We did 14, but 5 of them were stupid reach for the sky-ish while 2 were reaches to anyone. So the UCs and SLO were the only “normal” ones. I was interested in paying for many of the CSUs he had because I would just have him do CC and transfer to save money. But who knows. Here we are without any notification.
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S definitely over applied - 16 schools! A few were super reaches, a few safeties but he applied to some extra “match” schools since he wasn’t sure if they’d be even more competitive this year for his major. Hopefully this weekend he can sort through the acceptances he has so far and decide which schools he still wants to try to see.
DD also overapplied to 19 schools. Obviously 12 of them UC, CSUs (Different Campuses) but 4 of them were Reach. I am glad we did considering this weird year of admissions because one of them was Super safety for her considering her GPA,SAT, ACT scores didn’t accept her:( Atleast, she has other safety choices now.
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I don’t think it’s wasted money. There were quite a few months there that I’m sure having the extra apps in brought you peace of mind. At least, that’s how I’m looking at all of the OOS apps that I really pushed my S to do. Anything to calm the nerves this year was worth every penny!!!
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Oh no, what happened with that? Did it feel like yield protection?
D21 applied to 9 schools, none of them reach schools. All but 2 of them offered EA so she had 7 offers in hand by about Christmas. Of course she is still waiting to hear from her top choice, UW-Seattle which only does RD and announces mid-March.
In retrospect I am perfectly happy that she didn’t apply to any reach schools. That would have created a serious conundrum because none of the reach schools that she looked at do merit aid. And our EFC is in the $75,000/yr range. Had she actually gotten into a reach school like USC, Reed, or Pomona (three she visited) we would have been faced with a $75,000+/yr tuition bill compared to $18,000 - 25,000/yr for our in-state flagships or about $30-38,000.yr for the PNW private schools that do offer merit aid (Lewis & Clark, Gonzaga, University of Puget Sound, Whitman, etc.)
I would have a really hard time reconciling the extra $50,000/yr for a reach school, especially for a student who intends to go onto graduate PhD studies in molecular biology or some related field.
So I’m kind of of the opinion that parents should think hard about some reach schools if they really aren’t in a position to really comfortably pay for them. If your EFC is say…$5,000/year then it is a completely cost-neutral decision and might as well shoot for the stars. But for upper middle class families, those reach schools can come at an enormous cost premium relative to the alternatives. And we still have a 9th grader waiting in the wings so we can’t blow the whole wad (HELOC on the house, etc.) on this child anyway.
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Sounds like you’re making a good decision for your family. And others will make the right decisions for their families. Good luck to your daughter, it sounds like she has great choices.
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She has a lot of good choices that she is happy with. And the fact that she wants to stay in the Pacific Northwest meant that most of the “reach” schools dropped out of consideration as the only reach-type school we really have in the PNW is Reed College.
My comment was more directed to the seemingly universal advice on this site and elsewhere, to fill out your slate of applications with safety, match, and reach schools. In our case, the dividing line between match and reach schools is merit aid. Match schools offer a lot of it. Reach schools offer none. That is hugely consequential if you aren’t expecting much if any need-based aid. That is something that is good to know BEFORE you apply rather than a cold hard fact you learn later.
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warning: rant coming
After this trying year, my S has just learned that he has AP Calc and AP Physics on the same day. Really? Tests are mandatory at his school. The poor Chinese students have to take it in the middle of the night to boot.
Ok rant over. Only good news is his school opted for the first session so it will be over and done with before finals and graduation. If he chooses a private school a lot of pressure will be off to worry about the AP results too much.
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Ranting is good for the soul.
(So are Girl Scout cookies, or so I’m told.
)
I think we all need to start a countdown for remaining school days.
107 here.
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85 more days for us. Seems like a long time, but I know it will go fast.
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- I will be very pleased for S to be done. Tennis and hiking club started and after a 14 day break they are back in person. No prom probably but they are trying to do a retreat.
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I totally agree with you. My DS applied to 10 schools. She did all EA except 1 – her top choice was RD. She had 4 acceptances by Thanksgiving and the other 5 by mid-January. She’s had lots of time to research schools, talk to current students and compare offers.
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Hey, you’re in double digits at least!!!
Light is coming!!!
Yes, it is important for parents/students to know their financial picture and what is possible before applying. Some families need merit to attend a particular school, and some do not. Some choose to get all of the financial information from schools where they are admitted and then decide what works for them. Reach schools sometimes offer need-based aid, so of course the possibilities will be unique to each family.
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72 days total. 38 days of class. 10 days of exams. Not that we are counting. 
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@NateandAllisMom I think S21 had something like this last year but he asked for it with 5 AP classes but with Physics and Calc, that’s nuts. You think they would be mindful of this, but this is College Board we are talking to where the needs to the main consumer is not a priority.
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That was pretty much our philosophy when we created lists for our kids. With four college educations to pay for, having 2 kids in college at the same time for six out of ten consecutive years of college payments and being full pay, we most definitely have to look for places that are generous with merit. Ironically, S21 has the weakest app/stats of my three kids who have been thru the app process and he has gotten the most merit, even from a couple of the same schools my oldest applied to four years ago. In our experience this year, the schools that he applied to seem to be throwing extra money around this year hoping to get kids to choose them (he applied mostly to Jesuit/Catholic schools).
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The first session Calc and Physics are on two different days, the second they are on the same day.
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This looks very similar to what we did with my older D. If I could do it over again with D21, it would have been more matches and fewer reaches. I think that a reach-based strategy feeds over applying, particularly in this COVID year, and for what? The likely outcome will be rejection or semi-rejection (deferrals, WL). I am hoping that the matches really are matches. Can’t wait until this month is over and we have a better idea where all our kiddos are headed.
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