Here’s why I thought it rare: My kids are four years out of high school, so this information may be a little bit dated, but I think it’s worthwhile to note. Applying to college is expensive! My son applied to 11 colleges and between the application submission fees, the SAT/ACT submission fees, and the CSS Profile submission fees, we spent about $1500 for him to press the submit button. </p>
<p>At my son and daughter’s high school, the guidance and college office made this observation: Parents who had to pay for their son and daughter’s college applications — no matter how wealthy — limited the number of schools their children applied to. Wealthier parents did allow their children to apply to more schools, but not that many more than my kids. Consequently, to have a balanced college list with safeties, targets and reaches, students who’s families are paying the full-fare in application fees are not applying to all the ivies.</p>
<p>The students who applied to all the ivies, and a gazzillion other schools (one girl actually applied to 31 colleges), were the students who qualified for fee-wavers. I’m not sure how many fee-waver students there are these days, but I do know it’s more than four years ago. So, it may not be as rare an occurrence as it once was.</p>
<p>gibby makes a good point that is actually backed up to some degree by the Harvard Crimson’s survey of incoming freshmen. Incoming freshmen at Harvard applied, on average, to 6.7 schools each. I doubt that all those freshmen applied to only Ivies, but even if they did, it means that most students didn’t apply to all the Ivies. I suspect most students apply to a few Ivies, and fill the rest of their dance card out with other schools, including at least one safety. I’d guess that for someone who applied to seven schools, there’s one or two Ivies in there, another reach school, a couple of schools that are more likely admits, and a safety, or maybe two.</p>
<p>Hmmm that’s interesting. At my high school whenever anyone says that they’re applying to Harvard/Yale/Princeton it’s automatically assumed that they’re applying to the rest of the Ivy League as well. But I come from a relatively well to do area and I’ve had some friends tell me that their parents are fine with them applying to all the ivies + 2 or 3 safety schools. </p>
<p>Applying to all Ivies = Questbridge which facilitates that and has application fees waived, or rich. Just applying to any eight schools is expensive.</p>
<p>To be honest, if you apply to all Ivies it is highly doubtful you can differentiate between them. Harvard and Yale are similar to each other in some ways, Princeton is very theoretical, Penn and Brown tend to be more social and liberal arts oriented, Cornell and Dartmouth are basically rural, Columbia is quite urban. They all have top programs in various areas.</p>
<p>To answer the OP’s question, no, why would you bother to tell them that you aren’t applying to other Ivies? If you say that, you are implying that a) you aren’t applying to any school other than Harvard, which is kind of a pushy thing to say “it’s you or no one” or b) you are applying to non-Ivies in addition to Harvard.</p>
<p>Don’t mention it, it is awkward. As others said, play up how much you love Harvard and how unique it is for you. But don’t be all “my life will be ruined if I don’t get into Harvard!”.</p>
<p>What can YOU do for Harvard? Why should they take YOU? I’m pretty sure they know that they are wonderful and many kids want to go there.</p>
<p>@notjoe Since Harvard accepted about half its class in the early round (with an estimated 90% yield), I suspect that the “average” of 6.7 schools is distorted by the fact that most early kids were like my daughter “one and done”. If they did apply to other schools it would likely be only two or three at most.</p>
<p>Sometimes it helps to place the question in a different context:</p>
<p>When asking someone I find attractive out on a date, should I first take time to mention all the other alluring hotties in mind, body and soul I am overlooking in order to court him/her instead?</p>
<p>Try that as a real-life experiment, and the answer to the Harvard question should become self-evident. ;-)</p>
<p>That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of that. So, what you’re suggesting is that the distribution is bi-modal. Nonetheless, even if absolutely every student who applied early only applied to Harvard, that’d work out to mean that the other half of students applied, on average, to 12 schools. My younger son applied to 12 schools, and didn’t apply to eight Ivies.</p>
<p>But I don’t think it’s reasonable that everyone who applied early only applied to one school, or even a very small number of schools. Both my older and younger sons applied early to other schools, and nonetheless applied to eight and 12 schools respectively. Neither son was particularly confident about getting into the early admissions school to which they applied, and didn’t want to spend the Christmas holidays filling out more college applications. All applications were submitted as of October 31 so that they could concentrate on their classes for the rest of the first semester.</p>
<p>Still, it may be that the average for those who applied early is very low (perhaps two or three), meaning that the other half of folks applied to an average of 10 schools. It strikes me as unlikely that most applied to eight Ivies and then one or two other schools. For one thing, it would suggest a level of sophistication (or lack thereof) that we wouldn’t normally ascribe to folks who get into Ivies.</p>
<p>As well, I know that from my sons’ high school, maybe a handful or so kids applied to Ivies last year and I know that the total number of Ivy apps was way, way less than 40. More like a dozen and a half. That’s maybe two or three Ivies a piece.</p>
<p>^^ That wasn’t the case with my son. Even though he applied to Yale SCEA and was accepted, he kept in his other 10 RD applications because we wanted to compare financial aid offers. </p>
<p>@sherpa - when my daughter was accepted SCEA, she wasn’t sure Harvard really was her first choice. She reviewed her college list and crossed out all schools that she was certain she would not chose over Harvard. She then applied RD to the remaining schools on her list, and made her final decision once she had results in hand. I don’t know how common this is, but I would not assume that all people who apply SCEA to Harvard consider it to be a clear first choice. Given Harvard’s SCEA acceptance rate, I imagine that applying early to Harvard is sometimes a strategic decision.</p>
<p>@gibby, @BldrD - I see both your points. As a parent of recruited athletes, I come from a different perspective, where you decide on a first choice and don’t look back.</p>
<p>As academically strong recruited athletes, my kids had the luxury of knowing they would be accepted wherever they applied as long as they had coach’s support. But in order to receive that support they needed to commit to the coach. As such, they saw that they needed to make their college choices before they applied, not after. </p>
<p>My kids each made a series of “unofficial visits” junior year, weighed their options, chose their colleges, received early good news (likely letter Princeton/ED Duke), and neither ever applied to another school.</p>
<p>Clearly there are benefits to being a recruited athlete, but there are some obvious disadvantages too, the most glaring not being able to compare financial aid offers.</p>
<p>If you found a unique aspect, it’s fine to make note of that opportunity or that draw. But you have to take this a step further and be sure this opp is actually available to you or that you have a reasonable shot- and that it is still offered. Many kids don’t. And make sure you understand what the essay is meant to convey.</p>