<p>I second that. My basic feeling is that come next spring, she’ll want options, and it’s next to impossible to add them past about February. If you don’t mind spending another couple hundred dollars to hedge some bets, I’d do some sight-unseen apps and deal with the aftermath if needed.</p>
<p>Here are a few things we learned from a couple of rounds through this process:</p>
<p>1) When all is said and done, most colleges are an awful lot alike. You can be happy at lots of schools - while the details can be important, going to college is going to college. My D1 who went ED to her dream school has said she realizes now that she could have made many schools work out just fine for her (even the dreaded flagship!).</p>
<p>2) It’s amazing how little information most schools will use to decide to accept or reject you. Many schools surprised us that they didn’t even have supplemental essays. And I don’t think really any of my D’s schools cared particularly about how much you visited, etc. So I wouldn’t feel any guilt about throwing in an app to a school that is only asking for the basics anyway.</p>
<p>3) Lots of people really count on post-acceptance visits. It’s very common on this Forum, especially because of Unified Auditions. So if you can use spring break of senior year, you could have a cluster of schools that you’re prepared to take a trip to then.</p>
<p>4) Your D sounds really thoughtful. She’s really looking at everything - that’s great. But there’s going to be an element of a crapshoot no matter how careful you all are. The prof that really made her feel right somewhere might take another job. Students she met and loved will be replaced by a whole new crew in the fall, and might give the place a completely different ambience. Programs get changed, added and cut. </p>
<p>So why not apply to a place that looks good from your research? Now that she knows so much about what she likes and doesn’t like, I bet she could come up with some very confident choices to give herself just a bit more wiggle room than 4 schools (if you’re OK with the fees, etc.). No one’s going to force her to go to these schools - it’s just a question of adding options.</p>
<p>My D applied to 3 schools she hadn’t visited. She got into all of them. Two were safeties that we didn’t have to take a spring break to see, because she had other acceptances (rolling and EA) that she liked better. But the third one (Brandeis) was a serious contender until the very last. And because she knew just enough about it, she declined a quick (expensive) visit there. It turned out she chose the school she had spent quite a bit of time at, and that did make a difference. But I actually would have let her go to the unvisited school if she’d so chosen. </p>
<p>Actually, the main reasons why she chose against it had nothing to do with not having visited - she preferred an auditioned BFA near NYC by definition, and she got a huge scholarship at the school she is going to. Another reason she didn’t choose Brandeis could have been rectified by a visit - we were learning here and from people who knew the school that big changes were happening in the theatre dept, and she didn’t want to take the chance on a very unknown program. If she’d visited, they could have explained more, and she could have found that things would suit her very well. But she would have been in much the same position if she’d visited Junior year and then found out the next spring that much of what she had liked in the program was going to be reconstructed. So … again, no guarantees in this process. We all have to rely on faith to a certain extent, and to stay flexible, including AFTER they matriculate.</p>