<p>This article touches on a hot CC topic - and even makes mention of CC - even if it did get it all wrong. I think most of us keep coming to CC precisely because it is such a great cyber-place to get thoughtful advice and help about everything college related from careful planning, college choice, fit, application information, scams and pitfalls in the college admissions process etc. I think that most of the folks who post on CC even agree that 20 is too many:</p>
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...despite the costs, many applicants apply to more and more colleges, sometimes 20 or even more.
Such students often make random choices, making the entire process more difficult for everyone involved. High school counselors who help students coordinate their applications are overwhelmed. Teachers that write recommendations must send out so many duplicates, and admissions departments at colleges at are inundated with paperwork.
The Internet and the use of the Common Application...and other such programs are part of the problem. These helpful sites have made applying to college seem as though a completed application is just one click away.</p>
<p>Glossy Web sites advertising colleges and sites that profess inside information about schools add to the frenzy. One overzealous parent became addicted to the Web site called College Confidential, which advertises itself as having the busiest discussion community about colleges on the Web.</p>
<p>Whenever this parent read so-called inside information about a school, she added that school to her child's Common Application.</p>
<p>Twenty-five years ago, high school seniors applied to four or five carefully selected schools at the most. Each application took hours to complete on a manual typewriter. One mistake meant throwing out the application and starting from scratch, unless one were adept at using whiteout or the little typewriter erasable strips that were essential supplies.</p>
<p>Well, those days are now long gone...</p>
<p>Applicants should be aware of snap or fast-track applications. Some schools send applications that have not been requested to promising students, a designation based on SAT scores. They waive application fees, the essay and even teacher recommendations, promising students they will be accepted within a month.
These applications make it too easy to apply to colleges, which the applicant has not researched. A better use of time than the snap application would be to graph a careful selection of college with decisions based on information about departments, class size, student retention and cost.
Careful planning would decrease rejections. Colleges are rejecting many students because the applicant pool has gone up so drastically. Applying to 20 schools actually cuts back chances of being accepted to the one school where an applicant may really fit.
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