<p>Anybody notice this. This year's applicants seem to disregard the application fees now. I remember the previous year when the students applying to 5-6 schools were normal. Our year's trend seems to be to take a risk and apply to over 10! I wont be a hypocrite and attack the people applying to that many (considering I applied to 9), but dont you guys think this is starting to get out of hand? What happened to the days when each college applied were personally loved for their specialty, not for their prestige? </p>
<p>I think this is the cause of all the rejections you see, and the reasons behind the rejections of so many exceptional students. All the abundance of applicants is beginnign to cause problems. How do you think the unioversities will overcome this problem?</p>
<p>There's an increasing perception--and probably rightly so--that admission to top colleges is becoming more or less a crapshoot. If you assume this is the case, and it's extremely important to you that you get into SOME top school (and you don't particularly care which one), then it's perfectly logical to apply to as many top schools as possible. Flip more coins, and you increase your chances of flipping heads on at least one.</p>
<p>That said, there are problems with students applying to as many schools as possible, not the least of which is the student's sanity. I would have gone crazy if I had had to fill out 10+ applications, and so I didn't; I filled out 3. A big reason for this is that I knew I would be happy even if I didn't get into my top choice.</p>
<p>I also think that many students these days are looking for bragging rights about all the schools they were accepted into and all of the fin-aid they were awarded.</p>
<p>Give people some credit. Let them apply to as many schools as they want. I am sure most people have rational reasons for the number of apps they write. Ask them. Their answers might be instructive.</p>
<p>Is increasing selectivity really the reason for a boom in applications, though? The colleges wouldn't be so selective if the number of applications dropped. I wonder which came first? Too many applicants prefer the "shotgun" method of applications- that is, shoot applications all over the place and hope to score hits. </p>
<p>I would personally love to see the American education system adopt the British policy- you can apply to Oxford or Cambridge, but not both (also, they're limited to 6 schools). If applicants are forced to choose between Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, I believe admit rates and yield would increase- a good bargain for everyone.</p>
<p>Personally, my mom was whining about money after the 6th schools. Initially, she wanted me to apply to 3 (all Ivy, mind you). In the end, I had to take off some of the more competitive schools I would have loved to take a shot at because we couldn't afford it. Just to rant anyway, I can't visit colleges now because there's no money.. and yet I have full scholarships from 2 of my reaches.</p>
<p>How is this a problem for universities? It's actually BETTER for them. They can be more picky and selective and the make more moeny on college apps. So I don't think they're gonna wanna fix anything. </p>
<p>Also, I think the British system is retarded. You should be able to apply to any and as many schools as you want. Free country, damn it!</p>
<p>It is better for universities, but it's not good for the students. </p>
<p>...and I won't agree with you about the true freedom of this country. There are a lot of restrictions. Anyways, I would certainly sacrifice my ability to apply to 9, 10, 11, or 12 schools if everybody will have to apply to 6. That way, colleges wont be so much of a crapshoot, and more students will get the reward that they deserve. The British system will elimintate, to a certain degree, the problem of having all the elite students applying to the 12 of the top 20 schools, and blocking out those people who are actually very desperate for one of them. Remember, an individual can get acceptance to 20 schools, but in the end, he/she can only attend one. His attendance of one and rejecting the other 19 means he just took 19 spots away from other hopeful students. You can argue waitlist, but that's still a problem, since waitlist decisions come out in june. By that time, most would already have made a decision to which college to attend.</p>
<p>I do agree with kirei na neko ku. You should be allowed to apply to however many you want... And have a choice between harvard, princeton, and yale if u've been accepted... bastards.. ;_;</p>
<p>The cause of everybody applying to numerous schools causes admission rates to fall, 'most competitive years' occuring, and most importnatly, a general panic amongst students upon hearing the difficulty of admissions. These students now apply to many schools because with so many people applying to many schools admissions is becomming exponentially unpredictable. So its like a paradox.</p>
<p>Had I cut down my college list, I would be in trouble because the schools in danger of being cut are the ones i have to choose among.</p>
<p>But someone who got admitted to 20 colleges obviously deserves to choose them. Anf if someone is so "desperate" about going to a top college, they can always wait it out. Sure, it's a waste of money, but if you're desperate.</p>
<p>But that person with 20 acceptances may not have been better than the many other who were rejected in his place. There's too much dependency on luck this year. Im just saying somethign has to be done in order to institute fairness, although it's most likely never goign to happen.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree that the process is increasingly a crapshoot, but why is that? It's in great part BECAUSE the no of apps has so dramatically increased. Many kids feel demoralized about their chances at the starting gate and feel they need to apply to lots of schools just to compete or up their odds. I also believe that there isn't enough good advice out there; college advisors in public schools have way too many kids to help adequately, and kids need to research the schools better, even tho I know how little extra time you all have. I noticed many kids who listed their apps on CC applied to an unbalanced number of reach schools and not enough match schools. Then they applied to very easy safeties which they didn't even like. The result is that the colleges are swamped and less able to carefully evaluate the apps for good fit. Too many kids (at least I see a disproportionate no. of them on CC) seem to focus on whether school A is "better" than school B, as if there is a completely arbitrary standard. Even more telling (and more frightening to me as a parent) is that so many posters to this site are focussed only on name recognition, grad school and how much money they will make 20 years from now. Yikes. If you look at what school is a better fit or where you might be happy the picture changes, and you will end up applying to schools that recognize your potential and for which you are a good match, upping the chances for acceptance. Ultimately this is the way to get grades and scores to count LESS. </p>
<p>The colleges can't really fix this--it needs to be addressed at the high school level. A first step is for high schools to limit the number of recs they are willing to send out. I know big universities don't want recs anyway, but this will cut down on the total number of apps to all schools. Other than this I don't know. As a parent I can't help feeling some guilt over my own contribution to the stress level. The college admissions process has virtually destroyed the high school experience for many kids. Maybe we should figure out how to stop the college experience from being the same. If you read the recent NYT article about CC and other sites like it, or if you have seen some of the suicidal threads, you can't help but wonder what we need to do differently.</p>
<p>The British system makes more sense. =) Plus, argue with a 15 pound application fee for 6 courses/universities? You must be kidding. ;) (It's slightly more expensive if you wanna apply for Oxbridge, though)</p>
<p>My school recommends 6 US universities, and limits (I think) at 8 total, with a maximum of 3 Ivies... That being said, plenty of people in my school apply outside of the US too.</p>