<p>Judfud–you should pose your question in the Duke forum.</p>
<p>I’m afraid to admit it but my DS applied to 18 schools… in at 6. deferred at 2… one being his ED school, and still waiting on 12… most should be known this week… EEK!!! I would never in a million years thought he would have applied to so many schools, but after a few deferrals in the EA round he got spooked. Also, we need FA, and he is a lop-sided applicant… high test scores, lower GPA. So far he has received more than generous merit at all of his schools he has so far been accepted to… but this week will be brutal I am sure!!</p>
<p>Question for those that have applied to 15+ schools, were most of those schools on the common app? I don’t think our kids will apply to that many schools but I’m trying to wrap my brain around finding time to apply to that many. Did they all need essays? How did the kids get all of those apps done?</p>
<p>SteveMA… almost all were on the CA and about 1/3 were free app’s and most had very easy supplements. He was lucky there. The thing that I didn’t know about was all this FA paperwork… it is about to drive me nuts… because of what I know now, my DS14 will apply to way less. It is interesting to see the different ranges of packages so far though. One gave a VERY high merit aid, but lower need-based, one gave higher need-based but lower merit, and a few gave both… high merit and high aid, thankfully.</p>
<p>10 always seemed to be a good number for my kids. I thought with this last one, it would be less but with his lower test scores, we added a few schools and then some last minute things cropped up that offered free apps and quick notification, so he ended up with 10 too. In his case, we did not start with categories of reach, match and safety, but just had a list of school he like and then we made sure that there were some schools that were most certainly were going to take him and that there were some where the cost was going to be low along with some where there were chances but no guarantees of some financial assistance. We also threw in some long shots in terms of cost and admissions possibilities just to see if it would work out.</p>
<p>My dd applied to 11 schools. Four were safeties for which we were hoping merit offers would be extended, and all 4 accepted her early with merit.</p>
<p>The other 7 are a mix of reaches and matches including one Ivy and a couple top LACs. The reason for so many was my daughter has high stats, almost no ECs, and financial aid is going to be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>If we were doing it all over, there is only one school I would have removed. In my dd’s case, a wide net made sense.</p>
<p>I expect for my future kids, we might do less, because they may be less likely to get merit and we will need to focus on affordability.</p>
<p>D applied to 7 schools. She had 13 on her “list”, but after an EA acceptance, cut all but one that she hadn’t already submitted applications to.</p>
<p>3 admissions and financially comfortable schools (after likely or guaranteed merit aid)
1 admissions comfortable, but probably not financially comfortable
3 reaches (one EA)</p>
<p>D applied to 8 schools, got into 7 deferred at one. She applied early, because of nursing as well.</p>
<p>"Question for those that have applied to 15+ schools, were most of those schools on the common app? I don’t think our kids will apply to that many schools but I’m trying to wrap my brain around finding time to apply to that many. Did they all need essays? How did the kids get all of those apps done? "</p>
<p>All of my daughter’s applications. except for the U of California, were through the Common Application. Most of the schools required one or more additional essays, so she had to write a total of 30-40 essays. She gave up her winter break to write most of these essays.</p>
<p>^^ so she had to write a total of 30-40 essays…</p>
<p><em>cringe</em>.</p>
<p>DD applied to 7 places: 3 reaches, 3 high matches, 1 likely. A couple of likelies got the axe when she got into one of her reaches EA. 2 for 2 so far, both in the reach category, so the wait for the rest is not nearly as anxiety-ridden as it otherwise might be.</p>
<p>By Dec 1, D had applied in full to five: a UC (match) and one EA (reach), and three more- required to be sent in full early for special things like Arts Supp, Scholarship App (reach, match and safety).
Had all essays ready for six more- makes a total of 11 potentially, but pulled all when in at EA reach school on Dec 15. We visited 20 schools, some very casually, starting in 10th grade to create the list.
