<p>Well the letter clearly says they "recruited" more into their applicant pool for both academic stars and "athletes, musicians and artists". You are just saying it in terms that gloss over the facts: "demonstrated passion". A star hockey player of a Division I caliber will be accepted over a non-athlete with higher stats. I am not saying the athlete does not have decent scores, MIT is not the University of Alabama. Obviously, the star athlete exhibits a "demonstrated passion."</p>
<p>i think that an overpacked list of colleges signifies a lack of research</p>
<p>or an overpacked list means your worried about getting in and you like options.</p>
<p>But you should only be applying to schools that you're pretty sure that you have a chance of getting into at least one. If you don't get into any of your eight schools, it's something that went wrong with YOUR application in all likelihood. It's not a crapshoot. Applying to 18 selective schools won't help if you don't have any chance at all. If you pick schools at your level, you should get into at least one if you apply to more than five.</p>
<p>More than 5 is annoying.</p>
<p>Says the guy going to Harvard.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A star hockey player of a Division I caliber will be accepted (to MIT) over a non-athlete with higher stats.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Again, not true. His chances are no higher than any other student with some non-academic talent. And he won't be accepted over somebody with higher stats. He may be accepted over somebody with similar stats and no outside talent. Again there is no such thing as athletic recruiting at MIT as it understood at Ivy League schools for instance. The term recruiting in the article refers to outreach to students with demonstrated talents, whatever they may be. Bungee-jumping is as good as playing hockey or the electric guitar. As an Educational Counselor for MIT I spend a lot of time explaining to potential applicants that the school wants students to have a life outside of academics.</p>
<p>Alot of colleges if you apply online will give you a fee waiver. So I would just apply to all of them and see.</p>
<p>free waiver is the solution.....i know a friend of mine who got into harvard....she applied to around 16 colleges even though she s not financially welll off......free waiver helped her a lot</p>
<p>Again, merely semantics.</p>
<p>Seriously, why apply to more than one safety school? This is the school that you know you will get in, the one that you would go to if no one else accepts you, but one that you would reject if anyone else accepts you?</p>
<p>S: Reach: Stanford, MIT, UPenn, Corneell
Match, UIUC, Vandy, Purdue
Safety: MSU</p>
<p>This is 8, and lets be honest, if he gets into Reach School, and is offered really good merit money at Safety, we might turn down the reach and go to Safety.</p>
<p>If you are a gifted student colleges will usually pre-accept you. Take one of these offers (for instance CO-school of mines gave me admission, and all I had to do was fill out a biographical information sheet). Then apply to one safety school. The biggest problem with applying to a bazillion schools is that right before winter break you won't want to be filling out that many applications, and then once you get into 8 schools, the decision is really difficult. I had to decide between 3 schools (not including CO school of mine) and so did a lot of my friends and that decision was difficult enough, I can't imagine 8. Spend time whittling down your list. You won't regret it.</p>
<p>d101parent: I applied to two safety schools myself. The reasoning behind it is that especially now, there are fewer guarantees that you'll get into any school, even a 'safety school.' Better to be safe than sorry.</p>
<p>midgeteers1: I applied to eight schools total, and it was definitely not "a bazillion" as you suggest. Also, the number of applications I would fill out if I had applied to five schools is the same as the number I did fill out: two, because seven of the eight schools I applied to accepted the Common Application. Furthermore, different applications request mostly the same information: name, address, extracurricular activities, work experience, etc. It takes ten minutes to transfer information from the Common Application to the school's own application. Lastly, while I cannot speak for everyone else, I can say that my decision wasn't really that difficult, even after I had gotten into seven schools. Fortunately I got accepted into my reach schools, Swarthmore, and U. of Chicago, and decided between those two. Also, Carleton and Grinnell offered fee waivers for online application submissions, and since I was interested in attending Carleton, and I put Grinnell as my safety school, there was no reason not to apply there.</p>
<p>As a rising high school senior, here's my tentative plan so far (obviously it's the beginning of July, so I still have time to decide where to send that Common App)</p>
<p>Safety: UT-Austin (As a state-resident valedictorian, I get automatic admission and 1st year completely free, so I don't need another safety)</p>
<p>Matches: Vandy and Davidson</p>
<p>Reaches: Georgetown and Duke</p>
<p>Dream reaches: Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia</p>
<p>grand total of 8 apps, and about $500+! Not too bad!</p>
<p>didn't you just put yourself on the yale scea list?</p>
<p>^how can Purdue be a "match" and MSU, a "safety?" It's harder to get in MSU than Purdue.</p>
<p>Well, classof09.........yeah haha
Here's the thing: I will only apply to either Yale or Harvard. As of right now, I am technically undecided, but leaning towards Harvard. I don't like the whole "apply to every Ivy to see what happens" idea. Sooooooo if that's a "I am definitely applying to Yale" list, I would take myself off lol</p>
<p>Uh, you can apply to both...and it's only 1/4 the ivy league.</p>
<p>lol. That's kind of like how I was against applying to all of the HYPSM... and kept trying to keep a school or two off. Then I visited all of the schools and kind of realized that I DO like all of them, even if it is for very different reasons... (Yale vs MIT? Actually I'm still deciding which to apply to early). I'm still a little hesitant on applying to Harvard, as I've heard some things about competition and about the happiness of the students, but it's on my list for now.</p>
<p>That being said, we won't think you're a prestige whore if you apply to both Harvard and Yale, just don't apply to USNWR top 25 universities and expect us to be understanding ;) I also understand if your school only allows you to apply to 8 schools... because that would suck.</p>
<p>id say no more than 8
i applied to 2 reach, 4 match, and 2 safeties. if you apply to more it would get too hard to choose between all the places you were accepted in</p>