<p>You can apply to HYPSM and have a safety. I had 1 dream, 2 reaches, 2 matches and 2 safeties. I don't support having a limit, but it's entirely possible without sacrificing much.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So you think it's okay for people to apply to schools just to see where they can get in? It's cases like that which make limiting applications a good thing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
So you think it's okay for people to apply to schools just to see where they can get in?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>yeah, nothing says they can't do that.</p>
<p>A limit isn't really fair, everyone should have their own rights regarding their future.</p>
<p>I think schools limit the number of colleges you can apply to because they are looking out for other students. They don't want one person getting into all the good schools and a weaker student not getting in anywhere so they try to spread out the acceptances over a greater number of students this way (it makes them look good in matriculation numbers). Unfair to the individual, but I think that's a more valid reason than saving paper or being unable to photocopy a lot of recs. </p>
<p>Some schools will also make you rank your choices and then they kind of negotiate with the colleges, like "X student ranked you at #4 but they'll probably get into one of the top 3 so accept student Y instead"... probably a more frequent occurance at private schools where they have more leeway/a better relationship with colleges/fewer financial concerns.</p>
<p>Quote: "So you think it's okay for people to apply to schools just to see where they can get in? It's cases like that which make limiting applications a good thing."</p>
<p>Yes I do think that is ok. Some people could be happy at any of these schools. With the crapshoot that admissions is these days, it is important to apply to multiple schools to increase your chances of getting into at least one. For instance, I know that if I get into MIT then I do not care about HYPS, but I probably will not get in MIT. If I don't get in and I don't apply to the others I will always wonder whether I would have gotten accepted to the others. I need peace of mind.</p>
<p>Applying to HYPSM +1 safety is not really a good option either, because you wouldn't have anything in between. Someone who is set on HYPSM will probably not be happy at their safety.</p>
<p>"A ONE-MAN IVY LEAGUE - New York Post"</p>
<p>lmao he looks like he'd go to Harvard :p
So I am confused, do you photocopy recs or do you get teachers to write one for each school, the latter seems ridiculous.</p>
<p>If they're going to limit, I think they should limit only OOS and private schools, not instate publics. Most people need to spread their applications around a bit, especially when applying to upper-tier schools! Sure, 18 is far too many, but 5 is far too few. That could force kids into ED situations they don't necessarily want to be in, or leave them empty-handed come April. And finances are a big deal as well!</p>
<p>I don't really know why your teachers would write a separate rec for each school - they're writing mostly about YOU, not the school, and it's not their job to make sure you fit well there, and they don't have to know the school that well. I think most teachers just photocopy their rec for each school.</p>
<p>The trade-off is school admin/faculty time available. If everyone applies to say 20 schools, it is difficult to do anything else during the semester but deal with student recommendations and applications. Even with word processing, each application/school requires some time. And, good GC or letter writers will often change the recommendation based on the school, if they have had experience with it. On the other hand, given the competitiveness at good schools in this day and age, is 5 schools sufficient? D's school limited it to 12 last year, which seemed reasonable. I don't know where the equilibrium point is, but 20 seems too much 5 too little.</p>
<p>My high school does extremely well in terms of college admissions every year, and all students are limited to NINE schools. Which is very reasonable: three safeties, three matches, three reaches. We have a very intimate one-on-one and group guidance department, and all of our teachers are eminently qualified, and are happy, to write recommendations.</p>
<p>There should definitely be a limit, IMO. Realistically speaking, would you really love, love to attend any of your, er, 18 colleges? :3</p>
<p>This is also a good way to get jerks to stop throwing applications at the entire Ivy League + Amherst and Williams.</p>
<p>It's about picking and choosing wisely and carefully, making informed and mature decisions.</p>
<p>Very few kids at my school go to schools lower than the top 50 national
or LACS. The numebr of applications are typically limited by common
sense economics with most students applying on average to 6-8 schools.</p>
