How many colleges should you rank?

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
1

Hi I know it’s still a couple of months until we will have to rank colleges(assuming that you become a finalist), but I was wondering what people’s thoughts on how many colleges to rank were. I have fell in love with LACs or at least the four I have looked at(Williams, Swarthmore, Pomoma, Amherst, some to a lesser degree) and I definitely do love the pros that small LACs give compared to large research unis. However, I don’t know if it’s worth listing only those four and maybe a couple of other of LACs when I can list a total of up to 12 colleges. Obviously, financial aid is an issue and I know most people who do get into partner colleges through RD do get a significant amount of fin aid, but I’m still worried that a couple of thousands a year will be a burden to my family. Of course, getting matched is very very unlikely anyways but IF I do get matched to a school that I don’t necessarily love(like a large research uni), I’m afraid that I’ll regret it. Getting matched to any of QBs partner schools would be a huge blessing but I don’t know if a couple of thousands of dollars and that risk is worth the trouble. Plus, I don’t know if I’ll really dislike large schools considering I attend a fairly large hs myself(albeit it is a bit cliquey) though I am not a big fan of cities for sure.

Sorry for the ranting, but what I am basically trying to ask is, did anyone have a couple of schools or maybe one dream school that they love, did you end up listing more colleges to rank(for the full ride) or did you just rank the colleges you absolutely love instead so that you could possibly get in RD instead while having to pay a bit more?

2

My son read about Haverford online. It was his instant dream school. He had other colleges in mind but Haverford was #1.

We ran their Financial Aid calculator together and found out it would be less expensive than our state flagship because the need based aid at Haverford is so generous. I was shocked and impressed.

Later he got a postcard from Questbridge. (first we had ever heard of it) It was the summer before senior year. He looked into it right away. Mostly because Haverford was a partner school.

He listed eight schools. He would have listed nine if it had been allowed back then. He was matched to Haverford but would have been thrilled with a scholarship to any of his eight favorites.

He is busy writing four term papers right now but I know he would tell you to list all the colleges you have researched and decided fit you. We got the Fiske guide and that made it simple.

Good luck to you.

3

I forgot to mention that the Match made it less expensive than the Financial Aid calculator prediction by a couple of thousand dollars.

4

@badpundit thanks for your input! That gives me some hope!

5

I would only rank schools you definitely know you want to attend because you don’t know where you will end up on your list. If you only absolutely know for sure you want to attend three schools, only rank those three.

6

Hi! I matched to Amherst this year :slight_smile: I agree with @HailuMu because i know some people ranked schools, were matched and weren’t happy. You only rank schools that you’d be happy to match to. I ranked six schools but there were two i regreted after turning in the rankings. It just adds extra stress, but thankfully I got Amherst. You need to love the school