<p>2014novamom, thanks for sharing the podcast as I find the information very useful. Is this a private or publish high school? The information he is sharing is much more detailed and upto date compare to our public high school.</p>
<p>Although DSā14 has planned to major in CS/Game Programming, he too is unmotivated in the college search process. He has not taken the ACT or SAT yet, and says he is still not ready to start college visits. This is in stark contrast from DSā12 who started visiting as a H.S. Freshman, but then again they are two very different people!!! Fortunately, DSā14 is enrolled in a College Prep class in school which required the students to do a project to research schoolās that would fit their criteria for a good fit college. Although he complains about the class, I am glad he is taking it so that I am not constantly discussing college with him. I feel this class has allowed me to back off a bit and it is also helping him find his way (maybe not as quickly as I would like, but all in due time).</p>
<p>Good Luck to all of you that have taken the ACT today. What a long 4 hours ;)</p>
<p>@go2mom
I know nothing about Richmond but here is the forum for the school on this site: <a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-richmond/[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-richmond/</a></p>
<p>Wow! Iām having trouble keeping up today. Weāve been out all morning picking up bags for scouting for food. Our kids picked up almost 1,500 pounds of food to be donated to a food pantry! :)</p>
<p>Welcome, Labbydog! Like the others, my DS isnāt showing much interest. Iām doing research in the background. Weāve visited three schools so far, with two more planned over spring break (thrown in amongst a little beach time!) Heās willing to go on tours ā¦ to a point. Not interested in doing anything over Presidentās Day weekend, but spring break is ok. He does have a major preference, so that helps in my research!</p>
<p>NewHavenCTMom - Waist high snow?!?! I canāt even imagine! How long will it take for you to dig out? Our town would be shut down for days or weeks! Of course, weāre in an area where the whole town shuts down for 1 inch!! 
Here is the link for the panel discussion: <a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1458122-very-good-video-should-seen-parents.html[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1458122-very-good-video-should-seen-parents.html</a></p>
<p>Iāve heard good things about Digipen - if it wouldnāt have been so far away, I had considered sending DS there for their summer youth programs. </p>
<p>My goal for DS is to have a couple of safeties in the bag early on - both of the ones Iām thinking of have rolling admissions, so those apps will need to be completed early. Then do EA for any school that offers it for the reach/matches. Iām hesitant about ED schools due to the financial piece of the puzzle! We will require merit/financial aid and I just donāt like the unknown!</p>
<p>My son did ed last year. He had already put in all his apps, then they asked since he put it in so early would he be interested in switching - we did some research and though I donāt remember the exact percentage something like 37% got in ed vs 24% rd - he liked the school enough and we had understood the financial implication that he switched. He was already admitted to one school at the time.</p>
<p>He withdrew his applications everywhere else by emailing the admissions department. We didnāt give it another thought til he got accepted Va Tech in the spring. </p>
<p>If you think about it - you donāt want to take the acceptance spot of someone else. We let the other school know right away that he accepted another school ED. </p>
<p>D came home from the ACT and thought the science section was harder than anything sheād ever practiced - hearing her talk Iām wondering if she could have actually gotten a 0.</p>
<p>I noticed eyemamom mentioned her D was applying to 3 safety schools. That got me thinkingā¦how many schools is a realistic number to apply to? If there are 3 safety schools, how many āthink sosā and āreachā schools should be included? This is my first child to apply to college, so I am entirely new to the process.</p>
<p>You are going to see answers all over the board (have you seen the thread asking if 30 was too many?!?). From what Iāve seen, around 8-10 seems to be a fair number: 2-3 of each safety/match/reach. I donāt want to do anymore than that, how on earth would you ever decide if they were admitted to all of them! As mentioned above, the financial aid package will be a biggie for us. Some of the reaches have better financial aid (meets full need) than the schools DS will be admitted to without a problem. The safeties Iām looking at are ones that I know DS will get automatic merit aid based on test scores.</p>
