Our kids had no financial restrictions. Older one applied ED but our private college counselor was of the belief that it’s better to “waste” your time on applications you don’t need then have to start working on them when you didn’t get into your dream school. Her rule was all applications had to be completed by Dec 1. She would have access to them. If the kid didn’t get in shed “ push the burton and submit” any application that didn’t need to be turned in earlier for other purposes ( like merit aid or preference by submitting early). DD got in so only submitted to her ED plus Michigan EA and USC for merit. The same day she got accepted she withdrew applications from Mich and USC. But the right hand apparently didn’t know what the left hand was doing at USC and she got an admissions letter and merit money from them.
I asked DD the day she was accepted to ED dream school if she regretted preparing all the other applications that were pending submission with the cc. Nope. “I’m too happy to care. And it would have been awful to be sad AND then have to spend winter break on my applications!”
My D did ED2. She spent a weekend at the college in November and came home pretty sure that was where she wanted to go. She could have done ED1 but she said she wanted to know where else she would have gotten in. This school was a low reach but she had some higher reach schools that she applied to. I told her that made sense, wait and see and make the decision in the spring. Then a couple of days before the ED2 deadline she decided to go for it. She said that whenever she pictured herself in college it was at that school. She’s a very happy junior now studying abroad for the semester!
My D was chasing merit at top 20 schools and/or seeking admission to very high reach schools (i.e., HYPSC).
Her safeties included a small, public honors college (New College of Florida) which she applied to EA and had an acceptance to early on (don’t underestimate how reassuring that can be!). She also had submitted an SCEA application to her reach school, applied to four UCs (two of which could probably be considered safeties; two of which are reaches for everyone), and submitted RD and scholarship apps to schools that had earlier application dates for scholarship consideration. She got into her SCEA school, but continued to submit apps for other reach schools for and for named merit scholarships.
In the end, she applied to way too many schools. She got into everywhere she applied, got merit everyplace that offered it, and had a lot of nice options to choose from. She ended up not going to her SCEA school, turned down a bunch of scholarships, and enrolled in a top ranked school that she didn’t even think she was going to like, but ended up loving!
Continue to do well in their high school courses and programs, 2) stay engaged in a couple of major EC’s that they were passionate about, and don’t take on any activities just to look good, 3) do well on tests but don’t devote a huge campaign to prepping for them, 4) do the special things that were required for applications (essays, portfolios), 5) let the parents do the necessary research about colleges, programs, and financial aid; draw on that information and their experience to help decide which colleges to apply to.
For one of the kids the main extra effort that she put into the application process was attending summer art programs (Chicago Art Institute) to develop key skills and help prepare an application portfolio. For the other kid, no special prep of any kind; rather, stick to his main EC’s (debate and journalism (newspaper editor)), which were very demanding on his time (including attending debate camp two summers) but were activities from which he earned awards that would help his applications.
The kids each applied to a small number of colleges (6-7). All the applications were for “regular admission.” No strategizing about early admission. Combined, they got into all but one of the colleges they applied to. They attended great colleges (UChicago, RISD). They were commended with honors and awards at their college graduations.
Then came the hard part: transitioning from college to the real economy and careers. But that’s a different question, a different story line. Most kids probably don’t hop from college directly into what will turn out to be their main career activity.
Everyone suggests applying to EA schools but our S19 just didn’t have EA schools that he liked. He’s pretty bent on going to an LAC and not that many offer EA. He did apply to Dickinson EA because, on paper, it looks like a fantastic safety but we didn’t visit. (We live in the Midwest). Unfortunately, Dickinson does not give EA answers until Feb so he’s not getting any answers for a while yet.
We would have let him apply ED if he had a favorite, but he didn’t have one school that stood out enough to go ED. We are full pay and would be happy for him to receive merit but had him make his list based on schools he liked, not on schools that give merit. If a school has competitive merit that required extra essays, he wrote those essays.
