<p>my former high school is instituting a limit of 5 colleges for every student - apparently to reduce teacher workload. i think 5 is way too little. should the school impose this limit in the first place? are there any good reasons why the school shouldn't limit?</p>
<p>No. Everybody is entitled to the number of colleges they would like to apply and try their luck with. It is, however, annoying when you have kids like this (link) that apply to 18 schools and make it difficult for those who really want to be at those schools.</p>
<p>this is OOT, but your article says that the kid won the "Harvard Faculty Scholarship". for one, a google search turns up nothing on the scholarship, and for another, aren't ivy league schools forbidden from awarding merit scholarships?</p>
<p>My former high school had a limit of 7. Didn't have a problem with that, but I think 5 would be too few.</p>
<p>That is COMPLETE bs. I never heard of this happening. All friggin GCs do is photocopy your transcript and recommendations and sends those packets out to schools. wow, this is crazy!</p>
<p>Well, I think 5 colleges is far too few to apply to. Especially considering how competitive college admissions have become. What if a person is rejected from all five?</p>
<p>On the other hand, 18 colleges is way over the top. There should be medium, perhaps, 10 colleges?</p>
<p>That's SO lame! What kind of high school limits the number of colleges you can apply to?? Ridiculous!</p>
<p>Wait. Since one girl is limited, it mean it is not complete BS.</p>
<p>yay, you win. </p>
<p>Attempting to justify this by not recognizing that it is the GC to blame because they are a) probably under manned and b) too lazy to photocopy these materials and send them off to their respective schools.</p>
<p>Seriously, It is not that hard to photocopy 5 more sheets and stuff them into envelopes and to mass mail them all at once to schoools. omg.</p>
<p>erm, but please note that the OP's school is an international school, the limit only applies for US colleges. considering that they can only apply to a limited no of UK schs (due to UCAS) and local schs (there's only 4 in total!), i don't really see this policy as being ridiculous...</p>
<p>hm yeah it's for US colleges, but it's still pretty unreasonable, at least to someone who applied to more than 10. :P</p>
<p>anyway, what arguments do you guys think can be made against this limit?</p>
<p>I don't think it's fair for a hs to limit how many colleges a kid can apply to. </p>
<p>But, if a hs wants to limit the number of transcripts or recommendations it sends, I suppose that's their prerogative.</p>
<p>My D's school does not limit the number of colleges kids can apply to, but it will start charging for each application after the first 5. I think it's BS considering how expensive the school already is, but I suppose it's better than limit the number of colleges entirely!</p>
<p>Ya my school had a 3 dollar charge after 3 or 4 colleges. Seemed fair to me. I ended up applying to 15 schools, and I can say it was worth it. Just getting all the offers and exploring the options is a once in a lifetime opportunity.</p>
<p>lmao screwitlah is bad @ google</p>
<p>"Harvard</a> Faculty Scholarship" - Google Search</p>
<p>use " " next time.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh, but I should mention that her school lets her apply to as many UCs/Cal States as she likes, so it's not like she can't have a greater chance than at five, considering how diverse the UCs are.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That is because the UCs/Cal States do not require recs and transcripts with the application.</p>
<p>Semi-off topic: why is there so much more work? are the recommendations customized for each school, because that would definitely put quite the strain on teachers. if it really is just photocopy...then students would just go to another school that doesn't limit the number of applications. 5 is enough if you are applying pretty down low on the food chain, where it is very predictable based on GPA and SAT scores.</p>
<p>^hits the nail on the head
I disagree with any attempt to limit the number of colleges you can apply to, the mix of safeties, matches, and reaches that a student feels is best for him/her is a completely individual decision.</p>
<p>Although the cost for the applications does get to you. I applied to 10 O_o.</p>
<p>My high school limited students to 5 universities per country.</p>
<p>Most students applying to North America did 5 US and 3-4 Canada.</p>
<p>Wow, Is it really neccessary to customize every recommendation letter for each school. Isn't the recommendation letter suppose to target the person as an individual. So if one recommendation does not suffice....I don't know how five will. That is interesting though because my guidance counselor didn't care how many schools I applied to, he just wrote one recommendation, took all the materials that are needed and required and mass mailed them to each and every school all at once.</p>
<p>Lol, its probably because your school wants to save the environment, or is lacking in staffers or is undermanned.</p>
<p>I would be really angry if my school limited the number of applications I could have. It would really hurt people who want to apply to HYPSM because they would either have to sacrifice their possibility of getting into one of these schools or hope to god that they don't need a safety =/ They could easily get screwed either way.</p>