This is what I’ve learned.
Apply to more than 4 schools
(aim for 10+, I’m not kidding)
If I hadn’t gotten into my reach school, I would be paying 15k next year (and 15k per year for the next 4 years) going to my safety school.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but here’s my two cents (both of my first two-of-four-kids were accepted th their 1st choice schools):
<ol>
<li>Apply to about 5-7 schools, ONLY schools you’d truly attend if accepted (otherwise you’re wasting your time, your parents’ money, and potentially taking a spot from someone else)</li>
<li>Don’t take the SAT or ACT more than twice, or you’ll appear obsessive and less confident</li>
<li>Apply EA to as many schools as possible, but apply ED to one school only if you don’t need financial aid and love that choice clearly above all others</li>
<li>GPA is THE most important stat (of course the essays, LOR’s, SAT-II’s, etc. are important too)</li>
<li>Don’t stress too much! There are plenty of schools you’ll be happy at.</li>
</ol>
I disagree about not taking the SAT more than twice. The first time my daughter took it she was horribly stressed, which is bad for testing. The second time her proctor never read the directions, never gave students the required five or ten minutes left warning, actually allowed another adult to come into the room and they talked “quietly” in the back of the room where my daughter happened to be sitting and the “muffled” discussion was very disrupting. This time she didn’t finish two sections, which has never happened to her on any standardized test. Ironically, she did score higher than the first time when she was under major stress. I convinced her to take it a third time at a different testing center. The third time she had a very professional proctor and she knocked the test out.
Sometimes three times is a charm.
what a process. there’s so much i feel like i learned… don’t ever let you parents decide where you apply ED/EA, apply to as many schools as possible but ONLY IF you feel you can do each application justice, apply to a few reach schools!, make sure the safety you pick is a school you’d be absolutely thrilled to attend, apply for scholarships as early as possible, start your essays as early as possible…
oh, and most importantly? STAY OFF CC after your applications have been submitted and before april 1st. all you’ll do is freak yourself out
apply to more schools
never be overconfident
do something unique…and really pay attention to what kind of impression your resume gives…it’s not about how smart you are, it’s about how you look on paper
Absolutely. This is so so vital imo.
I’ve been recently visiting schools and honestly, I can’t imagine how ANYONE can make an informed choice (financial aid and other factors being equal) without visiting.
Here’s what I’ll say:
<ol>
<li> Don’t really let proximity of the school to your home town stop you from applying to a school. I was against Northwestern because it’s only 80 minutes from my house and that was too close for me. Now, I’m going there in fall because I loved the school-I’m really glad I applied and didn’t let its proximity totally scare me away.<br></li>
<li> Apply EA if you can to as many schools as you can. It’s so nice to get some decisions right away in December, waiting until April is terrible.<br></li>
<li> Make sure that if you need FA, you apply to schools that you know give good financial aid. Don’t make your safety just a school you know you can get into, but also one you’re absolutely sure you can afford, and a safety you’d actually want to go to! (For me, Northeastern was one of my safeties but gave the worst FA package of all of my colleges)</li>
<li> If you get emails about free applications, and you have even a mild interest in the school, apply. My other main choice was Tulane, and I only applied because it was free, but it ended up being in my top two. It’s a free application and you just pay to send your ACT, it might be worth it if you are even a little interested.<br></li>
</ol>
In terms of taking the ACT/SAT multiple times: I took the ACT three times, my first time was my worst score, my second the best, and my third exactly in the middle. Did I need to take it a third time? No, but I don’t think it was necessarily bad. I’m glad I took it a third time, it solidified my score from the second one.
[The</a> Answer Sheet - Costs of public vs. private college](<a href=“http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/college-costs/comparing-costs-of-public-priv.html]The”>http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/college-costs/comparing-costs-of-public-priv.html)
Does Early Decision significantly boost your chance of being admitted into a College?
wanft: Yes.
Admissions officers will tell you otherwise, but they are not telling the truth!
I’ve heard early admissions can be an extra push, but it wouldn’t be the main thing to get you in. You would already have to be a relatively viable applicant [according to readings here and there.]
Sure, statistics speak tons, but less people apply to it and thus is appears like more [and at some universities, ED has even lower admit %'s!]
Just because a lot of CCers say self-studying some subjects, like Stats, is really easy, doesn’t mean it is 
You do not need to take more than 2 SATII tests. The schools ask for 2 and they only enter 2 into their computer system. It seems that people on CC obsess with taking mulitple tests.
My D was accepted to many top tier schools, Columbia, Pomona, Duke, Barnard… and she only ended up taking 2 SAT IIs (US Hist & Bio). She waffled so long about taking at least one more but didn’t. It worked out 
In our school, I think the big lesson learned was:
Pay attention to your safeties and matches.
We had a lot of people who didn’t give enough attention to those and who really got screwed after they were rejected from their reaches because they were
a) Waitlisted from loads of them
b) Rejected from a bunch and thus had very few options
The applications for your reaches are important but so are the other ones!!!
I wish I’d known more about financial aid. My hs fin aid counselor told me that filling out the fafsa would be enough fr everything so I didn’t even realize till after 2/15 that almost all of my colleges required the PROFILE and then IDOC, and some of them still e-mailed me for additional forms…
Don’t focus only on admissions: take SAT II also if they help in placement not only because they are required. Same thing for AP classes.
Read as much as you can about the schools. There are opportunities you may find by looking at the web site. DD found about a scholarship and the interview from old school newsletters and this allowed her to prepare and asl for teacher recommendation without having to rush.
According to a Duke admission officer, Early Decision only boosts chances for AMERICANS CITZENS and won’t be much of a help to foreign applicants…
Zz…I wana go Duke.
That my parents would force me to enroll somewhere I don’t want to go.
Versii you a completely accurate on following your instincts.
Thanks for your helpful input.
UCSD has six ‘colleges’ that dictate the ‘breadth’ or GE (general ed), and English requirements to those who are accepted to a School (eg. Jacob’s school of engineering) etc.<br>
While they encourage applicants to study the University Catalog to ‘choose’ their college, this is an almost criminal trick. Firstly: the UCSD manual is WORTHLESS as far as advising as to which college suits one best (note: one requires a two quarters of foreign language; one requires US history; one encourages and rewards a ‘minor’ along with the major; one requres 20 more units in Art, etc…some accept the california ‘reciprocity’ agreement, some modify it, some reject it entirely… Does the UCSD Catalog make ANY of this clear? Nope.) Second: MANY students are admitted to the college that needs students the most; their ‘choice’ means nothing. Also, you cannot abandon a college easily, or at all if they don’t wish to release you (need to demonstrate it requires a quarter more than another college AND you have less than 130units completed). So… it IS not the students fault that the colleges, esp. Sixth, have run amuck.