<p>So what does it stand for?</p>
<p>Not sure how many my daughter will apply to. The good thing is weāre from Cal so if you apply to all the UCs you basically have a reach, match and safety. And a single app is good to all of them. I know for sure that sheāll apply to Stanford. That will be one of her HMFRs.</p>
<p>H oly M other F$&&)(; Reach</p>
<p>The apps process is not nearly as hard If the kids work smartā¦</p>
<p>Its a matter of looking at how essays cross over from CA --and If schools dont use CA, how those essays cross over with supplements.</p>
<p>imho So what if they write half a doz essaysāit is colleges apps, it is about choosing a path for 4 yrs and beyondā¦</p>
<p>In our house, if our k2 gives us issue with itāthen frankly spending $$,$$$ a yr is too much </p>
<p>just our houseā¦ymmv</p>
<p>Many schools release their supplement essay topics in June/July. The CApp essay topics have already been released. This gives kids that want to start drafting essays in the summer a chance to do that. Every students and every families needs/number of apps vary depending on major, financial needs, if theyāre a recruited athlete or MT (add auditions), stats, etc, etc. One student could have 2-3 schools in mind apply EA/ED and be one and done. Others may need a wider net at 10-12. My S2 fell closer to the first (3, but would have been happy with 2), whereas S3 will need a longer list (maybe 8) as he has more rigor, slightly lower GPA, similar scores. His decisions are going to be unpredictable.</p>
<p>My DS will also have unpredictable results, so he may have as many as 12-14 apps out there. We already know that 2-3 will be to schools that do not require essays if you apply early, so those are easy. Right now he has decided to apply ED to one school, which does not require a supplemental essay. So thatās four right there. </p>
<p>Heāll work on common app essays once school is out, since we already know the topics. </p>
<p>He has decent stats and a very rigorous curriculum but things are so unpredictable with college admissions that we canāt afford not to cast a wide net. Add in the wrinkle of trying to get recruited for a sport and it gets even more complicated. </p>
<p>Heās seen just how unpredictable it is with his senior friends so he gets why he needs to apply to so many schools. Heās seen kids get rejected from our state flagship, but get into Ivies, one who got into MIT but got rejected from another stateās flagship, and others who got rejected from schools that seemed like matches or even safeties. Luckily all his friends are in somewhere but there were some nail biting moments! And with that heās also learned the value of having a safety acceptance in hand early in the process! </p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I510 using CC</p>
<p>We are nowhere near having a list ready in this house. Will be visiting nine schools next week so hopefully that will provide some direction. My son will do as others have described here: apply to one or more EAs, probably one ED, and if the ED is unsuccessful, maybe ten more more RDs. His SAT scores are much higher than his GPA, so potentially more unpredictable than a more evenly-matched applicant. Having said that, it is all a casino for almost any applicant.</p>
<p>2018dad, I like your approach. For some reasons, Stanford and the ivies are not on Dās list. She is staying away from the HMFRs, lol, the thing I learn from cc.</p>
<p>Fogfog - our S1 ended up with a portfolio of essays - he applied for every lions, rotary, elks, etc etc scholarship he could find. He often modified essays on the fly, and had a fair amount of success chasing the small $$, one time spiffs. It can add up.</p>
<p>Forgive me for posting on your thread as i am a parent of a 2017 s. I was in your exact shoes last year, high sat/lower gpa. W
S applied to 18 schools ( with my help managing this crazy task). His results were unexplainable. He was rejected to some āsafety schoolsā and offered 20k per year merit money to similar schools. He was accepted to some reach schools In the end this was a ridiculous process that made us crazy, but i do not think there is a better solution. He will be attending the school he wanted in the first place, uvm.</p>
<p>My S1 applied to 8: two super-reach, one regular reach, 5 academic safeties (2 of which were also financial safeties due to NMF scholarships). He applied to so many academic safeties because there arenāt many āmatchesā when you have high stats ā all the schools that are a match for the stats have crazy-low admit rates. And he liked all the safeties, so we were in the ācomparing offersā mode for some of those.</p>
<p>Not sure how many S2 will apply to ā maybe more. His stats are uneven (higher ACT than GPA/class rank), and his ECs weaker, and it looks like several of the schools he likes are going to be matches or safeties to get in but reachy to get enough merit to afford. He does have a safety (academic and financial) he loves so weāre lucky there! </p>
<p>If youāre applying for financial aid, FAFSA is a big PITA if you have more than 10, because FAFSA can only handle 10 schools. So you have to submit to 10, wait a couple of days for it to be processed, then delete some schools and submit to the rest. Then, if you have to make changes, you have to go back and do that again. Soā¦ thatās why I encouraged S1 to limit himself to 10. One or two of S2ās will be in Canada so not on the FAFSA, so I guess he can do 11 or 12 before it becomes an issue. The application fees do add up though!</p>
<p>We are back. Only 16 pages behind with a lot of trip reviews, acceptance stories and new terms (HMFR :D). Somehow after reading and skimming all of the visits, I am happy we opted for vacation instead of a school visit road trip. We will be doing two or three of them this summer.</p>
<p>D has the ACT this Saturday. She has taken two real practice ACTās over the past year at the local county educational services office and went from mid to upper 20ās. Hopefully she can be a one and done with the real thing. SAT has to be retaken, however.</p>
<p>Welcome to all of the new posters. :)</p>
