the really big merit bucks. Our D has done everything she should to prove to them that she wants to go there but how does a kid who lives less than a half hour away from a school prove her interest is real? </p>
<p>I also think it depends on the student, and what you are interested in from a college. If you are interested in schools that are reaches for you–and especially if you are interested in schools that are reaches for everybody, then you will probably want to have more than 3 reaches–maybe quite a few more. I also tend to think that 14 is pretty near the upper limit of what any kid is likely to need, or to be able to do justice to. But I don’t think 8 reaches is necessarily too many, especially if any of them begin with H, P or Y.</p>
<p>I think the operative phrase is “it depends”.</p>
<p>My oldest was a tippy top candidate, apparently. At the time, we didn’t know. He applied to 10 schools, 7 reaches adn 3 safeties, and was accepted to all of them including two Ivies and three top STEM schools. Money was an absolute driver. All the schools had the potential to be affordable because of our income or because of full ride scholarship possibility.</p>
<p>Current HS senior is totally different. Not a top candidate and very uncertain about whether or not he’s competitive despite a strong SAT and grades. Glaring weaknesses such as no AP tests and no big competitions.</p>
<p>Money is still a huge part of the equation. I have no clue which, if any, colleges we can afford.</p>
<p>His final list as of now is 18 schools and some may get added or subtracted. That includes 5 Cal State schools and three UC schools. It has 4 reaches, 6 matches, and 8 safeties.</p>
<p>So far, he has four acceptances to four safeties, but we won’t know if they’re affordable until the spring.</p>
<p>One reach at the most! More than likely if you get in you won’t be able to afford it unless mom and dad are rich.</p>
<p>My D applied to 2 reaches (one low reach), 4 matches (a couple low matches), and 1 safety (another one planned for RD by not applied). Four of the them are on CommonApp and 6 of them were applied early (EA or rolling). Practically 4 application forms and 5 different essays with a budget of $1000 for application, tests, score reports, transcripts, CSS profiles.</p>
<p>I think around 40 - 45 applications makes sense: (1) All 8 Ivies; (2) 5 Semi-ivies (Duke, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, Chicago); (3) 5 Foreign (Cambridge, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, McGill, UToronto); 7 LACs (Amherst, Williams, Pomona, MIddlebury, Bowdoin, Washington & Lee, Emory); 11 Ivy-publics (UVA, William & Mary, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UTexas, UMichigan, UNC, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin) ; 3 Majors (USC, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt); 5 Safeties (Auburn, Ole Miss, UIndiana, Texas A&M, UGeorgia). Seems a reasonable spread of opportunity. I am of the philosophy of apply everywhere and then let God sort them all out. Make your decision based on after you get in, not before you apply (after all, why waste time thinking about and parsing schools you may never get into?) Who cares about getting lots of rejection letters? If you never apply, you have self-rejected already . . .</p>
<p>You have to game the applications because the Common App only lets you apply to 20 schools maximum. Then, you have to go to the Universal App for some of the others. Then, you use the colleges own app (state universities are generally NOT on the Common App) – yes, it’s possible!!!</p>
<p>scsiguru,</p>
<p>Actually, the opposite is true for us. We can afford the reaches because of their incredible need-based aid. It’s most of the other colleges around the country that we can’t afford.</p>
<p>I know this is the parents forum, but as a student undergoing the process, I feel like I can still contribute.</p>
<p>I have currently applied to seven schools - 2 Reach, 2 Match, 3 Safety (in my opinion). But I am considering applying to more schools, namely, to more reach schools. I am doing so to help expand my opportunities. Every reach school only takes in a limited amount of students, and there’s no guarantees I’ll get in to my first pick. By applying to more, I can give myself the chance of admission. As @makennacompton said, I’ll kick myself in a few months if I didn’t give myself this chance by simply applying (though I hope that their suggestion of 40 is sarcasm…).</p>
