<p>My son only applied to 4 and I'm starting to think he should have applied to more.
UCSD
UCLA
Cal Poly
U of Alabama</p>
<p>After he got done applying, I said, are you sure no others? He said nothing else appealed to him. Now, I'm hearing that the first 2 got record numbers of apps, and Cal Poly is no shoe in for anyone, and with California budget cuts I'm starting to worry.</p>
<p>My S applied to 8, of which I would say 3 are reaches, 1 is a match, 4 are safeties. I know it’s odd to have so many safeties, but he liked them all and this way we can consider different finaid offers. </p>
<p>I don’t know the schools well enough to comment, but if you think your S doesn’t have a safety, I’d encourage him to find one that is still accepting applications if possible.</p>
<p>My D applied to 9; 2 reaches; the rest were a mix of safeties and matches. </p>
<p>Northeastern, Simmons College, Brandeis (been accepted)
Still waiting to hear from: Smith, Clark, Hampshire, Tufts, Brown and UPENN</p>
<p>The California schools are so competitive. He wants to stay in California, which is the dilema. </p>
<p>Are there California schools still taking apps?</p>
<p>You may want to post your question as a new thread- you might be more response. Also looking at indivudal college websites would be helpful.</p>
<p>Tacoma - Although S applied to a LOT of schools, 14, he did so because of his big SAT/GPA mismatch. We didn’t know how schools would look at him. We also applied to 9 schools that had EA and Rolling admission. He has already heard back from them. (7 yeses and 2 deferrals) We figured if he got a lot of rejection it would still give him time to revamp his list for regular decision. Based on how nice it felt to have acceptances back in the fall, I highly reccommend EA and rolling apps to everyone.</p>
<p>We found when doing research that there were lots of schools out there that S would be happy going to, they had his major, had specific courses he was looking for in his major, internships, etc. It was actually tough culling his list down. I am sure there are still schools accepting applications, not sure about CA state schools though or know of any CA private. What does your S’s GC say about his list? Are they likely schools? Do you have access to Naviance? Perhaps your S’s GC can help him identify some more schools with rolling or late admission deadlines?</p>
<p>3-4 schools used to be a good number back in my days, now it seems like getting into college is a crap shoot. Good luck to your son.</p>
<p>Im a junior, and fwiw, I’m applying to ten schools. I thought about 4- but decided to keep my options open to have a better chance and a broader range of criteria. And coincidentally none of those four schools are on my final ten list.</p>
<p>I don’t know what Naviance is. But as far as his GC, I assume you mean guidance counselor at school? She’s hard to get a hold of and when you do, she’s not the most pleasant helpful person to talk to. He has never consulted her about college. </p>
<p>I just tend to worry before I need to, I think. I just remembered he was guaranteed admission at a UC college, but don’t know how that works if he doesn’t get into the 2 he applied at.</p>
<p>We did pretty much the same thing as MAMom by applying to 14 schools. My daughter wanted the opportunity to attempt to continue horseback riding or musical theatre in college (not a theatre major). She also has a much higher GPA than SAT scores, so we were unsure of the college decisions. She got into 6/7 early action and the one she didn’t get accepted to deferred her to RD.</p>
<p>I also encourage future college applicants to apply EA. In retrospect, I wish she would/could have applied to all EA, as now she is becoming invested in her EA decision schools and disconnected fom the RD schools she is waiting to hear from.</p>
<p>She has already stated even if she gets in to UCD, UCSC, or Cal Poly SLO, she probably won’t go if she gets enough $$ from schools to attend private. With my older son graduating from Sonoma State this year, we know first hand how the budget cuts have affected the CA public universities. He had to go to CC during the summer for 2 summers, and take online classes at CC while attending SSU in order to graduate in 4 years…Even with that, he considers himself very lucky to have gotten out in 4 years.</p>
<p>TacomaJoe:
Naviance is an online system now being used by many high school counseling departments to aid in college application process. Counselors are able to forward transcripts and letters of recommendation directly to some colleges online, as well as view students’ college choice/application process/acceptances, etc…</p>
<p>It has worked really well for us. We have only had to provide stamped envelopes for schools NOT using the Common Application.</p>
<p>Whenever a school wants a up to date transcript (Common App school), we just have to send an email to counselor and she emails it immediately…</p>
<p>Great system and very easy to use. I love that we can view how many students have applied to the same colleges and acceptance history and stats of former students to those colleges in past years. I also found this website on Naviance!</p>
<p>TacomaJoe, if your S meets the requirements for the UC system, he will be offered a spot at one of less popular UC’s if he doesn’t get into UCLA or UCSD. That would probably be Merced. So, he will have a place to go. He can transfer later, if he wishes.</p>
<p>S applied to 8: 2 reach, 4 match, 2 safeties. 6 privates & 2 publics. 5 EA, 3 RD. Highly recommend applying EA-stress level drops tremendously once the first acceptance arrives.</p>
<p>5 - all with different sorts of early deadlines (one ED, two overseas, 2 state schools with priority). He had 4 more which he would have applied to if the ED school had not accepted him.
