<p>We are still weighing pros and cons for individual schools but ultimately trying to settle on 5~8 schools (from ~15 initial considerations and 11 visits). What prevents us from casting even a wider net is difficulties related to: 1) individualizing essays and 2) asking teachers to complete recommendation letters through multiple different websites. At this point I'm not even sure whether DC can complete 8 applications but we'll try.</p>
<p>So right now, we're thinking about 4~6 reaches and 1~2 safeties. Does this sound reasonable? How many applications would your child complete? We won't be applying for FA.</p>
<p>LondonKid only applied to 3. And that was only because we had an acceptable local option. If we hadn’t, I am sure we would have chosen more in the 5-7 range. I will say that one of the schools ended up in the application pool because the essays etc were the same or very similar to ones she had already written… they were very nearly a cut/paste. It made that particular application a snap. In fact, the longest part was MY statement… </p>
<p>You might be surprised how much you can use from application to the other…</p>
<p>Probably eight for my son. Everything is a reach because of the amount of FA we need. If we had money, I think he would have at least a decent shot at all of them. </p>
<p>Not sure how many for my daughter. She comes later to the process and is happy to go to the public HS over a BS she doesn’t love. She has two on her list so far for sure, is undecided about another (the food there was exceptional, which counts for a lot with her!), and we have yet to visit two.</p>
<p>My head is spinning from the whole thing, which I intend to rant about later or tomorrow when I have more time.</p>
<p>Son applied to 3 reaches and 1 safety and interviewed at the same. Not sure we would do numbers differently…from a distance that was all we could fit into a long week-end of interviews and two visits were not in the budget. But we should have been more thoughtful about one school where son really would not have been a good fit, picking a safer school that would probably have been a great one.</p>
<p>applied to 4 …none of which would be considered a safety unfortunately. We are in reputable PS system and her feeling was she only wanted what she wanted and nothing less. Now having seen the opportunities and done more research, i wish she was more open to less-competitive BS; however, she is not. I think we made a mistake not casting a wider net at the beginning b/c with everything she has going normally plus essays and forms and SSAT…she has no desire to bring other schools into the mix. Oh well.</p>
<p>From an initial list of 12 boarding schools, S2 has culled down to 7:</p>
<ul>
<li>2 far-reaches (S1 is a sib)</li>
<li>3 reaches </li>
<li>2 likely</li>
</ul>
<p>We know we cannot count as a given S2 being admitted into S1’s school, as we have seen so many outstanding younger sibs WL’d in the last 2 years.</p>
<p>We researched the schools carefully, have visited all of them (on East & West Coasts), and are happy with the ‘Likely’ schools too. </p>
<p>This is a saner approach than our Forest Gump approach for S1. Being totally clueless about boarding schools (never heard of any of them) and the competitiveness of admissions, we blithely picked from BoardingSchoolReview during Xmas break the schools w the highest SSAT scores and applied.</p>
<p>In all: 7 schools. Daughter has visited 4 schools, another this week and then two in December. (All reaches because of FA) Academically 3 reach/matches, 1 match, 3 safeties. I say this as though I am an expert- I have no idea, of course…</p>
<p>Last year we had about 14 on our original list - combination of day and boarding.
Visited 8, applied to 6 - 4 BS and 2 local day schools.<br>
Local schools we were pretty confident about his acceptance.</p>
<p>Accepted at 4 - 2 day and 2 boarding (FA at all but 1 BS)</p>