<p>A “safety” school isn’t one if you can’t afford to attend w/o FA</p>
<p>Photographermom +1
GMTplus7 +1</p>
<p>An AO knows when a student looks at their school as a “safety”- FA or not. I go back to when we were touring schools with K1. He was so sure he was going to get into his first choice and all other schools were inferior, and it showed. I finally pulled the car over and asked, What are you doing? If I could tell his heart wasn’t in it, so could an AO. The schools we visited after our “attitude adjustment” went much better and he really had his eyes and heart open by the time we toured the last school.</p>
<p>When letters came M10, we spread them on a table. I was so sure he’d immediately say he’d attend his first choice, but he didn’t. For two weeks we were in limbo because suddenly he wasn’t so sure… I have to admit, as nerve-racking as those weeks were, his doubt gave me hope. ( See First born: I wanted to take the “Birth Order” book into another room and gleefully jump up and down on it ). He ended up going with his first choice, but that pause said a lot. He wasn’t pretending to be open- he truly was and he saw a lot of things he liked! The “safety” school he looked at before we talked? Rejected him. I would have, too. </p>
<p>But that’s not the only reason to shelf the idea of a “safety”- especially if you’re FP. I think the environment has gotten so intense and competitive across the board that the days of “sure things” are over…</p>
<p>Of all the schools DS applied to, his only rejection came from the school w the highest admit rate. There is a seeming randomness to it.</p>
<p>I know most people apply to 8-10 schools, but if a kid is applying to the tip top schools in the country, than I think it is necessary to apply to at least 15, because acceptance rates are so low, even if you are a perfect candidate.</p>
<p>@floridadad55, we are talking prep schools here not college. The applicants are in 8th or 9th grade.</p>
<p>12 Schools – 15 schools? I truly believe this is not good advice. If you are applying to that many schools, you are just carpet bombing and it will show. The only reason you would apply to that many schools is because you are applying to all reach schools that you really are not qualified for. The folks I know from our (private) grade school pretty much all applied to 5 or less schools and had good outcomes. If you keep it real, apply to schools that are good fits, work them hard and authentically, be realistic as to your academic capability level, you do not have to play a numbers game. What lesson does that teach you DS or DD?</p>
<p>Devolution, I don’t know…</p>
<p>My daughter’s stats last year:</p>
<p>Highest GPA in her private school (all highest level of courses available to her.)
Community Service
Singer (gifted)
Community Youth Theater (major role)
Sport (average)
Instrument (average)
92% SSAT</p>
<p>She applied to 7 schools last year and received 5 rejections 2 wait lists. They they were NOT all ACRONYM schools.</p>
<p>When you need (a lot of) financial aid, you DO need to play a numbers game OR understand that you may stay home.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Can’t
even…words</p>
<p>n uh</p>
<p>wow</p>
<p>Perhaps that would have been more charitably phrased as “schools which are a high reach”</p>
<p>When you look at the Top 50 BS List (the list most people select their 10-12 schools from) the highest acceptance rate is typically 35%. Are we sneezing at 35% now? I really hope not.</p>
<p>@GMTplus7- I know. The only school that rejected K1 had the highest (19%) acceptance rate, too. K2 was a different story- he wanted to explore everything and I loved every minute of it. Looking back, I wish I had rented a convertible… Maybe we can still do that for college.</p>
<p>@Devolution- Congratulations! I hope (on some level ) you realize how lucky you are. Your outcome is rare indeed.</p>
<p>Visiting and interviewing at 12-14 schools and applying to 9-10 schools is certainly doable.
Especially if you start early and stay organized.</p>
<p>If FA is twice more competitive as mentioned in some threads and FP applicants apply to 4-5 schools, then it’s reasonable for full FA applicants to apply to 10 schools.
And half of them should be schools rarely mentioned in this forum.
Many hidden gem schools are no longer hidden.</p>
<p>Also, agree that you need to work hard to show/prove genuine fit/interest to the applying schools which are hard and w/o support from private school g/c coming from large public school.