ED/EA/priority are all good ideas.
Most of those that he knows planned to apply to four to ten schools. Quite a few got in ED or EA - the EDs are done, and the EAs have been able to cut down their lists.
Most important is to have some school that is an academic and financial safety combined. After that, it’s complicated. If your child is applying to a lot of schools that require essays and interviews, it can become overwhelming.</p>
<p>First child only applied to 4, 1 safety, 1 match, 2 reaches. Wasn’t really interested in going anywhere else like your child. He was also OK with the safety.</p>
<p>Second child has a slightly better record than the first and applied to 8 (I thought that was a lot but now I am beginning to wonder) 1 safety (ELC). 4 matches, 3 reaches. Have only heard from ELC school, in at UCDavis. Didn’t apply EA anywhere (in hindsight he wishes he had). </p>
<p>If your son was ELC and went to a decent high school–UCSD and Cal Poly SLO should be matches (agree there are no shoe ins with these two). UCLA–crap shoot for lots of kids. Don’t know anything about Alabama (seems a bit extreme for a kid that wants to stay in CA??).</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t S apply to one of the guaranteed ELC schools? Just curious as my S also considered that.</p>
<p>9 - three reaches, 6 matches. We had one safety in mind, but its app deadline was very late, and she ended up not needing to apply to it. Of the 6 matches, 2 we thought of as relatively safetyish, though one surprised DD by rejecting her. (she ended up accepted to 3 matchs, and so all was well)</p>
<p>In principle we considered that too many apps, but because my DD, who is twice exceptional (gifted, but ADHD) had a somewhat unusual set of stats - high SAT’s, not the best GPA, low class rank but from top ranked nationally know STEM magnet, we found her odd at any given school particularly opaque. In fact I would have had her apply to two more matches, but she was getting overwhelmed and we all agreed any more was unreasonable.</p>
<p>I’m intruding on the parents’ forum again, but I figure my information is just as good, haha.</p>
<p>I also applied to a large number of schools, largely because of a GPA-SAT mismatch. My SAT was 2280 (with three high subject tests), but my GPA was 3.65. Schools in the range of my SAT had much higher GPA ranges and schools in the range of my GPA had much lower SAT ranges. I really slacked off freshman and sophomore years, but I’ve been pulling a 3.95 in all dual enrollment since. I try to give people advice to avoid my situation.</p>
<p>I don’t really like the reach, match, safety thing. I applied to schools I liked for a variety of reasons. Actually, several of my top choices were “safety” schools I expected to get into. I actually haven’t categorized them all until now, so let me see… I still don’t know what to call a match because of my SAT-GPA situation. Five definite reaches. A borderline reach-match. Four that are matches for GPA, safeties for SAT. And three that are all-around safeties. So, on the reach-safety scale, that’s 5-1-4-3, with no true matches because of my situation. I would like to note that I’ve recently decided that the decision will be between two of my matchish schools (Tulane and Fordham–NMS), two of my safeties (Catholic U of America and Loyola New Orleans), and one of my reaches if I get in (Georgetown School of Foreign Service). I haven’t been accepted or rejected by any of my reaches yet, but even though some are “ranked” higher than Georgetown, I would not prefer them. I already have significant scholarships at Fordham, Catholic, and Loyola, hoping for some at Tulane (which also meets 96% of need with no loans for those in my income bracket), and Georgetown meets full need.</p>
<p>I didn’t know much about the college game going in, and I had to spend a lot of time researching (college websites and here), but I ended up with a list of 13. I went reach-happy because I got fee waivers, and it wasn’t very smart. The rejections will sting a little, but I suppose it can’t actually hurt. I’ll get to go to a great school in one of the three cities (NYC, DC, NO) I would love to go to college in. I’m glad I never considered any of my favorite schools “safeties.”</p>
<p>My youngest applied to 6. He had a clear idea of what he wanted so it was mostly a matter of picking similar schools that spanned the reach-target-safety zone (3 reaches - 2 targets - 1 safety). He visited all of them before making his decision, with one exception (which he ruled out after watching the winter temperatures and deciding the location was too cold). He had a positive EA decision by Christmas for one of the targets; this made it easier to hold the number down.</p>
<p>I applied to 11, mostly because I wanted to postpone explaining what I want to my parents. This was a mistake.</p>
<p>If I could do it again, I’d apply to either six or seven.</p>
<p>My D applied to:
2 in-state academic & financial matches/safeties
1 in-state academic reach
1 OOS financial and academic reach
1 OOS financial & academic match/safety
2 OOS academic matches (1 a possible financial match with OOS waiver)</p>
<p>I’ve heard of kids being offered admission to UCR even though they didn’t select it on the application. Don’t know if that will happen this year, however, because of the budget cuts.</p>