@srk2017, @LoveTheBard, and @itsgettingreal17 - Wow, wow, wow!! Those are an amazing number of apps. Your kids are essay writing machines and are obviously incredibly efficient. Congratulations on getting them done and best of luck on the results!
QOTD: 1 application submitted in August. Accepted ED in December.
Good luck to everyone waiting on news.
Happy Holidays from Atlantis!!
DD17, DS20 and DH and I canāt live without wifi, so we caved to pay $23/a day for wifi, for 4 devices only. I told D that we canāt afford her education now.
@Aida, i suggest that you apply for aid anyway. Our EFC is also very discouraging, but from what I have learned some schools do look at your aid status before they even consider you for merit. In other words, for need aid kids, they give the kids merit stacked on top of need base aid, which deplete merit money for none aid kids. I would only fill out the school forms if you donāt have to fill out for CSS. After all, why do you spend $16 if you can get it for free? I am really having sticker shock now!! Of course, it seems from above, that D needs to apply for more scholarships!!
DD will have 9 college apps in by the end of the week, plus a very small number of lottery scholarship and local scholarship apps. Of course there were also the obligatory Honors College or āWhy College X?ā type supplementals for many of the schools.
Iām genuinely curious, even 9 apps seems like a bit much and includes schools that DD isnāt likely to go to ā one school with highly unlikely competitive merit, a state flagship financial safety, and one lottery school. Admittedly, DD wasnāt interested in many prestige/lottery options.
For those of you with 10+ schools, was this because of a combination of competitive merit possibilities and lottery schools? It just seems like so many apps! DD started with a list of 20ish schools, and crossed off a bunch even before writing apps.
DD doesnāt sleep now between school work, her sport, and the essays she had to finish for 9 apps. I canāt imagine doubling the number of apps.
My DS list grew because he is applying to BS/MD programs and lottery schools in addition to UCs. Some of the combined programs have separate applications.
15 colleges thru common app
1 app thru separate portal
5 UCs thru UC portal
3 separate medical school apps
Around 6 or 7 scholarship apps
So far have outcome from one school only.
QOTD: How many apps? Six. In at UA (her safety, and ironically, current top choice due to price and the ability to get her masterās in 4 years given how many AP classes she has), in at Northeastern (with a cost of $55k, itās out unless one of the external scholarships she applied to comes through), in at WPI (probably too pricey, still around $46k/year). No bueno at MIT, waiting on Olin (not holding her breath) and UMD (at this point the only real potential contender to UA price-wise).
I asked her yesterday if she wanted to apply to more colleges where she might have a chance at huge merit, and she said no, she doesnāt think any place can compete with UA in terms of quality of life, research, co-ops, and price given her major (which is less sensitive to prestige at the undergrad level than some other majors).
It is hard to wait for Feb-itās like an entire month of crickets, and then suddenly itāll be more yeses or noās all at once. Augh, Iām exhausted for her.
QOTD
CofC (was suppose to hear, but hasnt, not sure why) which only if merit is really good
Elon, currently 2nd choice and is. sending in Scholarship app
IU first acceptance, and probably now not putting in for additional scholarship, as Elon > IU
Now for the big waits.
GA Tech for Ivan Allen Liberal arts , a 1 in 100 shot , that if it really happened would have to consider as the money situation becomes much better. Could then transfer if doesnt like, or get masters.
Emory, not sure why, would have to see what financial package would be, another 1 in 100 shot
American, and once again about $$$
and her dream school GW. Wanted ED, but could not make it work under current pricing, and did not want to risk.
We had a list of safeties with decent merit, (univ of tampa, nova), but in the end decided not to apply as she really did not want to go to those schools once she got into IU. I agreed that even if we get good money, for majoring in international studies/social justice, need more of a flagship. (for some other majors, would push more)
there are a bunch of other scholarships she is applying for, but I am not sure about all of them. in this case she seems to be on top of it all.
9 apps
2 separate Honors College apps
8 supplemental scholarship apps, donāt remember how many essay responses in total, probably about 20
2 video supplements
I agree with @stencils - that is about all my kid could bear. I salute those of you who have done more! And I envy those of you who have done less. 
6 apps
Acceptance at ED school and has a full scholarship (Transferred Post 9/11 GI Bill) that belongs to her wherever she goes (where school accepts) so no scholarship apps.
May attempt a private scholarship application to cover misc fees/supplies, so maybe 7.
Could have won āleastā if we didnāt hedge our bets on the lottery school!