Reach: 2
Match: 7
Likely: 2</p>
<p>I applied to 9.
3 safeties, 3 matches, 2 light reaches, 1 huge reach.</p>
<p>My S applied to (gasp!) 14 schools.</p>
<p>He has already heard from 12, and was accepted to 11 and waitlisted at the only school that was considered a"safety."</p>
<p>The large # of apps was a function of the following:</p>
<p>*low GPA
*high FA need
*inability to visit schools beforehand in order to winnow down the list</p>
<p>All but 1 were on the Common App. All but 4 had no app fee. Most of the apps had fairly easy supplements. Incidentally, the one school that waitlisted him, was a lot of work, not on Common App, and required a fee.</p>
<p>Perhaps our plan was not well-thought out, but this was our first foray into the college arena, so we’ll likely change it up a bit when it’s time for our younger sons.</p>
<p>S applied to 11. His GPA is just under 3 and FA is very important. The music audition component furthered the need to “cast a wide net”. Most of his schools waived the app fee for apps in by Dec 1, so he took full advantage of that and also enjoyed a stress free winter break. I think he only wrote one big essay and maybe 2 much shorter ones.</p>
<p>2 instate public likelies, and affordable without FA</p>
<p>4 with audition-entry music programs</p>
<p>2 academic matches</p>
<p>2 academic match-reaches</p>
<p>1 lottery/reach</p>
<p>A couple of those we knew should have good merit/FA and be affordable.</p>
<p>DS applied to 8, but only wanted to do 4 - all of which were considered too reachy to rely on them alone. He ended up switching an ea to an ed2. At that time he got in one, deferred from the other, then got into the ed2 and pulled the apps from the other schools.</p>
<p>The essays were the big reason he didn’t want to apply to more schools. He really hated the essays. I would have doubled it if it were up to me because I started getting really nervous reading about the kids getting admitted and their stats. </p>
<p>As I face this the next time I can only hope the next child will be more into it than the first one. He wanted to go to college, he just relied on me too much to help him pick, and being a control freak I wanted him to consider just more than the school in his backyard. My next one is more into these kinds of things and is a more even student and I believe will like more schools.</p>
<p>D applied to 7.</p>
<p>2 - Rolling liklies
2 - EA Reaches
1 - RD top LAC
1 - RD Reach
1 - RD Ivy</p>
<p>Accepted to both liklies with NICE FA packages, before Christmas! (took the pressure off). Accepted to 1 EA reach, rejected at the other (financial aid comes into play on this one). And waiting on all 3 ‘Regular Decisions’</p>
<p>Daughter applied to 11 schools. A lot I know, but she was applying to only privates and she cast a wide net because merit money was going to be a factor in the final choice.</p>
<p>She ended up with a vast array of choices and merit packages. So while the list could have been 8 schools, I am glad we had many schools and packages to look at and consider carefully.</p>
<p>Thanks to parents here we knew to have academic AND financial safety schools. Thank you!!</p>
<p>applied total of 6
ED deferred - so by definition a reach hopeful match
3 match to safety (we shall see)
2 true safeties</p>
<p>Would have liked to see more reaches but the deferral spooked him and he dropped a lot of them ( also he didnt want to write the essays at that point)</p>
<p>D applied to 6 - we are FA dependent and she was picky about location. I would have liked her to apply to a couple more stats match reaches that weren’t quite at the lottery level, but have good FA policies for our circumstances. Other than that, she did apply to a schools with a mix of FA policies to have options. One is a clear favorite and she was less willing than I would have wanted to apply to others in that likely range that she was less in love with.</p>
<p>1 SCEA lottery - rejected
1 rolling state safety - admit
1 guaranteed admit state safety - admit
1 rolling private safety - admit
1 EA2 match - admit
1 RD match - admit
1 RD match/reach - waiting</p>
<p>oops - 7
We erased Stanford from our memories after she was rejected ;-)</p>