<p>Reading some of the posts on CC, I am surprised by the number of schools kids are considering. A dozen seems like a lot, but I'm not there yet and so am uninformed. Do kids/parents expect letters tailored to each school from the teachers/counselors? </p>
<p>Just curious. Maybe when s is a senior a dozen won't feel like enough!</p>
<p>No, teachers and GCs should feel fine about writing the same letter to everyone. I think most kids should be able to winnow the list to 7 or 8, but more may be in order if you are looking for merit money or financial safeties.</p>
<p>Copies of one letter works fine. My son applied to 2 safeties and 8 others. In retrospect, it seems like a lot, but we had no idea where he'd be accepted. It made for a very busy 2 weeks in late April, when he re-visited 5 of his favorites, but by the time he made the final decision, it was a thoroughly thought-out one. I did remind him that when he'd finished the safety apps and a few others he didn't need to complete all 10 just because he'd said he would., but he wanted a lot of options and he certainly got them!</p>
<p>We have four left of 16 (6 where UC's) and have eliminated a few besides that as our goals have crystallized. Increasing realizations about merit money have been a factor. If my d get's into an "acceptable" safety EA wth merit money in the next few weeks, she may be done, but it's clear that merit money could be uncertain for quite some time.</p>
<p>At one of my kids high schools, they would only send recommendations to 8 universities. In the letter from the counselor, they noted that fact, so the university would know that the kid was serious about attending their school.</p>
<p>I'm also applying to 16.</p>
<p>My first list had about 8 schools. After the input of my parents, about 13. Then my guidance counselor told me I didn't have enough safeties, so my list ballooned to 14. I added a school that sent me one of their "quickie" applications, and my dad randomly came home one day with another.</p>
<p>But yeah, I have somewhat erratic statistics. And 12/16 are common application, so it's not as bad as it sounds. Also, aid is a factor. And I think my teachers and guidance counselor just send the same letter to all of the schools unless you specifically ask them to change a letter for a certain school. (For example I heard a conversation where this on girl wanted the teacher to really emphasize her love for math to one school, but her extracurriculars in other. Something like that.)</p>
<p>Suppose that a student applies to six schools and that on average, they accept only one in three students. If you assume that all six decisions are unrelated, the chances of acceptance at one or more of the six is 91%. I know that these decisions are, in fact, interrelated, but the point is that students who apply to schools at which they're reasonably compeitive do not need a dozen apps to cover the odds.</p>
<p>At my school, around 10 is pretty much standard, although people often have less if they are accepted into a rolling safety. Only one girl that has crazy parents has anything higher than 15. I personally have 12, but that includes 4 "likely" schools. Even at colleges where your stats are higher than the 75 percentile, my school has had many rejections.</p>
<p>I only applied to one, but I applied ED, so if I didn't get in (luckily I did), I would have had plenty of time to apply to other schools.</p>
<p>16 colleges? Umm... Ok. My school counselors would have a cow.</p>
<p>I applied only to the UC system, back in the day when you sent in one ap for the whole thing. They asked me to rank my top three choices of campuses. Anyway, I was astonished at the idea of 10 or more aps when I started coming to CC but I was talking w/ one of my Ds about it and her list still has over 10. Once she started searching she kept finding things that really appealed to her on other campuses. She has a financial and admssions safety then other schools that she thinks sound "cool" 13 total to date</p>
<p>2 CSUs
1UC
3 other private CA schools
7 other LACs OOS</p>
<p>I think she'll narrow it down some before the actual time but she is still pretty in to all of these schools</p>
<p>Her twin sister is more in keeping with the 6 school norm: She's considering only 5 campuses seriously at this point. My point is that it seems to depend on the kid.</p>
<p>I applied to MIT as a reach and Rice as a reach/slight match (early action/decision)</p>
<p>After that I applied to A&M and UT as safeties</p>
<p>Then Kettering sent me an application and it was free and I was bored so I thought "why the hell not" and applied, and I ended up applying to USC because I like the combination of good school/SoCal weather</p>
<p>So all in all... 4 serious schools and 2 not-so-serious ones for me. I got into Rice ED so it doesn't matter anymore :)</p>
<p>i applied to 3 early action, and 10 regular</p>
<p>LFWB applied to only two schools, neither of which had application fees, and each provide free tuition, room and board, and got into both. Talk about the easiest college application experience ever for a parent!</p>
<p>Have 3 kids. Oldest S applied to 10 schools, got into 7. Twins applying now. Twin S has applied to 10 schools, four EA and 6 RD. He was going to apply to 12 but removed 2 safeties from his list once he got accepted at 2 of his EA's [still waiting to hear from the other 2--swear U Miami's EA is so late they need to call it ERD for early regular decision :)] </p>
<p>Twin D is applying to 15 schools. She sees applying to so many schools as an indication that I don't think she's going to get into anywhere. In fact the opposite is true, I think she has the best resume of the 3, so we want to see where it can take her. Also, her top choices are all elites and she may not get into any of them, so trying to make sure she has several nice acceptances to choose from if/when she ends up needing to choose a school that wasn't in her top 5.</p>
<p>The number of applications depends upon one's goals and pocketbook. The kids hoping to get into the most selective schools with 9% acceptance rates are applying to many, many schools to put the odds in their favor. If your child isn't reaching for that, then don't worry about it.</p>
<p>I have 3 kids. The first was accepted to her ED school. But if she hadn't been, she then planned on 3 more, one including our state school that was a sure bet.
The second and third kids are top AP, Honor, National Merit, etc. The second applied to 13 schools. She was deferred by her ED and was happy she applied to many. She ended up at a great school further away from home than initially desired, but is satisfied to have met her goal of a top university. Number three child is now in the process and has applied to 12. Good Luck.</p>
<p>My very dear friend's son is applying to four. One match and three serious reaches. Like SERIOUS reaches. The match is RPI and it is exactly a match. Already rejected early from one of the other three (MIT). Not being an expert, even I could see that the student was below the 50th percentile in stats for two of the reaches and below the 25th at MIT AND has no ECS, awards, leadership or hooks. I love this family dearly and am hoping that he has somewhere to go next year because my impression (which may be wrong) is that a match is not a sure thing and RPI could go either way.</p>
<p>Last year my D applied to only three, because they were the only three that survived the exhaustive evaluation process she went through. One was a "safety" and two private colleges that were reaches financially. None were reaches for admission -- one was automatic by Texas' 10% law -- although that's a coincidence. </p>
<p>My advice for any kid is simple: do not apply where you do not actually want to go. Don't waste their time or yours. If you can't narrow down the list to six or so, you need to do more background work. Applying to fifteen or twenty schools because it's so easy is not a good idea.</p>
<p>DD applied to 6/7 schools. Even some schools have free application online DD would not apply to them because it takes time away from other applications. She does have 2 safeties, one sits nicely on a beach so that is not a bad idea if she ends up there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Suppose that a student applies to six schools and that on average, they accept only one in three students. If you assume that all six decisions are unrelated, the chances of acceptance at one or more of the six is 91%. I know that these decisions are, in fact, interrelated, but the point is that students who apply to schools at which they're reasonably compeitive do not need a dozen apps to cover the odds
[/quote]
and what about if the target schools have acceptance rates in the 15-20% range ... how does the six application strategy look now? Or if a student is looking for merit aid? </p>
<p>Applying to a lot (10-15) schools is typically frowned upon but, to me, seems like a perfectly reasonable and logical strategy for many students.</p>