<p>As for “2. Make sure that your safeties are not too safe. Many Adcoms are sensitive to candidates using them as safety schools and often waitlist candidates that should be easy admits by the data alone. They are playing the yield game and will be reluctant to offer a place to someone who they think is likely to go elsewhere unless they have no other options.”</p>
<p>Well those aren’t truly safe are they? They are at best reasonably safe.</p>
<p>A truly safe institution is one where your child is flat-out guaranteed admissions based on their stats (many public Us publish the combinations of GPA, ACT/SAT score, and class rank that guarantee admission for in-state students right on their websites), that you know for dead certain will be affordable with nothing but federally determined (FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed state aid and/or guaranteed merit-based aid offered by the college/university itself, that offers the kid’s potential major(s), and that the kid will be happy to attend if all else goes wrong. In many cases this will be a local community college or in-state public. In others it will be an OOS public or a private that has guaranteed admissions and merit aid for students with specific GPA/exam scores/class rank. This is the only institution that your child should feel any sort of emotional attachment to (as in “Love Thy Safety”).</p>
<p>If your child has a rare major, then it may be impossible to pin down a true safety. In that case, do your best to help your child line up multiple very safe options, and help your child come up with a Plan B in case there are no affordable admissions this time next year.</p>
<p>There is a wealth of advice and support in the Financial Aid Forum. As you navigate the whole money issue, I’d suggest you spend some time there. No question is too hard or too obscure for that bunch!</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best as you begin this process!</p>
<p>I’ve applied 15+. So it’s really up to an applicant but it will naturally cause a significant increase in supplemental works…</p>
<p>@happymomof1: Thank you for your point on true safeties. You are right and give excellent advice. The point I was trying to make (I guess not clearly) was that some candidates try to adopt a “relative safety” strategy and then are disappointed when they get waitlisted by an institution that they feel they should have been accepted to. The risk here is that you may end up with few or no choices if your reach/meet options don’t work out. My advice would be to be just as honest about your safety schools as you are about your reach schools. Try putting yourself in the position of the Adcom reviewing your file - how will they interpret the intent of your application given your GPA, scores, etc.? How might that affect their decision?</p>
<p>Coming back in for the original question: the fewer the better. I didn’t have problems doing 9 applications (2 were those quick style applications so I didn’t write essays, just used a personal statement), but once the acceptances started rolling in, making a decision between 8 was (is, let’s be honest) hard. </p>
<p>Nine or Eight is honestly a good number, though. I had 2 true reaches (Top Ten schools), 3 safeties, and 4 match-reaches (I consider anything under 50% acceptance a reach, although my stats were in range). </p>
<p>Also, check out the NPC. I wouldn’t have applied to a couple of my schools had I seen how much they were predicting in loans. Of course I crossed them off right away when I got accepted, but still…</p>
<p>However if she wants twelve, and thinks she can do twelve, tell her to start her essays in the summer, if possible. Schools like Wellesley and Tufts and Penn have their supplements out in June, long before common app is available. After that just (weirdly enough) hope that she doesn’t get in to all of them because picking from twelve well-researched, affordable, viable options - impossible!</p>
<p>If you are applying for financial aid, one thing you should know is that it seems like every school has some variety in their forms, due dates for various materials, what materials they want sent (1099s? last two year’s tax returns? various extra forms? Do they want trust returns? small business returns?) and how they want them sent (iDOC – which sounds electronic, but is actually completely manual, directly mailing returns, faxing them, etc.). Also some variety in how and when they want corrections if you do estimated forms, then actual forms once your taxes are really done. I nearly went out of my mind this year, and D only applied for need based aid at five schools! It was practically a full time job just to track and complete all the financial aid forms. So… more schools on her list equals a lot more work for you, not just for her. </p>
<p>We made a decision not to apply for need based aid at schools that were likely to award good merit aid. We were pretty sure that she would get no need based aid beyond that amount, and she was only going to attend those schools if she got merit aid.</p>
<p>My D started out with 10 schools on her list, but after an EA acceptance at a school she really liked, she dropped two schools off her list and applied to a total of eight. She got into all of them (reaches, matches, and safeties). So another plan is to get a couple of early action or rolling admission applications in, then re-assess her list once she knows if she got into those. Don’t completely stop working on the apps while she waits, but it is easier to drop a few once she has a couple of acceptances in hand.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the great info! As far as need based aid goes…I don’t think we are going to be eligible anyway. In order for her to attend any of her reach or match schools, she’s going to have to receive a good merit award. That is why I think 9 schools might be a good number.</p>
<p>Looking at her list, I can see three reaches, four matches and two safeties. We have a lot of time to haggle over the others. </p>
<p>Also, aren’t the new common app essay prompts out already?? I thought I saw them somewhere??</p>
<p>I think 12 is reasonable.</p>
<p>Here is what we did</p>
