<p>Ditto cpeltz–higher end standardized test scores w/mid-range UW gpa. Cast a wide net, indeed. We did 20+ schools. I will say, it makes the decision time in spring a lot more time consuming. There’s less cohesion in the process, closer to deadline (May 1st).</p>
<p>D applied to 6 a few years ago and was accepted to 5. Turned down half-tuition scholarships at two schools to pay full freight at her top choice U (turned down an Ivy also.</p>
<p>S. is a junior and has about a dozen schools on the list so far. A few are not a really great fit for him, but would be do-able. He has an EA safety that he really likes, which should offer a good merit scholarship. If he gets accepted there, I think several of the other schools will come off the list and he will apply to just 2 reaches.</p>
<p>The GC office at our son’s school has you fill out a “yellow” sheet for each school you’re applying to and when son was all said and done, he forget to retract one of the yellow sheets. So his list went from 7 to 8 simply because the school had already sent recs, transcripts, etc and the extra essay was fairly straight forward.</p>
<p>This said, I am STILL worried to death. He applied to a list of schools that some have suggested dont really include any safeties. But isn’t one person’s safety another person’s reach? And perhaps one of my son’s reaches is certainly a HYP applicant’s safety. Still, I am thinking almost every school is listed as Most Selective or Highly selective by whomever assigns these things.</p>
<p>we absolutely apply a crap shoot rule around here. Just because your grades/scores etc are at the 75% or above, is no guarantee at most selective schools. So it isn’t stupid to hedge your bets especially when you are getting all your answers at the end of march beginning of April. Son applied to one ED, didn’t get in. No Early Actions or rolling. So yes, there is a tiny chance he will get in no where!!!</p>
<p>S didn’t apply to home state U?</p>
<p>I made sure S applied to 2 home state Us and he applied to an OS State U just for the heck of it. (it was free w/ no essay).</p>
<p>good luck.</p>
<p>DD1 applied to 13 (first-time parents are a bit nervous?), getting two rejections, two wait-lists, and nine acceptances (including her first choice and four home state U’s).</p>
<p>DD2 applied to six (more relaxed now), with one rejection and five acceptances (including first choice and two home state U’s).</p>
<p>We felt that the results were overall not so surprising, such that both application mixes were about right.</p>
<p>S applied to 15 colleges. Because we need considerable finaid (dh owns a business; not a good time!), we allowed S to apply to 15. It’s hard to classify them according to the safety-match-reach plan, but if I try, I come up with (admissions) 2 safety, 2 match, 4 match/reach, and 7 reach schools. He’s already been accepted to 1 safety, 1 match, 1 match/reach and 2 reach schools. Acceptances to the other safety and match seem certain. Financially, there are 3 safeties. Finaid at the rest is uncertain, as each college can look at our business and finances as they please.</p>
<p>It was a learning experience for sure. We had a total of 12 colleges. S first applied to 3 UC’s because the apps needed to be in by Nov 30th, plus two others that had Dec1 deadlines.<br>
But after much discussion, Although he’d gotten two acceptances, he decided he definitely wanted to apply ED2 to his first choice. The deadline was Jan3, which meant we still had to send out the other applications just in case the ED2 was negative. It was tough to pay the fees knowing/hoping that it would be meaningless. But as another poster said, it was cheaper than visiting campuses (which would have happened if he didn’t get in to first choice)</p>
<p>My son applied to 11 schools, but looking back on it, he realizes that he probably should have sent out only eight applications. One of the schools is an in state option, but gives little or no merit money. Two were outstanding private schools – but the merit money is limited. </p>
<p>As of today, he has three admits – one with a full tuition scholarship, another is NM offer for tuition, room and board (along with other goodies), and the third is $15,000 a year in merit money. He also was deferred to one school. With the economy not good, that school with the nice NM offer looks very, very tempting, but he will await decisions from other schools.</p>