<p>Hope all went well for those who took the ACT today! Weāre finally plowed out and DH borrowed a larger snowblower and got the front walk done so we could now use the front door if we needed to. Before that we took puppy for a walk and ran into a HUGE front loader coming down the street to plow the road. He managed to plow the road but had a hard time getting traction as thereās at least an inch of ice under the snow! The travel ban is lifted at 4:00 but since they couldnāt use the plows and were resorting to heavy equipment, nothing has been sanded and itās pretty slippery on the side roads! Very happy I donāt have anywhere to go tonight but Iām concerned about the friends who are heading out to another friendās bar mitzvah! And really hope it goes well for the twin boys tonight!</p>
<p>@beady. I canāt say that we have had this much snow at one time in a very long time. So I am not sure what they will be doing to clear it/where in the heck will they put it all? Our Direct TV is still on the fritz. We have power/food/internet/heat so I guess I can go to the local news website/town website to see whats the what. Good timesā¦ good times :)</p>
<p>@labby the thinking is, 3 reaches, 3 matches and 3 safetiesā¦ thats what folks here on CC have said time and time again. I have seen where kids go well above that # whilst others go far belowā¦ I guess it depends on the student and what they can muster up in the whole process. My guess is that 9 is alot to handleā¦but some kids have the stomach for it. And remember, we parents are apart of it tooā¦ 
good timesā¦ good times my friend!</p>
<p>Admissions strategies can also depend on other things such as the need for big scholarships, auditions or specialty admissions. Itās hard when you canāt predict FA. I think DD13 applied to too many safeties but we needed her to get merit and we didnāt know how it would work out.</p>
<p>D just came home from ACT. Thought it was āway, way harderā than the SAT she took two weeks ago. We assured her that however she did was fine and to ālet it goā. Now that sheās done with the two tests and finals in the past three weeks, she can relax a bit and take a break from the whole college search craziness.</p>
<p>We have already visited 8 schools (some where relatives liveāUC Davis, UC Irvine, Chapman, Wisconsin, Oregon State, U of Oregon, and Wash. State). She really likes OSU and WSU and knows that no matter what happens with her scores on the ACT and SAT, she has two schools, OSU and WSU, that sheād be comfortable at and is virtually assured in with a 3.6.</p>
<p>4beardolls, itās a public high school. Our counselors are pretty plugged in, and there are several other videos in their YouTube channel. Much of the content will obviously be specific to DSās school, but there might be some of general interest.</p>
<p>Also, you might have heard him mention mytonomy, which is a side venture of this particular counselorās and has tons of videos from current college students (and some parents too) talking about the college admission process, including financial aid, first generation issues, athletic recruiting, and even rejection. The website is mytonomy.com and itās very interesting.</p>
<p>I donāt believe in formulas for reaches, matches and safeties. One safety is minimum if it is truly safe: 100% chance of getting in, 100% chance you can afford it, kid wants to go there. </p>
<p>The minimum reaches is 0. I know many here would disagree, but the kid is only going to one college (probably 
). If theyāre happy with āsafetiesā or āmatchesā why go to the trouble of applying to āreachesā? Iāve seen a lot of kids spend the winter of senior year in limbo waiting for those high-status schools to announce their decisions in the end of March. They know their chances are very low, and maybe donāt even really want those schools, but they āwant to knowā before committing to another college. Then they feel like theyāve settled after rejections in Marchā¦ did they NEED to apply to at least one (or 3) reaches? No.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if your kid really wants a high status college and needs to compare financial aid offers, it may make sense to apply to many MORE reaches, to increase the odds of a lottery win.</p>
<p>2014novamomāTHANK YOU for that link. That was very useful, very informative. Wish we had anything like that at our HS. </p>
<p>I know that nova is N. Va but I keep thinking Villanova when I see your screen name.</p>
<p>I have no idea how many schools my son will apply to but I sense that my indecision will play a role and it will be too many, unless he protests at completing the apps. I think I applied to eight or nine but canāt remember the half of them now nearly thirty years later.</p>
<p>Keep in mind we have 9 now - before having seen some of them. I only want her to apply to schools that if it was the only one she was accepted, she would be okay going.</p>
