<p>I'm not a parent but I have been perusing some of these parent threads especially the one for my class and its interesting to see the number of colleges your children have applied to. I only applied to three. One super safety, one safety, and one reach. The thing that deterred me was the hefty application cost, time consuming essays, and desire to remain in-state. What determined your child's list of college choices and how long (or short) was it?</p>
<p>S applied to 6 (last year) and was accepted to all of them. A lot of the schools have free applications now, so it was not expensive. He only wanted to apply to one school, but we made him apply to more so he would have some options. He did not end up attending the one school he wanted to apply to, so it was a good thing in the end.</p>
<p>I applied to one (got in early and didn’t have to do any others). But was planning on 18. The most anyone I know is 21. Our hs recommends 6-8.</p>
<p>S applied to 9 - One ED (rejected) and then 8 more. I would say that of the 8, he had one “safety” but it was one he would have happily attended. Several were matches. Three would have been considered reaches. He was accepted to five. Two rejections (big universities which wouldn’t have been a great fit regardless) and one wait list, which he declined based on his acceptances. But only one was a free application.</p>
<p>D has applied to 7. Still waiting to hear from four schools, all of which are sort of reachy. I have no idea how she came up with the list as they are all pretty different in both program in which she hopes to major and location. I suppose only she knows the why behind them. Again, only one was a free application. And I admit I counseled her to not apply to UNC Chapel Hill because of the steep application fee and the fact that it is a real reach school for those not living in North Carolina, and the acceptance rates for kids with much higher stats than hers at our school were abysmal.</p>
<p>Forgot to add, of those 6-8 you want 2 safeties, 2-3 matches, 1-2 reaches. </p>
<p>Usually if lists are longer its because of more reaches added.</p>
<p>applied to 7. Accepted to all. I suggest always applying to at least 6 schools because as a parent going through this the first time I am amazed how different the merit scholarships are (and the aid) for each school. (two of three schools were free applications because I think my son showed interest in them early (sophmore year).</p>
<p>I like that our school does not call them safeties. While semantics, they call them likely. Maybe safety has taken on a negative connotation as in you go because its safe, not because you like it. Love thy safety is a very good rule of thumb, but I prefer Love the Likely.</p>
<p>D had two likely, two matches and three reaches - two being more so than the others. But the truth is, even if she gets into her number one reach, she still might very well choose the likely school!</p>
<p>And I agree with Proudmom - Show interest early if there are schools out there that you’re thinking about. Demonstrated interest at some schools, absolutely counts. I just realized yesterday that a lot of the info D has had on one of her reaches is actually from mail S got three years ago. I doubt they even had her name before her application came across the desk. Not good.</p>
<p>@proudmom & @modadunn</p>
<p>How did your children show interest? As in just emailing them and saying you will apply in a few years or getting on their mailing list? Or something else? And if I may ask what schools?</p>
<p>S1 had five (accepted to all), S2 - 7 (accepted to all but one) and S3 is a junior has 10 on the list and I’m guessing one or two will drop off after visits next month.</p>
<p>Yeah, there were actually a couple of schools I wish I had applied to now because they have qualities similar to the schools I really want to go to and some of the features my top two schools lack. I don’t mean any insult by calling them safeties; while not all prestigious, they’re all super schools that I’d happily attend, but only one ever caused me anxiety about being rejected. So I guess the “safety” lies in it’s not causing me to panic!</p>
<p>D applied to 10 schools which is the limit that her HS allows. 3 likelies, 3 matches, 4 reaches. We are relying on merit aid which is pretty inconsistent, so we felt the need to apply to more schools. Only 1 school gave her a free application, so the cost was pretty high to apply to all of them and send all of the test scores, but we staggered it by applying early and throughout the fall to help break it up.</p>
<p>D showed interest by visiting most of the schools in her Junior year and over the summer. She got on their mailing lists and when the reps came to the area she went to their info sessions and interviewed with most of them. Her school also brings in college reps and she went to all of those info sessions. At the info sessions, make sure you talk to your regional rep and ask good questions.</p>
<p>So far she’s been accepted to 5 and waiting to hear from 5. Make sure you apply to at least one likely that has an early rolling admission.</p>
<p>S applied to 2, one EA, one regular admission. Accepted to both, attends his RD school.</p>
<p>D applied to 3, all rolling admission, accepted to all, will likely attend one of the in-state schools.</p>
<p>S knew what major he wanted and how far from home he was willing to be. High stats so had more opportunities open to him, but within our area geographic area, two schools made his list.</p>
<p>D has no idea what she wants to major in and slightly lower stats so it makes more sense (and she chose the schools herself) for her to attend a more reasonably priced state school, at least for now. The good news is she knew early fall that she was in at her three choices so has had months and months to revisit and make a final choice.</p>
<p>D applied to 1. She applied early action and got in</p>
<p>I applied to 13</p>
<p>D1 applied to 7 last year. 6 accepts, 1 waitlist, but she declined the waitlist, since she already decided on her school. 2 Likelies, 3 matches, and 2 reaches</p>
<p>D applied to 10 RD. She was interested in several geoegraphic regions. So far she has been admitted to four which I would call likelys although one I previously thought of as a match … good merit aid at all of them. She is waiting on five RD. Three of those are reaches and two are match/likely. I would say all are good fits to her and she felt she would be happy and get good educations at any of them. I think 3-4 had no application fee. All used the common ap. Right now she’s leaning toward one of the schools that has given her a lot of merit aid – something she’s unlikely to get at the reaches… but who knows what she’ll think when she really learns her fate at those. She has sort of changed her mind on one that was originally her first choice. Based on that and some other things I would say give yourself some options because you may feel differently on things by the time decision time comes around.</p>
<p>My S applied to 9 - he was deferred ED, so he had to apply to 8 more schools. He probably would have applied to one or two more, but he ran out of time - he’s a big procrastinator. Because he’s applying to a lot of highly selective schools, we felt it was necessary to apply to quite a few so he’d have some choices in the end.</p>
<p>Collegeisamaybe - you can show interest by visiting, emailing, interviewing, and going to info sessions if the admissions reps visit your school. Interest is important for many schools, but the ivies don’t really care.</p>
<p>My son applied to 2 – our flagship state university, which is where he wanted to go, and a less selective school. I thought that was too few, but he was confident that he would be admitted to the state university. He was also willing to work for a year, probably in the store where he already worked part-time, if he was rejected by both. As it happened, he was admitted to his first choice.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to 1 ED and had 7 others lined up for RD, but she did not complete most of the RD applications before the ED school announced its decisions. She was admitted to the ED school. If she had not been, the others she had picked out would have been plenty; she had a good safety school in there, as well as couple of others that were substantially less selective than her ED school.</p>
<p>S aplied 3; 1 EA to a safety with high merit possibilities(confirmed!), 1 safety RD, and one Lotto RD.</p>
<p>I applied to 14; in at 8, rejected at 1, waiting for 5.</p>