I’m so glad that I didn’t top the facebook friend!
S applied to 8 (accepted at 6, 1 waitlist (didn’t accept a spot), and 1 EA rejection)
D applied to 4 (accepted 1 ED and at 3 EA)
I am choosing to say we were efficient, not lazy!
My kids were accepted to 100% of the schools they applied to. Each applied to ONE. One application, one acceptance. One was a free application, so only one application fee. One is my new favorite number.
Finances played the most important role in why my son applied to so many. Applying to one would not have been wise for him.
Holy crap. 15, 19, 20, 20+ no wonder college admissions is such a mess. How the heck do they know who really wants to go to their college/uni? Sounds like it has become somewhat of a game for kids. Wow i would not want to be responsible for yield. Very glad I have no more to go through this with. I thought #1 was OK with 5 apps, #2 had 7 and i thought he was pushing it and I really clamped down with #3 and he managed to shave it down to 9. They all had good choices and they all attended only 1 college each.
My D15 applied to 10 - Accepted at 5, Rejected at 2 (Reachy-reach) and WL at 3 (Low Reach, Reachy-reach, match). My S17 will only put 3 on his list and one is an in state safety that he doesn’t want to go to. Met with his GC 2 weeks ago who basically said “Chill out, Mom.” That was my take-away anyhow. He said my S will add others before October and/or January. But, I can be sure we won’t get to 20+! I’ll be happy with 7 as long as 2 are safeties (that he WANTS).
My S16 applied to 16. Accepted at 6, Rejected at 7, waitlisted at 3. He was in a weird place though, high SAT’er with low GPA. Had some solid deep involvement EC’s, which we were hoping offset the GPA (and it did in some places). He felt like he had to take this approach, as he didn’t want to safety-match his GPA. I don’t think I would have changed anything about his approach.
D1 applied to 2 schools, accepted at both, chose 1. D2 ditto. Neither had the desire to apply to any more and selected their schools after the overnight visit. Each received a nice merit scholarship and we could afford the remainder.
@gearstudio, it seems like you applied to too many schools that were reaches. My kid applied to 12, didn’t get into two, waitlisted at three. So she applied to at least two too many schools. If you plan properly, you should end up with a balanced proportion of acceptances.
My D1 applied to 16 (four UCs on one app). Accepted at 11, waitlisted at 2 (declined waitlist), and rejected by 2 and 1 that she doesn’t have an answer from yet. She applied to a lot because she was chasing merit aid. Ironically, she was admitted to her top choice and is going full pay. I wish we had saved some of those application fees…we are going to need the extra money. 
There’s a lunch room in The College Board named after my family, I’m sure. Between GRE’s for DD1 last year and SAT’s and SAT II’s for DD2 this year… Keep in mind that there’s no common app for grad school, and all 14 schools DD1 applied to required different portfolio formats (architecture). She got into some schools notorious for low admit rates and at the end chose an awesome scholarship offered by the top ranked school (top 10). DD2 applied to a few flagship states and a few privates and ended up choosing our instate flagship with a near full ride.
Very few free gifts for DD2, altho DD1 has amassed an alarming collection of college wear or college trinkets. Must be a grad school thing.
"Sounds like it has become somewhat of a game for kids. Wow i would not want to be responsible for yield. "
The colleges created this monster of a game. Aggressive marketing including by schools with acceptance rates less than 10%, waived application fees and dropped supplemental essays at some colleges to drive up application rates. We’ve seen increasing use of ED by many schools as a way to manage yield and lock in a certain percentage of their class early thereby leading to drops in RD acceptance rates. I don’t blame students for choosing to apply to more schools especially if they can’t apply early because they need to shop financial aid offers or don’t have a clear favorite. Or a solid in state option. Or got rejected/deferred from the ED round. IMO, it’s a game that the colleges play and reinforce.
My son applied ED1 to his top choice school (a reach) and held off on applying to any other schools until hearing back from school #1. A reasonable approach, perhaps, or lazy?
Unfortunately he was deferred, so he did have to send out some other applications, two more reaches and two safeties – there are no true matches for his scores within the geographic area he was interested in. He was not admitted to the two other reaches, got in with merit scholarships to the two safeties, and ultimately was offered admission to his first-choice school. With finances and other considerations, though, it was not an automatic enrollment – we did take a deep look at the “better” of his safeties, too.
My son applied ED1 to his top choice and was accepted. Did not even start the essays for the alternative colleges. Lucky him (and me)!
This is crazy! If a student does their HW, they can identify a few reaches, matches and likelies, and keep the application #s in the single digits. Those who say they need to compare FA packages argue that they need to apply to 12, 14, 16 schools. Not sure I agree. But this business of applying to 20+ schools is just too much.
Granted it was a while ago, but Older s applied to 2 (had 2 more apps ready to go just in case) and younger s applied to 4. Older s got into both of his schools, younger s got into 2 and WL at 2.
My daughter applied to 7 and was accepted to 7, all with merit. We needed merit and she had a “higher ACT score and lower GPA” profile. It was difficult to figure out her schools… Even with this “difficult” profile, seven turned out to be about two too many. We knew one school would be too expensive and she never really considered attending another school but she liked their application. She had an application safety in an instate public LAC with a February deadline but she was accepted to two schools by Thanksgiving.
Her acceptances came at random times via snail mail. The first was received with great excitement; the second was received with big smiles. The excitement lessened with each one. Honestly, she didn’t care about the last two acceptances except that they meant she swept her colleges.
Her older cousins were all one and done. Essentially everyone, including D, was done by Christmas.
I wouldn’t blame colleges for student and parent behavior. Yes, the colleges practice aggressive marketing but that doesn’t appear to be much of a issue here. D received lots of pretty shiny mailings from unreasonable schools. She just threw them out. We throw out other marketing mailings; I don’t feel compelled to purchase from every catalogue that arrives in our mailbox.
@doschicos, you are so right. After my kid’s SAT came back, like every other hihg scoring student, she was bombarded by mailings for all kinds of colleges, but the ones that made her laugh the most were the ones from Ivys, Stanford, and just about every hyper-low acceptance rate school you can think of. She knew there was NO chance she would get into HYPS. And those schools never interested her anyway.
S applied to two and accepted at two. I had to push him to do the second application. D applied to 5 and needed merit aid. She had 4 acceptances and 1 rejection. I can see maybe 10 or 12 applications for a kid who is applying to several reach schools or has a unique situation where it’s difficult to predict FA or merit.
The game is as crazy as you make it. You don’t have to buy into the marketing frenzy. If you do your research, put adequate time into each application and school, and have a balanced, well crafted list, your kid will have some viable choices come April - without 20+ applications.
My first exposure to this application creep was with a kid a year ahead of my son at his high school. I asked the kid at some function or another where he was applying to college. He flipped out his phone and read me a list of probably two dozen names. It blew my mind.
For all the good information that exists on CC , I’ve never understood this thread or others like it. I concentrated on my children. I never cared or commented on what another family decided was best for their child. If the student in question has the time, resources, and commitment to apply to 20 - 30 schools and they’re not doing anything illegal or immoral - have at it !
Okay, if you need to consult a list/phone to answer the question “where did you apply”, you’ve applied to too many schools or to the wrong schools.