<p>^^I believe OP’s D is a junior, no?</p>
<p>My son is a HS junior and has similar stats to your D. We are just starting to talk about colleges and he keeps mentioning the U of Minn. It is a great school, but his reasoning is that he wants to please his dad and carry on the family tradition. I want him to explore ALL his options and I have asked my husband to back off on the UofMN talk. </p>
<p>I think you should let your D apply to a few more schools.</p>
<p>LOL - I’d have her look at the apps first… the Stanford one in particular is non trivial… </p>
<p>Imagine the app fee is her pay for filling out the applications. if she is puts a good faith effort into filling Stanford out, she will be making about 10 cents an hour. </p>
<p>Seriously though, I am sensing a kid who perhaps isn’t too sure about what she wants in a college - and therefore is wanting to have more options. This is the first of many twists and turns in the road for the next 12 months. </p>
<p>I’d suggest setting the UT decision to one side and really exploring what she wants in a college. Imagine that UT were impossible - assume they decided to only accept kids from out of state next year. Then where would she go? What would the characteristics of the perfect school be? Go through the process and at the end, bring UT back in. It may shine or it may be pretty tarnished - but she will be much more comfortable with the decision.</p>
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I agree with the above 100%. I would just add, though, that if she is only a junior, it is too soon anyway for her to have her final list (especially if there is only one school on the list). She has more time to think it over, and she should. She shouldn’t feel locked in now–perhaps she also needs permission from you–and maybe even more so from her dad–to reconsider her commitment to UT.</p>
<p>No surprise to me but I agree 100% with what blossom said. A decision made after a summer spent at Brown as a 15/16 y/o shouldn’t really weigh too heavily in this situation.
Many students don’t firm up their lists until the start of Sr. year and even now we have kids in the class of 2010 scrambling to add another campus.</p>
<p>Applying to 5 schools is actually below the average, not just on CC but in general I think. Give her wings and allow her to apply. It is fair to ask her to split the cost of the apps though just to measure her sincerity.</p>
<p>Oops I thought she was a senior. Big difference to me. Absolutely she should apply to more than one school. Here’s a case where I would advocate some well chosen dream schools.</p>
<p>I agree with all of the posters above who say that kids this age are developing and changing rapidly…sometimes minute to minute! The application process itself can sometimes clarify their thoughts and dreams. They also develop and change between the time that they send in the apps and the time that they make the decision about where to attend. Congratulations to your daughter on her accomplishments and best of luck!</p>
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<p>Exactly. My son is a senior who just finished a huge number of college applications!!! And they are all over the board in terms of size, location and programs. At this age, they are greatly influenced by a lot of external factors (especially their friends). I swear, every week, my son changed his mind about where he was applying. He applied to a few Top 10 and Top 20 schools, I suspect just to see if he could get in. Right now, he’s leaning toward to State U Honors program (he’s been accepted). </p>
<p>Expect this type of ‘uncertainty’ to accelerate going into senior year, when college becomes the topic of conversation among the seniors. Personally, I would let her apply where ever she wants. Unless you are dead-set on her going to UT, you will probably want her to have a few choices come spring of senior year.</p>
<p>i dont have a kid who could get into harvard or anything, but based on my eperience … kids change their minds a LOT!!! and not always with the best reasons.</p>
<p>mine applied to 4 schools.<br>
loved #1 - but it was probably going to be too expensive.
liked #2
loved #3 - but then didn’t end up qualifying for the scholarship she needed to attend
loved #4 at first then it went to the bottom of the list … for a while. now it is back into the top 2!</p>
<p>she is good at brainwashing herself to love the options she has. so that is good. but when parameters change (awarded more scholarship $$ from the more expensive schools) then she has to unbrainwash herself to get that lovin feeling back for one of the “crossed off” schools.</p>
<p>if she truly has NO intention of going to the top schools, then why bother. if she is not applying because she is afraid she wont get in … then that is dumb.</p>
<p>my thought is that she may change her mind if she has a few acceptances in hand.</p>
<p>Another vote for letting her apply. (Now…can we vote on what you have for dinner tonight? Just kidding.) </p>
<p>Here’s a thought: by applying “just to see if she measures up,” it may be a low stress way of beginning to weigh other alternatives.
If she applies and gets in, then some <em>serious</em> evolution may take place…or it may not.</p>
<p>We spoke about this again tonight and I still really can’t read exactly what she is looking for. The cold weather is a huge turn off, but she loved Northwestern when we visited and yes, we visited when there was snow on the ground. Princeton has always been a favorite and she was very fond of the gentleman that came to speak at her school from Princeton and in her mind Princeton does not equal Northeast, but shoot…Philly and the snow this week and last…could be a big change in perspective. We have never visited Stanford but she likes what she has read about it. It would fall into the visit after acceptance pile. And yes to those who asked, she is a junior, but her major EC is in full swing August-December, so we are trying to gather all of her information for applications, get the ACT/SAT out of the way, etc so as soon as those apps come online she jumps the gate. She has even filled out her transcript request posted date for next fall…just sitting in file waiting to be turned in. She wants to be done with all apps by September 1 when possible and already looked the apps from this year to get a good idea what she needs.</p>
<p>collegeshopping she may not even know what she is looking for. It’s a huge decision and if she is like most kids she is affected and influenced by something she feels on the campuses but she can’t necessarily articulate what it is. This is normal. </p>
<p>It is great that she is so far ahead of the game in terms of her planning but falling for a campus, like falling for a spouse doesn’t always follow a plan.</p>
<p>I know Stanford and Princeton both have FA calculators on their websites. Plug in your numbers to get an idea of the cost before you decide to encourage your D to apply or not. Both have great FA policies, though, so you might be pleasantly surprised at the result! Of the HYPSC group, Yale was the most generous with FA for us, just in case your D might be interested in that school as well. As you know, there are other non-Ivy elite schools (Amherst and similar LAC’s in warmer climates), which might offer her nice merit aid and/or FA too.</p>
<p>I think this is a win-win situation since she does really like UT. If she applies but doesn’t get accepted to any of those other schools, then she will continue to feel pefectly content with UT knowing she explored her other options but UT was where she was meant to be. There will be no “what if’s” later. And if she does get accepted and decides to attend one of the others, then great! Or, if she does gain admission but still chooses UT in the end, then it will just be a nice boost to her self-esteem.</p>
<p>I have been thinking about this thread, a bit.</p>
<p>If it were my girl, I would be clearer about what she really wants. If she knows she is going to attend state u she may actually be depressed by unnecessary rejections or acceptances that finances prohibit.</p>
<p>I would pay for application, but I would discuss the downside of the applications, but there is a possible downside.</p>
<p>You have six months before she actually can do those college apps. I would encourage her to investigate other schools and come up with a list of potential choices by September. It will be good for her to do the online comparison shopping. When the time comes to do the actual applications she will have a much better knowledge base for deciding where she should spend time and money applying. Also- if you paid for her brothers’ app fees you should pay for hers- up to a certain number.</p>