<p>Also, I notice many are saying that lower numbers are signs of better research. However, it is much more economically feasible to apply, then maybe visit the ones I’ve already been accepted to. Why travel all the way to Yale in Connecticut if there’s no guarantee I’ll get in? It’s wasted time and money - unless I’ve already been accepted and wish to see what the school is like.</p>
<p>@EricJL, I completely agree. I think it’s useful (perhaps) to visit a few schools to get a feel for their “type,” but I think it can be a waste of time, money, and family harmony.</p>
<p>My son picked 11. Safety safety, just safety, 5 matches, 4 reaches. Computer Science. We visited and toured all of these schools with him. I would like him to expand his “reach” category, but not sure he will have time to do quality work on essay portions of additional applications.</p>
<p>We must be really boring with both my boys applying to only 1 college each…</p>
<p>S1 will likely apply to 8:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 fullride Safety</li>
<li>3 Match</li>
<li>4 Reach</li>
</ul>
<p>There is a 10 year gap between my oldest and youngest, and things sure have changed in a decade! I anticipate being unable to assess the younger child’s chances of admission (in two years) at what I think are matches and low reaches, because D will likely go test-optional. A number of schools that are strong in her major no longer require SAT’s or ACT’s, and since we anticipate that pesky high verbal but low math result (yet her math course level is good), she will likely not submit. I don’t have a grasp on how those schools think about students who don’t submit scores. They claim they don’t assume the student didn’t do well, but in reality, if you took the SAT and/or ACT and did do well, then you’d submit. So I am wondering to what extent not submitting scores means the student needs a little bit better GPA and EC resume than their average applicant, and I question how much better those elements have to be? And frankly, it’s hard in this age of grade inflation to assess chances if you don’t have standardized test scores for guidance. Any thoughts? </p>
<p>I am thinking she will apply to more schools than her siblings–maybe 15. </p>
<p>I don’t quite understand the appeal or logic of applying to high reach schools. Is it really a good fit to be at a school where you are in the bottom quarter of applicants? Some people do take off during college but it’s a bit of a risk and potentially setting yourself up for failure. </p>
<p>@miamidap -
</p>
<p>Because we do not know what will turn out to be affordable until we know what scholarships might be earned, what merit aid may be offered, what the need-based financial aid package will look like. Running NPCs gets us partway there but with self employment and divorce, we just don’t know until a school tells us in spring.</p>
<p>To use an example I’m sure you’ll understand, the only way Miami will be affordable (and D did apply), is if she is given a full tuition scholarship. She qualifies for half to full but will not be told which, or what in between, she will get, until she is accepted and gets their FA package. </p>
<p>So, in our case, not a waste at all to be able to compare offers and choose, at least in part, based on what is most affordable.</p>
<p>My S’12’s best offers were from two expensive private schools (that didn’t guarantee to meet full need, either). His least affordable offer was from a state school. You never know.</p>
<p>^^ But SOMEBODY has to be in the lowest quarter of the class. Even at Harvard, 25% of those admitted are in the lowest 25%. There is no way around it unless you go to college in Lake Wobegone. Someone in the Harvard medical school is going to be dead last in his class, but you won’t know if it is your Harvard trained doctor because Harvard doesn’t release that info. I don’t think that should be the deciding factor. Some people don’t mind not being in the top of the class. A lot of brilliant science majors don’t really care that they don’t get As in English or can’t draw a snowman, so their GPAs might not put them in the top of the class. Others don’t like feeling that they aren’t in the top group and would rather go to a lower ranked school and be tops than go to a top ranked school and be in the bottom.</p>
<p>It’s a choice.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>S’12 got two offers that were a few thousand dollars apart, and though they were peers, he much preferred one. That one did match the other one’s package when we asked. I don’t think one can or should “wheel and deal” just for the heck of it but if one school is the top pick but doesn’t come up with the necessary offer and a similar school has, it can’t hurt to ask for a match.</p>
<p>Hoping post 106 is tongue in cheek.</p>
<p>Post 106 is super funny!</p>