<p>We did the rookie error and she fell in love with her reach first. I didnāt quite get how competitive Clemson is now and they are stats driven period. </p>
<p>Weāre steering her towards other schools that will have the same vibe of school spirit, engaged students, lots of opportunities for activities, sororities, study abroad, etc. </p>
<p>Her first application can be sent in August and we could know by mid-October. If you go on college board you can see the statistics of what percent gets in early vs regular. However, for me I donāt see why you wouldnāt get all your apps in early. In fact her school requires kids have all apps in by October.</p>
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<p>Yup, DS11 applied to a lot of safeties (that he really liked) as well, for the same reason, and I suspect that DS14 may apply to even more. Heāll likely have higher test scores but lower grades/class rank than his older brother, so Iām even less sure how merit opportunities are likely to pan out for him. I donāt think either of them had/will have any TRUE financial safeties (100% guarantee that we can afford them) ā for DS11 we had some āalmost sureā financial safeties but they hinged on him moving from NMSF to NMF. DS14 has iffier grades and NMSC seems to have gotten pickier about grades, so weāll be less sure of that transition for him (even though weāre more sure that his PSAT score is high enough). So we will again go with lots of very probable financial safeties 
Our in-state public is so expensive even it is not a financial safety without decent merit, which is not āguaranteedā. There are a lot of schools on our preliminary list for DS14 that offer competitive merit that he āprobablyā qualifies for, but that we canāt count on, plus a few where it would be a crap-shoot to get the merit that would make it doable. So again weāll be casting a wide net.</p>
<p>
Wow! I kind of wish our school did that, although DS11 added the school he now attends to his list in late December with a Dec 31st deadline, and that all worked out in the endā¦ But he has applied to 5 or 6 of his 8 schools by Nov. 1. If you have common app schools that donāt have a substantial supplement, once the CA is done, youāre good to submit to several schools :)</p>
<p>How many schools you apply to could also be somewhat dependent on if your student applies EA to any school(s). DSā12 originally applied to 6 schools, three being SCEA schools (of which he applied to one as SCEA and the others RD). He was accepted SCEA so did not pursue any other apps. If he was denied/deferred he was going to apply to 7 or 8 others for a total of 13-14. In the end, he only applied to 6 and did not go to the school that he had an early acceptance to, but to another school that he also was considering applying SCEA. I think everyone has a different approach to apps. Everyone must do what they feel is best for them.</p>
<p>Picked up scowling DD from the ACT who actually surprised me with a semi-smile. Funny how each kid reacts to tests differently! She preferred the ACT over the SATāfelt the sections were much more manageable and said after the SAT, she was āexhausted.ā Definitely had a little spring in her step. She said that the math was definitely harder than the SAT and that there were concepts from both Algebra 2 and Pre-Calc that she had not looked at it awhile but could make some reasonable educated guesses. DD is a science/math kid (taking AP Chem and Calculus this year) so she felt comfortable with both sections, but said if anything, the science section was the biggest time suck. The essay topic was not too esoteric and all in all, glad to see that she got through it fairly unscathed. </p>
<p>Really helpful comments on how many schools to apply toā¦our CC said she wants DD to keep the list to ten. itās hard to say whether or not 3 reaches is enough if your kid has the stats but youāre waiting to see if the money comes through.</p>
<p>Kees4me ā D took the ACT in June when sheād learned all the stuff they test you on. She said friends of hers who took it earlier really struggled. Hereās hoping your D feels better about it next time she takes it.</p>
<p>seattle_mom ā I agree about the reaches ā unnecessary heartache. But I only know that now. I just had my meeting with Sā14 and GC ā he asked for Sās list of schools ā we listed them, and he said āthose are all schools I would have recommended for S plus I have a few more.ā</p>
<p>So different from 3 years ago with D, when after sheād listed her schools, there was a deathly silence, and GC said āyou know those are all reaches.ā</p>
<p>On a lighter note, S said he might bring some friends over later on. And some girls. Me and H are freaking out (our house is not normally girl-clean). We have spent the last 3 hours cleaning, spraying, dusting and de-cluttering so it looks nice. If they donāt come by, Iāll be very upset.</p>