<p>"Does your "hook" need to relate to your field of study?
If a HS student a is top-notch-award-winning-golfer but is applying as a pre-med major would the golfing be considered a hook?"</p>
<p>No, the hook need not relate to the intended area of study, but this question connects to the whole purpose of the hook which is to fulfill a need that the college has to balance its class. Colleges need diversity both cultural and racial, they need actors and musicians and artists. Do they need golfers? Only if they have a golf team (which many do have). So if they have two applicants fairly equal in academic qualifications and if one can fill a place on the golf team, then that student will have the edge. Further, if the golfer is slightly less qualified than the non-golfer he may still have the edge if the college REALLY needs a golfer.</p>
<p>Son applied to 2 rolling admission schools in October (1 safety, 1 match) - was admitted to both.</p>
<p>Then applied ED to a reach - was admitted.</p>
<p>Thus, no further apps were submitted. But, his HS requires that ALL of your intended schools be identified in writing by late November - giving the GCs time to package the recommendations, transcripts, etc. Son's ED back-up plan was:</p>
<p>1 more safety that he really liked
2 matches - one of his matches was liked enough to possibly beat out reach admissions for his choice
3 reaches </p>
<p>Total Intended Apps: 9 (I think there was one more, but can't remember what school it was)</p>
<p>For the first time this year, D's school (NE prep school) put a cap of 10 on the # of apps a student could submit. The only exception were students who needed a full ride, who could apply to more than 10. (This was not in the official policy, but happened on a case-by-case basis.)</p>
<p>The college office sold this to the parents as being in line with what other prep schools and leading NYC day schools had been doing, that "colleges will know that every application is a serious application," and that it would minimize internal competition. I guess we'll see in April whether the new strategy was successful.</p>
<p>In addition students had to apply to 3 safeties--so obviously the minimum number of schools was 3. (Here the rationale was that all students should have a choice and that applying to 3 safeties meant you'd get in to at least 2 and thus have a choice.)</p>
<p>Curiously, the response among many students (including my D) was to try to identify 10 schools to apply to, I guess to maximize their chances, even when there weren't 10 schools they really liked. D ended up with a nice symmetrical list of 3 Reaches, 3 Matches, and 3 Safeties, actually applied to 8 of them, but withdrew her apps when she was admitted ED.</p>
<p>S's northeast prep school also has a limit of 10 except for financial aid situations. They really like the kids to keep it at 6 or 7, but in reality it is more like 9. S is a junior, so we are just beginning this process. I agree that this is the best way to insure that the applications are done with some care and that the counseling staff is able to fully support each one.</p>
<p>My daughter's private school limits students to 6. BUT, they actually package and mail out the application for you. They also bug the teachers about getting recs done, if you do your part - ask the teacher before the deadline (end of Sept) and fill out a form in the counselor's office so they know who to follow up with. They also require everything to be in their hands Dec 1 (it was Nov 29th this year), which is a great idea junior parents, makes Christmas a little less nutso.
Of course I'm sure some people don't make the deadline. They also would stretch to 7-8 in a special case, and if you wanted to do more, they would try to talk you out of it, but then would give you sealed copies of the recs, etc, and have you mail them yourself.</p>
<p>Son had planned to apply to 2 in-state schools and one reach. He changed his mind about the 2 State schools after his visits there. After reading CC posts about 2 interesting out-of-state schools, we visited and he applied. He was deferred ED at his reach, accepted at his safety (thank you, CC!), and hasn't heard from the other school (also a reach). So, he's all set for his safety until he hears from the reaches.</p>
<p>Sempitern
That's a lot of schools. Were they spread out over different tiers, different costs, or were they mostly far reaches that left you feeling insecure?.............And looking back, now that the process is done, was it overkill, and did your apps deteriorate in quality as you approached #15</p>
<p>My D applied to 12 schools, and in retrospect that was too many.
2 RA
5 EA
5 RD
She got into her RA schools right away, but they were safeties.
Got into 4 EA schools, and deferred from 1. (all matches, but got into 1 reach)
Waiting for the RD's (2 are reaches)
Went through it all very calmly, except for 1 door slamming, I believe</p>
<p>2 safety: 1 EA (in), 1 'leadership' app (in, heard in 2 weeks of sending)
2 match: RD, one will do an early write next week
2 reasonable reach: Will hear in April</p>
<p>I am very glad he has choices this early in the process.</p>
<p>Our GC strongly recommends no more than 9 apps (our hs also does all the assembling/mailing). My current senior had no trouble observing the limit until December 12th, when she just had to throw one more impossible dream, "what the heck" app into the mix, and her terrific GC was kind enough to oblige her. Financial considerations will definitely play a role in her final decision, so she (and we) need a variety of options in April.</p>
<p>2 safeties (accepted at 1 RA)</p>
<p>4 matches (accepted at 1 EA, 1 as a candidate for a particular scholarship program)</p>
<p>2 reaches, 1 big reach, and 1 "are you nuts?"</p>
<p>I applied to a good range of schools, the apps did not deteriorate in quality because deadlines permitting, I left the best for last. thay way my essays were in tip top shape and the best that I could have produced at the time.... it was not that hard, i just worked for 2 weeks during my winter break</p>
<p>My D's GC put a cap of 10 on the app.s this year. D dropped down to 8 from 10 when she considered some reality factors. One of her schools is a church school to which she is guaranteed admission with FinAid. So when it came down to filling out one app. the question arose, "would I prefer this school over college X (the guaranteed one)? The answer was no. The second school was dropped because their deadline was Dec.15 and she no time to finish filling out the appllication. She did all 8 over the Christmas break.</p>
<p>My brothers applied to about 5 or 6 each, whereas I applied to 22 also. It was a lot of mail ;) (and ditto for Sempitern's explanation. I really felt sorry for asking my teachers for a lot of recommendations, though that's where the commonapp came in handy).</p>
<p>Clearly the number of schools you need to apply to reflects your ambitions and your situation. My S applied to 3, a match, the top ranked school he discovered was a great fit which accepted him ED, and two safeties. In his case he wasn't interested in the reach schools in his major and even his safeties were nationally ranked. More importantly, he had 3 ultra safeties, two schools that would have accepted an application as late as July, and a third to which he had been accepted as a HS junior. In his case it didn't make sense to apply to more, the risk factor you overcome by applying to lots of schools just wasn't there.</p>
<p>It's all just happenstance, btw, and not merit (well, not entirely merit). If he had decided to go to one of the top 10, ultra-selective schools, we've have been filling out forms and paying application fees until the cows came home.</p>
<p>S applied to 8 and was accepted at 7. He did not want to apply to 2 of them at all (both safeties), but we wanted all bases covered after the wise advice of jamimom and marite - you never know what circumstances life may dictate...and two of the safeties were offering full ride...
He is still undecided and re-visiting the two he likes most again this month, Tulane and University of Florida.
1 reach (Rice) not accepted, it was sort of a whim to even apply
4 matches/match-reaches all acceptances
3 safeties all acceptances
He and I did all apps and sent them. He asked the individual teachers for recs. His GC did the school recs.</p>