<p>Applied to 1-2 safeties with rolling admissions early on so we had those in the bag before the tension of application season heated up. For us it was Pitt and Fordham who give great merit aid. Find some schools that work for your child and apply in October. It takes a load of worry off.</p>
<p>Apply to an early action school or two that are matches or reaches that she really wants. If she gets in HOORAY! You are done before the holidays!</p>
<p>Then–> if necessary</p>
<p>Have ready a list of RD schools a couple reaches, a couple matches and if you haven’t got a good safety already in your pocket a couple of those. </p>
<p>Our school was very good about us adding schools last minute but some guidance offices want every school so they can send out information. So it’s good to work on the list very early and prepare by sending them the FAFSA and CSS and SATs up front and then completing the applications in order. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Jamie,</p>
<p>Great advice! We will begin researching which schools offer rolling and early action apps.</p>
<p>Please please please make sure your D really likes her safeties/likelies, and that you can afford them. We knew several top students who were shut out of their top choices (6% admit rate at Stanford means that even for a kid with 2350 SAT/4.7 GPA and tons of ECs, it is a reach/crapshoot), and who ended up attending their safeties – typically a state school where they were offered honors college, tons of merit aid, etc. Not a bad thing IF you actually toured that safety, liked it, and would attend if it was your only choice. Too many super bright students presume they will get in to the very competitive schools and are shocked when they don’t. Plan for that possibility and your D will be fine no matter what happens.</p>
<p>How does applying early action effect merit scholarships? I hear a lot of negative things about ED. Is EA the same??</p>
<p>Applying EA is a very good for Merit Money. In a few cases she may get admitted first and then hear later re: merit $. But usually she will know her admission decision AND the bottom-line cost early. Very good. And 12 is not too many. My daughter applied to 10. She heard from 1 in Oct, 1 in Nov, 1 in Dec, 1 in Jan … you get the idea. We arranged visits as she heard, and as we knew the bottom line. An expensive oos public zoomed to the top of the list based on early merit $. She enrolled there and couldn’t be happier. When you know where you’ve gotten in - you can always adjust then how many apps to send. The cost of apps are a drop in the bucket. Apply early - and liberally.</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone. This is really helpful to start formulating a plan. It’s almost a full time job trying to keep track of the apps and the supplements and the scholarship essays!</p>
<p>Welcome to the college admission circus! We are in the same boat. Apparently, according to our taxes we are well off, but someone forgot to tell us and our bank account that! I spent an hour in an aide office Friday trying to explain the 3 years my husband had no job in this economy, the fact we have have another son in college, and the high cost of living in our state. They literally just stared at me. Many fine private institutions offer great merit aid if you are realistic in your choices. Look closely at their endowments. Make sure your daughter knows ahead of time what you can afford before she falls in love with a school. We didn’t, and now our son is in love with a school that’s a huge stretch financially and is the ONLY one not to give him money. That was a huge mistake on our part. Best of luck!</p>
<p>We were very straight forward with our D about how much $ we had to put toward college. We warned her against falling in love with a school. So far, she has several she really likes and several more to see.</p>
<p>My DD applied to 18 schools including top private and public colleges in and out of state (Chicago). The essays didn’t take as much time as expected because she wrote 6 essays addressing different facets of her life that she adapted to fit the vast majority of the college applications and scholarship applications. We did apply for need based aid and went through the entire process from FAFSA, CSS Profile, ITR, IDOC, etc. </p>
<p>We filed FAFSA during the first week of January to ensure she got best chance at government aid and then we updated the FAFSA once we filed our tax return and used ITR to transfer data from our electronically filed tax return to FAFSA. We also completed the CSS Profile early in November for an Early Action school and then sent in a manually updated hard copy after we filed our taxes. We also completed the school financial aid supplemental forms in addition to FAFSA and CSS Profile. We also completed applications for several state and national scholarships. Yes, we did the complete process for both financial aid and applications, including interviews. Good thing we did all of this because the competition was at an all-time historic high for many of the top colleges. Dear daughter was rejected or wait-listed by 6 and was admitted to 12 including Rice, Duke, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins and four of the Ivy League schools. </p>
<p>Financial aid varied tremendously even amongst the Ivies so its a good thing we got a variety of offers. It was labor intensive but because DD had prepared her essays in advance and because she is a good writer, she was able to adapt her essays to fit most applications. A few schools asked truly unique questions that required new essays. Notre Dame was one such school. Luckily, DD enjoyed the thought provocative challenge of answering the essays and interviews. We really didn’t expect DD to get into the 12 schools that she did. We thought she might be accepted to 3 or 4 based on her SAT and GPA, which were relatively modest. </p>
<p>DD applied to just one safety school because she really did not wish to go to any of her safety schools. Instead she applied to 17 reach schools.</p>
<p>We are grateful for the experience and would not have changed our approach given the historically competitive class of 2017.</p>
<p>Thanks for the detailed answer! It really has me thinking. My daughter is also a terrific writer and loves the process of creating.</p>