We went through this 2 years ago with our S. It’s insane. We were very well prepared for the process, as much as we could be. Our initial thought was to apply to maybe 4-6 schools; he ended up applying to 16. We thought it was insane, yet we still did it. Why, you ask?
Because we needed substantial financial aid. I suspect there are a lot of middle class families like ours out there, making $50-$60K/year. And while our son had excellent stats – 4.0 UW GPA, 12 APs, valedictorian – he wanted to major in engineering, so lots of competition out there. That’s a very tough spot to be in for white male – OOS publics mostly look for full pay applicants. Our In-state public flagship – a default option – provides very little merit aid (even to kids like our S) and almost no need-based aid (unless Pell Grant qualified which we are not), plus R&B is super expensive and we live hours away so no commuting possible. That only leaves private schools with deep pockets – the same schools everyone else applies to! And since the results are so unpredictable from year to year, we wanted to spread the net wide vs. picking 1-2 reach schools at random.
He ended up applying to 3 OOS public engineering schools, with the hope of getting best merit scholarships available, which would make them cheaper options than our in-state flagship. He also applied to 2 cheaper in-state schools, and 10 private schools like Cornell, NW, MIT etc.
The result? At a time – pure disappointment for him! 2 rejections and 8 WLs from the privates; in-state acceptances with poor FA packages matching NPCs; 2 OOS publics acceptances with $0 FA; and finally 1 OOS public with outstanding merit FA!
Looking back, we did the right thing even though it felt wrong at a time – we succeeded in giving him a chance at excellent engineering education without taking out parent loans. As much as he was disappointed with all the WLs, he was pleased and excited that there was a school out there that really, really wanted him! He took his name off of all WLs and never looked back. He found paid research position and was able to get additional merit scholarships his sophomore year (school allows stacking), to the point that he now “makes money” going to school!
I still don’t like the practice, and the admissions game colleges are playing. But for a segment of applicants - high stats, low income - this makes perfect sense, as it means potentially saving tens of thousands of dollars. And, unfortunately, you don’t know ahead of time where that money might be coming from! And if you don’t try, there is no chance you get any. So you play bad system the best you can, even if it feels wrong at a time.