My D applied to… 24 schools! Can anyone top that???
btw, she is absolutely clueless about where she wants to go and what she wants to study, so she just kept filling out apps and I kept paying.
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This year it seems to make sense to apply to more schools. In our case, we are hoping it means more options later (esp options to visit).
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She cast her net wide to acquire more options. Good for her!!
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Well if you look at the admitted percentage in state from UNC and UGA they are both roughly 45 percent. Almost half of in state students are admitted to UNC. 50 50 chance - not terrible odds. The tough admit to UNC is out of state!!
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I thought S21 was trying to hit that number! He seems to have stopped at 16, though he has to decide about one more. He knows generally what he wants to study, but has no real idea beyond that. If we’d started earlier, or were able to tour schools like in the pre-COVID days, I think he would have applied to about 8-10. We were able to walk around four of the schools he applied to, but no official tours and no students on campus. Hopefully at the end of all of this, all of our kids will have a number of good schools (with merit!) to choose from.
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Last 2 apps in just under the wire! I’m so over it. That makes 13. My older kids applied to 3 and 6, so this year feels extra crazy (as if it needed extra crazy). 
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I was quiet about how many my D applied since I fear that she would be criticized! She applied to 35 schools. No clue at all so far. She has got into UAB, UA, Ole Miss, UT Austin and Penn State. Still not sure though. She likes East or West Coast, so waiting till March.
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We didn’t visit any college at all.That’s why she applied to 35 schools. Stimulus helped us!
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Wow- I stepped away for a day and nearly had triple digits in posts to catch up on!! None of my kids applied to more then 10 schools. I kind of wish they would have done a few more. All
Honed I pretty quickly on what they wanted and had 1-3 schools that appealed most.
I think I posted before but in this time do COVID my D21 found the most helpful ‘tool’ to determine if a school was a ‘fit’ was to connect with current students at that school- preferably from our same HS.
For online resources she felt the student panels and focused panels/presentations for her intended major were most informatory. Caught on quickly what were the important questions to ask to hone in on what she needed to know.
She ruled out 2 schools doing the online tour, info and meeting up with current students to get the real details of life at that school.
We did add a column in our search spreadsheet for COVID and ruled out another school she originally loved due to how they were handling the pandemic.
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This made me laugh, AlwaysMoving. My son applied to 12, but I can absolutely see how you can just keep applying!
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The spring break tour with my S19 3 years ago was so much fun. It felt like the first time he and I had had an adult adventure together - bad taxi drivers, hole-in-the-wall cafes, and all. I am determined to create a trip with S21, even if we can’t do as much on campus. (The admissions lectures that repeated “we have a holistic approach” over and over weren’t the high point of the last trip anyway.)
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I admire your D’s enthusiasm!!
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This is amazing! I hope she gets a school on the coast like she wants. Does she have a favorite?
And did she keep track of it all, or did you? Since S21 was a reluctant applicant (except for his top 2 schools, he was all over those), I had to be heavily involved in the organizing. Just his 7 applications drove me slightly nuts and required much wine, but after S19’s experience (he did not get into his favorite reaches), I wanted to make sure S21 had solid choices.
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S20 applied to even more. I’m glad you spoke up about applying to a lot to increase your child’s options. Applying to a lot of schools is not a popular path in these forums, but it is a necessary path for some. I hope your D receives the results that work for her!
We had a spreadsheet to track dates, decisions, finaid, etc.
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I am glad you jumped in with 35…I thought we were going to win at 18 
DS has a decent idea what he wants to major in and thinks he will be happy at many colleges. Given the uncertainty with admissions we decided to cast a wide net…
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I was not happy about her applying to 35 schools, but she was very adamant about it as she wants to move to East/West Coast and is trying to go to good schools. She convinced me that later on she can compare the financial aid packages and that she may end up saving more than what she spent. I went along with that idea after that. But she repurposed her essays later on after sending applications to around 15 schools.
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The spreadsheet is a good idea. I was starting to do it in the beginning. It was very hard for me as I was also writing about acceptance rate, school size and other things in the beginning. Searching that up took so much time and gave up the spreadsheet work after about 9 schools. Now she has a google doc where she writes about application date, scholarship info and financial aid info.
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D only applied to 13 schools but only had one essay she could repurpose and even that one had to be cut from 500 words to 250 so it took some work. I think she wrote 23 essays. Started in the summer and had all but two done by Thanksgiving. I’m surprised your D could repurpose so many essays!
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My D21’s favorite school, Yale, deferred her. She says that more than the school she wants to go to the region she likes. I hope she gets somewhere she is happy about.
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She said that if you keep an essay about major, another about community service and another on volunteering, it helps a lot for repurposing.
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