11 apps
1 real lottery scholarship app
Not sure how to categorize rest, but mostly invites based on stats
@stencils D17 had 18 schools on the list, some with decent merit that she decided to take a pass on once sheād heard back from a school she liked that was within budget. She would have been happy at any of the 18 schools. There is no sense in applying to a school that DC would not attend, so I would not assume that is ever the case. Itās not a stretch to go from 8 to 18 schools with the CA. I wish my D had applied to some additional schools on our list, because honestly she didnāt spend a ton of time with applications. She had lots of ECs at the time, too, and that did play a part in the culling of the list, but she seems to have gotten lots of episodes of SVU in, so I think she could have completed that tOSU application!
3 Apps (D only wanted to apply to one school but I forced a safety and an auto-admit option for my sanity).
2 acceptances with small merit so far, waiting until February for the third.
Reluctantly working on an Honors College app for the safety now and hopefully a second one in February.
@BlueAFMom LOL. We all could have won the āleast appsā competition if weād just done things differently! 
QOTD:
13 apps - 7 submitted, 2 ready to submit, 4 left
2 scholarships invited to apply for - 1 submitted but have not even thought about the second
1 external scholarship to make mom happy - after all the time reading CC, I wanted DD to do lots of scholarship apps but had to settle for one
1 Honors college app to do
DD had about 20 schools on her initial list but she could not churn out the essays. She is a perfectionist and feels that she can always improve the essays.
7 apps
4 scholarship apps/auditions (none of which are complete/submitted nor has ANY work been done on them over break). A few more planned small local ones will be added to the list, at least one for sure that I am aware of.
5 acceptances so far, all with merit. In state safety with COA of $21K, remainder all out of state COA $35k-$44k.
Many schools that could have come in with lower $ (though not close to the in state safety) but none of which S17 wanted to attend, I did try to push for a few but at the end of the day it doesnāt matter if they are affordable if he will not attend and he felt the instate was plenty to have in that category (that he has no intention of attending lol). 7 was enough for S to feel that he had options (since he hasnāt visited 5 of the 7) and for me to feel he had chances of larger merit awards as I really donāt like numbers in the 40ās!
That said, if we were in the UC system, I would expect our total number to be higher.
QOTD: 4 apps total (I had hoped for a few more)
One in-state (easy 5 min app) with supplement essay for honors college
3 privates (common app) all with 2-3 supplement essays
In at in-state and 2 privates, deferred at top choice.
1 private - great money, both merit and FA bringing cost to around $13,000 (in line with EFC when divided by 2 - 2nd in college for 17-18).
1 private - no FA offer yet.
Road trip today with DH, DD15 and DS17. Headed to California for a few days. We love road trips and look forward to seeing the ocean in just a few hours.
My D - 6 apps total
1 in-state public, 1 OOS public, 4 private - accepted to all but one private (which was just submitted a couple of weeks because of possible some athletic scholarship money and as a backup incase she wants to just commute for school).
At the accepted colleges, all have some merit money except for the OOS public, which wonāt sent that information out until after January.
Only one Honors College application sent out, that was for the in-state public school, and she probably only did that one because that is the school she is leaning towards and the Honors College students there get housing priority on campus.
3 private scholarship applications sent out (another 5 need to be sent out).
2 scholarships invited to apply for.
How many apps?
Well, after submitting her Colgate app last night (this was the one āLetās see if I can get into this one even though I canāt go there due to no merit aid!ā application we allowed her) weāve got the following:
[ul][]9 college applications submitted
[]2 college applications to be submitted within the next week
[]1 college application to be submitted purely to help with various Kā12 funding streams in ways I donāt entirely understand
[]3 separate honors applications submitted
[]1 separate honors application to be submitted within the next week
[]1 scholarship application to be submitted sometime within the next couple weeks[/ul]
That makes 17. There are also 2 other possible honors applications (one likely, one not as much), but she hasnāt heard yet whether sheās invited to apply to them.
16 appsā¦all done but one
5 scholarship apps ā¦3 done
1 specialized program appā¦done
Was so hoping done with the ED appā¦but was deferred
Way more apps than I thought DS would put outā¦9 reaches, 5 matches, 1 safety (in at OSU with Honors)ā¦chasing merit and reaches
Tired just thinking about itā¦best move was getting Common App essay done last May
QOTD: Iām not winning anything, but hereās where we are!
- 9 college apps submitted (5 on common app with supplements, 1 state school app, 3 UC's on one app)
- 1 more application to go; due this week for ED2 (she didn't ED1 anywhere)
- 1 Honors college application to complete by Feb 1st.
(11 total apps)
Results: 3 acceptances all with excellent merit, 1 deferral
QOTD: college apps
- 4 all OOS public completed
- 1 private OOS to go
- 4 honors college apps to go (3 are almost completed, a little essay editing left)
- 2 scholarship apps completed
- 1 scholarship app to go
Results: 2 acceptances with one on the way (OU). The other two wonāt be until Feb. or March.