So, he’s applied to Dickinson plus RD to seven top LACs , one Ivy , and two mid-sized elite universities known for their focus on undergraduates. Answers will start trickling in early March. Yikes!
Backing up a bit, we started visiting schools during the summer before junior year. Then visited some during fall break of junior year, three during spring break, and then another two during the summer before senior year. He was ready to take the SAT August before junior year so he took it then and was one and done.
He wrote almost all of his essays during the summer before senior year. Had only three left to go once school started. If a student has a lot of essays, I highly recommend this approach. With school and his sport, it’s been very hard for him to find time to even write three essays this fall.
My strategy with both kids: Figure out what you want in a school (non-hierarchical attributes like location, size, strong programs, diversity, stress level…), find the schools that meet those requirements and then narrow down. The end list needed to include at least two “likelies”. Our goal was to make sure they only applied to schools they would be happy going to so any acceptance was a good acceptance.
D1’s “must have” list was: medium or large school, suburban or rural, somewhere it snows, good academic reputation, strong programs in two majors, not completely male dominated in one major (engineering).
D2’s “must have” list was: medium or large school in an urban environment, located in the NE, strong programs in major, heavily diverse plus average SAT score above a certain cut-off.
(My add to those requirements was schools with a good freshman retention rate)
The key to that approach was being open to schools that were “great fits” even if they weren’t all that hard to get into. Finding those great fit likelies was hard work but it paid off. Love Your Safety was our motto - often kids are fed the line that the best school for you is the most exclusive you can get into and it simply isn’t true for everyone. Knowing up-front that the “fall back” plan was to attend a college they already liked and fit them well meant the kids could be choosy on their match and reach schools. With my younger D we didn’t even have many matches - just reaches and 3 likelies. But the likely schools were great fits so - who needed matches?
Both girls ended up at perfect fit schools where they are very happy - the older picked one of her likelies over more exclusive schools, the other picked a reach over a strong-fit likely that offered great merit aid (which I only think of longingly now and then). We feel very, very fortunate but we also feel like taking the “find your fit” approach paid off.
Our strategy for S was to come up with a list of schools that were undergrad focused while also offering very strong musical ensembles, facilities and programs to continue his musical interests. Prior to college applications, we did consider music conservatories and double-degree programs, but in the end S didn’t want to make a career out of music. Instead, he decided to pursue pre-med while maintaining his music as a side passion.
After lots of research, we came up with the list comprising of USNWR-defined LAC’s, National’s and a couple of in-state as safeties with one SCEA school identified. We checked CDS for each of these schools to gauge where S’s academic and test scores stand. We also ran the NPC for all. I made it very clear to S what the financial boundary of affordability was, so there’s no disappointments, disillusionment nor any misunderstandings later on.
Initially, I thought the list of schools was a bit too long, and it did prove to be quite stressful. However, in retrospect, I’m glad that we applied to as many as we did for one reason more than any others: the FA offers from a half-dozen OOS private schools that S was accepted to varied by quite a lot from one another. Having yielded a half-dozen admissions meant the luxury of choosing the best balance between S’s ideal school and the most generous FA. Fortunately for us, his ideal school also happened to be the one with the most generous FA. There are basically two schools of thought on how many colleges to apply to, and for this reason I’m a proponent of casting a wide net as possible as long as it’s affordable and doable without placing too much strain and stress in the process.
Like Thumper all 3 of mine were done with applications by end of October. EA and rolling. 2 had their decision made by end of January. The third took awhile to decide because he waiting for a deferred decision and still struggling with the big/small. I am all about the kids getting it out of the way and enjoying their senior year.
Eldest. ED to reach (deferred and then rejected,) rolling admissions to a safety and her in-state public university choices (November deadline.) She submitted her other LAC apps in December.
Middle. No ED as he was not comfortable committing to any school so early. Two EA’s at match schools. Public’s in November. Took his sweet time applying to other LAC’s lol.
