<p>Am I the only one thinking that the 10,000 kids applying for 2000 slots at Princeton are (essentially) the same 10,000 kids applying at Notre Dame and Stanford and Duke? It seems to me that either there are hundreds of thousands of "A" rated applicants out there, or else they are all applying to the same schools! Even if you look at the colleges the students here apply to, they are all the same 20 schools. How much will a college consider "the other schools" to which a kid applies? How important is the high school?</p>
<p>This could very well be true. Someone posted an article somewhere else on CC. The article discusses how it may seem as if colleges are receiving more applications because their demand has increased, however, the true reason could be that students are simply applying to more schools because of the ease of the Common App and other online applications. </p>
<p>I know when I applied to college, I applied to 12 schools, a couple ivies, a few top lacs, and some top publics. I got into all of them, but one. In retrospect, all those applications were definitely overkill, but while I was applying I just wanted to keep my options open. So I can completely understand a Stanford or Duke applicant thinking that if Stanford or Duke doesn't work out, they can fall back on Notre Dame.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that top colleges consider other schools a student applies to that much. It's such a crap shoot getting into these top schools that it's no wonder a top student would apply to several top schools. However, I think lower ranked schools may consider the schools one applies to more heavily. Last year, I heard many a friend complain about being rejected from Tufts because they were "overqualified." One friend got into Northwestern, but not Tufts. She attributed this to Tufts not wanting to be the safety school, so if it looked like it was a safety school (based on the other schools you applied to) then they rejected you. I'm not sure how accurate that is, though.</p>
<p>Thanks, Hotpiece. Are you a current college student? When I was in college (many many moons ago), I applied to two colleges - the ones my parents told me to ! Got into both, one Ivy, one LAC, chose the latter, and loved it. I didn't want to go 1000 miles from home and found that those 100 miles to the smaller college were just fine.</p>
<p>My twin sons are rising HS seniors and each have 10 schools on their lists. I'm spending all their fun/book/transportation money on their applications!</p>
<p>As an international student, I applied to the best and the most well known colleges here at home on the basis that if I were lucky, 1 would take me. I did not apply to any American safeties as my parents did not see a 'safety' to be worth the price.</p>
<p>On a side note: Man, all this college stuff would've been so much easier if I found this forum a year ago :))</p>
<p>fencersmother,</p>
<p>I am rising sophomore. And I looked up that stuff about lower ranked schools caring about the other schools you apply to. It's called Tufts Syndrome (because Tufts most famously used it). Basically it's a sorta yield protection where lower ranked schools reject or wait-list highly qualified applicants because of fear that the applicant will not actually enroll in their school. So yeah, I guess it does matter what other schools you are applying to if your also applying to schools like Tufts (and I think maybe WashU does this as well)...</p>