It is what it is.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^^^ This.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I apologize for having hit a nerve with some posters, but my view on this issue is supported by my own personal experience, the experience of other families I know, and that of the educational consultant we used. Simply stated, the applicant’s challenge is to convince a school of three things: 1) that he/she is a uniquely good fit for the school; 2) that he/she can handle the academics; and 3) that he/she will contribute meaningfully to the fabric of school life (e.g., athletics, arts, DJing, or whatever). There are lots of kids that have #2 and #3. Thus, the “trick” to getting in is differentiating the candidate by building a rock solid case for #1. Doing this requires significant authenticity (does the candidate need structure?; is the candidate preppy?; is the candidate more comfortable in a smaller school environment?; etc.). </p>
<p>Are there 10 or 12 schools that are a uniquely good fit for a candidate? I doubt it and AOs are expert at sniffing out posers. Thus, I wonder if the low yield rates some parents experience upon applying to 8, 10, 15 schools are the result of a self-fulfilling prophesy. I would also add that FA flows to those that the schools most want. If you nail #1 (and assuming you have #2 and #3) you should get the aid you need. I again humbly suggest that 4-5 schools is the right number, if you choose wisely (which includes getting a read on the FA situation before you apply). </p>
<p>P.S. Do not use the common app. Use each school’s own application – and be authentic.</p>
<p>My DC went to a private K-8, and I do believe the experience for kids coming from that pipleine is different. However that being said I also think 4 - 6 schools is right. Every interview my son had the school asked him to rattle off where he was applying. DC ended with 2 WL and 2 Accepts and I think it was more a product of his perceived interest then selectivity. We only chose schools where DC was in the ballpark.</p>
<p>Most schools are not need blind. Students who need financial aid are at an enormous disadvantage, no matter how well they might fit a school.</p>
<p>With all due respect, Devolution, the game is entirely different if one is a full pay candidate applying from a private elementary school. The teachers at such schools know how to write recommendations for prep schools. Heck, they themselves may have sent their own children to those schools. The prep schools know the students from the feeder schools will have been prepared to handle their curriculum. They also know the parents have been able to handle the private school tuition for years.</p>
<p>Devolution, I think you are, perhaps understandably, letting your favorable experience color the advice you’re giving. It’s highly unusual that someone would apply to 6 schools and get into all 6, especially schools at the level you describe, and particularly given your daughter’s SSAT score, which is on the lower end of what many of these schools typically see. So kudos to your daughter, for sure, because she obviously managed to convey to the schools she was interested in what a good addition she’d be to their community. But I sure can’t say as I’d ever advise someone to apply to 5 or fewer schools, especially if they need FA, but maybe even if they don’t. I’m not saying 15 either, that’s ridiculous, but why not cast a somewhat broader net? Or to look at it another way, if your child applied to only, say, 4 schools and didn’t get in to any of them, and was heart-broken about it, wouldn’t you be kicking yourself that you didn’t at least try for a few others? </p>
<p>My son applied to 7 schools. He got rejected at 1, admitted at 1, and waitlisted at 5. The waitlists mean they thought he was up to snuff academically and would fit in their community well, but fell just shy of getting a spot. Should we not have applied to those schools? How we would even have known where to draw the line? In fact, the one school he got into was the one that he almost didn’t apply to, but the educational consultant we used told us we really should have him apply there. The school he did get into was pretty much identical in all respects to one of the ones he got waitlisted at – how would we have known which to apply to and which not?</p>
<p>Devo, you struck a nerve because I don’t think you fully realize, as Periwinkle stated, that it is a completely different process for FA kids from public schools. I don’t know if you appreciate how many absolutely tremendous kids who need more than 50% FA end up with nothing but waitlists. How do you determine fit or whether a not a kid is “in the ballpark” when they are at the top of every metric but household income? </p>
<p>For FA applicants, it is far more complicated than finding a school that they are qualified for, especially when they are academically qualified for all of them. You see, schools generally use their FA dollars to get the kids that they can’t get from their FP pool. So if you have a kid with a profile similar to many FP kids (or even slightly better), why would a school pay for what they can get (or get close to) for free?</p>
<p>Fit, I’m afraid, is often the luxury of those with means. The rest of us find the best that we can for our kids. There are no consultants or placement offices to advocate for our kids. We often have to deal with public school teachers who resent our kids for looking for something more or who simply don’t even understand half of what our kids say.</p>
<p>Edit: Sometimes we are lucky and end up with a good fit AND an acceptance with aid. My daughter finally did, but not after having been WLed at 16 different schools over the course of two years.</p>
<p>FWIW, I want to expand a little on my suggestion of 4 to 5 schools, with the caveat that if you think you and your child and your family can handle a higher number, by all means do so.</p>
<p>For us it was very expensive, time consuming, and stressful. Honestly, we could not have put more schools into the mix.</p>
<p>D needed substantial FA (asked for close to 100%).</p>
<p>Applied to 4. Results: 1 acceptance with 85% FA (doable), 1 acceptance with FA waitlist, 2 denials. One denial was from an acronym school, the other three schools were more mid-range.</p>
<p>I don’t think my D could have interviewed well if she was attempting to show enthusiasm for more schools, trying not to get them mixed up etc. I spent many many hours doing the work of a consultant and helping D settle on the final four. Writing essays is something D really hates and even though we used the Gateway application which all four schools accept, she still had original essays to write for each school.</p>
<p>(I was writing as neatoburrito was posting and I do have to agree with her point that if your child is similar to the general pool of applicants you are probably more disadvantaged by need for FA. My D is not minority but she does provide diversity geographically, socio-economically, and famially. Of course I also hope that her unique creativity factored in there. You never really know.)</p>
<p>This thread is one of the more fascinating I have seen here. Our S is one of those on the upper end of applications (10+) with a large FA need. Six years ago his brother went through the same process. In the intervening years the acceptance rates at virtually ever school have been cut in half. That’s one of the reasons he applied to so many. In addition, in contrast to his brother, he has very broad interests, is very social, and didn’t feel that there was a significant difference from one school to another - he loved big schools, little schools, rural/urban, etc. He did have his favorites but he told me once that he would be happy at any of the schools where he applied. He was accepted at one school (#2 on his ranking), with over 90% FA. The rest were 1/2 wait list and 1/2 denials. There was no rhyme or reason that I could glean from the results. Had we narrowed it to 5-6 it is possible that he would not have applied to the one that accepted him, so we are glad that he spread a wide net. I’ll also note that he made the process slightly easier than it would have been by using common applications wherever he could. In fact, some of the schools require that you use a common application. This is also an interesting contrast from 6 years before. At that time we asked “Do you take the Common Application?” If they said “Yes” we would then ask, “Do you want it?” Six years ago every school that said they would take it said they didn’t want it. This time with the same questions there was not a single one that said they didn’t want it and some were quiet enthusiastic about them.</p>