<p>Maybe itās regional? HMFR here stands for āHuge Mother ______ Reach,ā not āHoly.ā Which word did 2013 use? Iāll admit I havenāt been on that thread, so Iāve only seen letters. But then again, I suppose it really doesnāt matter which word one chooses for the Hā¦</p>
<p>Re: HMFRā¦I think the 2013 thread (that or one of the many iterations of the 3.0-3.3 thread) was where I first stumbled across the term! There it was āHuge MF Reachāā¦:)</p>
<p>Hi to fellow 2014 parents. My oldest is 2014 so this is our first time and Iām already up some nights unable to sleep going thru all the options, planning for road trips, keeping dates in my mind ectā¦ My daughter is a true 3.0-3.3 child since she only got on the ball this year. She did good on the ACT for our area and will only take it again to try to get a better chance at merit aide, no worries since her ACT is at the top end for most of the schools we are looking at. I wish everyone luck and thank everyone in advance for the support this year.</p>
<p>AvonDadājust curiousā¦why will you have your D take both exams? If her ACT score ends up higher than her SAT, is there a reason to suffer through the SAT again? The tutor I hired suggested that I have my son complete two full-length practice SAT & ACT exams and then based on the results, decide which test to prep for. Based on only my sonās experience, (so that that for how little it is worth!), practice really helped. It just seems that the practice time could be more effectively dedicated to one test or the other, as opposed to diffused across two different formats.</p>
<p>Good morning, coffeeās on! Thereās fruit and guilt free muffins. No omelet station today as bluedad has one of those day jobs ;)</p>
<p>Iād like to quickly address something and then move on. Yesterday I brought attention to something here, and itās meaning, that I honestly wish Iād left well enough alone. It was a quick reaction and post out of curiosity to something I didnāt know, more conversational. I should have been more aware and respectful of both myself, the other cc members who post here, as well as the many who ālurkā and read along without posting. I brought attention to, and conversation about, something that could very well be offensive to some even in a shorted term. To be perfectly honest, it makes me uncomfortable. For anyone that has been offended, or made uncomfortable by this, I sincerely apologize. I will honestly think before I post something again that might make others uncomfortable. I think of you as my peers going through this with me and post in a manner I would speak to friends in my home. Thatās good, but I need to remember a wider audience and remember I donāt know all of you well enough to spit something out without considering that. I hope you appreciate it was unintentional, but in retrospect now understood. </p>
<p>Peace,
Blueiggy</p>
<p>Awww BI you are truly a sweetheart and treasure.</p>
<p>I donāt generally use language like that and had to search for the referenceā¦Iād like Big Hairy Monster Reach or something like thatā¦however I for one am not offended.
<3</p>
<p>On the apps #ā¦ every kid on the couch will be different and as one parent said, sometimes even what seems a āmatchā/safety becomes a rejection for no apparent reason. For example, one neighborās son got into Vandy and Duke and not the state flagshipā¦</p>
<p>With k2 who has a bumpy transcript and yet appears to be able to perhaps (fingers crossed) pull off better scores, interviews well, has 2 long term strong ECs - - it will mean perhaps a few more apps in case admissions isnāt charitable to āmaturingā and upward trend. </p>
<p>CT1417 Our hsās GCs also recommend that the kids take Both the ACT and SAT for realā¦as some formats are better than others. Our K1ās SAT was fine -however the ACT format was much better. So after one SAT and one ACT, K1 took the ACT one more time and nailed it.</p>
<p>K2 took the SAT and will retake in June. Will also try the ACT for the first time in June. From there will will make decisions about Sept.</p>
<p>Thanks for the muffins :)</p>
<p>Hey - did anyone notice that CC removed the āratingā fellow posters? I didnāt quite get that and noticed it showed up and is goneā¦guess CC and posters didnāt find it useful.</p>
<p>BI, I thought it was funny. I have a very blue collar upbringing and I work with college students. I have heard language . . . Anyway, the use of an acronym is a very nice way to reference what may be considered off color by some. Itās just like the %^&* you see in cartoons! Sweat it not.</p>
<p>In the end, I have no idea how many colleges dā14 will apply to. She has no real interest in reach schools. At all. (I have a theory about why, but then it might be my turn to be offensive.) Admission will be no problem. Iām wondering if, maybe, we just need a financial safety and then the school she really wants to go to. Itās definitely an admission safety, but not a financial one. So, two? Iād like to see her apply to more and try for tution exchange. Thereād be breathing room. We could fund some study abroad and probably a car if that happens. </p>
<p>Dās scores were at the same percentile ranking for the PSAT and the ACT. I donāt know that one test is better for her than the other. Taking another shot at the ACT in June (track meet Saturday, so the April date is out). When those scores come in, weāll see what test she wants in September or if she just wants to be done.</p>
<p>As the poster who introduced the acronym to the conversation (I thinkā¦hadnāt seen it here before) and as one who has been known to indulge in salty language ā albeit only around people I know for certain wonāt mind ā I plead to posting a bit thoughtlessly. I certainly get blueiguanaās discomfort and shall be mindful of that in the future.
I lurked for a long time here before jumping in and I love the idea of this forum as a virtual kitchen table and would never want to make any poster or lurker feel put off or hesitant to join in. I also like the idea of coming up with a non-salty alternative. I therefore humbly propose āreachtastic.ā</p>
<p>Back to your regularly scheduled programmingā¦</p>