We were able to cull some schools from the list by visiting. In particular, we cut match schools our kids liked less than their likelies. On paper some of them looked like a good fit but once on campus the kids just didn’t feel the vibe.
I think it makes sense to apply to a lot of schools under the following scenarios:
- Kid has Ivy League level stats but no hook, i.e., they're not a recruited athlete or legacy. Some of these kids can have a hard time finding true match schools because one less than glowing rec. or a couple of misplaced words on an essay can tank an application to schools with single digit acceptance rates. When all your match schools are also reach schools you may have to have a larger (although still curated) application list.
- Kid is wildly uneven or has something to be explained in their background. These kids can receive a mailbox full of acceptances or one full of rejections.
- Kid needs substantial merit aid and couldn't attend without it. A family that needs to be able to compare multiple offers may need to go outside the standard 2 likelies, 4 matches, 2 reaches parameters.
- Kid is looking at a lot of schools with shared apps. that don't require individual additional essays and/or application fees. California publics or Common App schools which require only a click to send would fall under this category. I don't believe in the scattershot approach, but I do think it's okay to add a couple of schools similar to others on your list if it's easy and inexpensive.
I have a #2 kid, and although so far she’s received 7 acceptances, 1 WL, 0 rejections we were prepared for the opposite. She had very particular parameters. She only applied to 9 schools but if she had been a more standard student the list would have been even shorter. Some of the schools were “Meh, good enough” schools for which we would all have had to gin up some enthusiasm. They only made it onto the list because a kid who writes the CA essay on her LD needs to be prepared for a lot of thin envelopes.