<p>A few apply to as many as 12. but that is rare. the teachers just photocopy
the reccs and a few of them tell up front that they will give only so
many reccs per person etc. So you know where you stand.</p>
<p>I don't think that schools should/can limit it. GCs don't need to write a recommendation letter for each application.... If they want to, that's their problem. </p>
<p>It does **** me off that some people find it necessary to apply to the whole Ivy League, Stanford, and MIT (or whatever) - it's obvious that they're prestige whores and not really thinking about the qualities of each school, since they are so different.</p>
<p>A lot of people (at my school especially) are just really under-qualified, so they figure if they apply to 15+ prestigious schools they'll get into one--and the sad thing is they're usually right. </p>
<p>High Schools don't really have the power to limit it, but if there was some way that colleges could keep track I think they should definitely limit it. (Maybe 7 schools?) For one thing, it'd give college admissions counselors more time to look at the applications they do receive, since they'll be getting a lot less. Secondly, it should give qualified applicants a better shot. Harvard acceptance rate this year was like 7%, and you can be sure of two things: one, there were a lot of really bright, hardworking applicants who got rejected, and two, there were a lot of lazy, under-qualified applicants who applied just because they could. Cutting down the number in the latter category should, theoretically, allow Harvard to accept more of those qualified applicants whose places would have otherwise been filled by people who don't deserve it. Thirdly, limiting applications would cut down the use of wait lists. (You're much more likely to accept your place at your #7 college than your #15.)</p>
<p>One cool idea (to me at least) would be for ivy leagues and other top schools to work together and have a system that automatically limits students to applying to a certain amount of schools. too bad it'll never happen as colleges love the low acceptance rates.</p>
<p>the way I see it, there is no way to stop others from doing it, so you should probably do it (i'm still only a rising junior, so pretty far off, but I'm planning to apply to at least 8 different colleges (counting UCs as one app)</p>
<p>I just found out about this the other day. A girl I know is limited to applying to 5 private schools, but she can apply to as many in-state publics as she'd like (she lives in CA).</p>
<p>I don't disagree with the idea of limits -- some students are going absolutely bonkers and applying to nearly 20 schools nowadays. I think that the limit should be higher than 5, though. I would say 10.</p>
<p>that is so not cool.
a student should be able to apply to as many
teachers get paid for doing work
i believe they should be aware of it when choosing to become a teacher.</p>
<p>Wow, I'd be really upset if my school implemented any kind of limit. Most kids around here only apply to 2-3 schools (in-state publics, mostly), so I'm sure the guidance office will be annoyed by my 10-12 applications, but I'm glad I'll at least be able to apply to all the schools that interest me.</p>
<p>I'm applying to between 15 and 20 (Right now I'm at 15, I'm unsure about 3 of them, might add a few). </p>
<p>I think applying to just a few colleges like that is nuts. Firstly, this is America not Communist Russia and we are entitled to pursue the services of private businesses and the state businessess (colleges) as we want. Colleges are just service-providers that provide expensive services to us, and who has the right to tell us what we can buy and not buy? If I want to apply to 50 colleges, I have the constitutional right to apply to 50 colleges. If I want to apply to 1, that's ok too. Guidance Counselers were hired to provide services to students, one of them being writing recommendations. If they don't preform that service, they aren't preforming their job and are not giving back for the service we paid for, and should be fired.</p>
<p>If it's at a public school, they shouldn't be allowed to do that legally. However, if the school is a private business, then they can institute whatever limit they want because the student purchased the school's services, so it's their fault.</p>
<p>And 2, with top 40 colleges you have such low chances of getting into any that it might be reasonable to apply to more if there's a reason for it.</p>
<p>There should be a limit. </p>
<p>For all of the people who argue that there are "low chances" of getting into any top college, the reason that exists is the rampant 12-25 college applications per student (this generalization is just for the point at hand so don't crucify me). Top tier students are applying and getting accepted to many of these colleges, end running the chances for less qualified individuals, albeit they are still qualified for their target institutions.</p>