<p>Bacuse of financaila need, my daughter applied 14 total 7 Ivy/Standford and 6 Merit based and one safety</p>
<p>My son applied to 7 (two public, 5 private). My daughter applied to 5 (all private). All were either rolling admissions (the publics) or RD (the privates).</p>
<p>My daughter has a friend who has applied to 21 private colleges. She has a 3.0 WEIGHTED GPA, 1750 SATs, and no hooks whatsoever, but her list is made up almost entirely of top 30 schools like the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Middlebury, Davidson, Notre Dame, and Boston College. She and her parents are convinced that the sheer quantity of applications will pull her in somewhere. We'll see.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to four schools (two rolling admissions, two EA), but had applications ready to go to four more. Then, she was accepted to the first four four and decided to attend one of them so no more applications went out.</p>
<p>Carolyn, part of me wants to laugh and part wants to cry at that girl's situation. Some folks have no clue and have not researched elite college admissions. If you are going to enter that game, you better be a player and even if you are a player, you might not get in. Adding tons of schools to increase the odds will not work if you are not a player to begin with. She has no chance at the schools you just named, in my opinion. There is no value in not giving a student a realistic outlook as to their chances. This is a big set up for disappointment that could be avoided. It is very misguided. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>I meant to add...in your D's case, that number sounds just right. Her list was balanced and well targetted. The fact that two were rolling and two were EA, made not applying to more as necessary in the end. For those not doing rolling or who either did not get in EA or even if they did, still wanted options as far as decision making, it may entail more than four schools. For many, I think 8 is about right (as is what your D would have done had she not had those early nods).</p>
<p>Susan, It is truly heartbreaking. The guidance office has talked to the girl and her parents. I have talked to the girl and her parents. My daughter has even talked to the girl and her parents. They won't listen. They are absolutely convinced that this is a numbers game, and that she'll get into a top 30 school. She does have three match schools on her list, but the sense my daughter and I both have is that the family would consider those schools worse than community college.</p>
<p>Thanks for your PS Susan. It is very easy to second guess at this point and wonder if she should have played all the cards out or maybe aimed a little higher. She is, however, very happy with her choice for next fall, so I suppose that's all that really matters in the end.</p>
<p>D submitted 5 applications: 1 EA and 4 regular( 1 reach, 2 match, 1 safety/merit aid). This turned out fine as she got her first choice. Should have waited til end of Dec. to find out EA decision before submitting all but the merit aid application.</p>
<p>My daughter has applied to eight - four private liberal arts colleges, one small and one mid-size private university, and two state schools - all regular decision with no decisions until April 1. It is hard waiting to see what happens.</p>
<p>Carolyn, in my view, the ONLY thing that matters is that they are happy with the school that they are going to. And your D had choices which means she is not going some place by default but it truly is a preferred school on her list. </p>
<p>For me, as a parent, the ONLY thing that I cared about was that my kids would get into a school that they wanted to attend and were happy to go to. I had no preference as to which school they picked. And now that they are attending, I could not be more satisfied because they both are oozing with enthusiasm about how much they love it. What more could a parent want, really? Does it matter where they go? The name? Not to me.....I just wanted to see them happy and I am so grateful that they got into a school that they were happy to be admitted to and in the end, came to love and are thriving. That's all that matters to me. </p>
<p>Also, when I read that girl's basic stats...and her semi list of schools you posted...I was thinking...geez...my younger D's friend who is a senior (that is her true home peer group as she graduated early but should be back in HS) has similar stats and was rejected at her two first choices....Syracuse and Emerson, also to UNH, deferred at UVM and only had a safety, Endicott, left on the list (had only five schools) which she just got into this week. I was told she had "no interest" in going to Endicott (my thoughts were, why in the world pick it for a safety if you have no interest in the school???) They now have added a ton of schools (though not in the ballpark of your D's friends' schools). So, if this local friend had trouble at the schools I just named, whoa on your D's friend's list. The family you know is either ill informed or just does not want to "hear" the realistic picture. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Carolyn that girl is the exception, not the rule. Most kids have a clue about their chances and the numbers game does work. If you have a 3.9UW, a 2250SAT, and good ECs if you apply to Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Amherst, etc chances are a couple are going to accept you. Sure applying to Columbia and Amherst might make little sense (I too hate the blanket "all Ivies" strategy), but most of the schools are in between these two extremes and are similar in that they attract top students.</p>
<p>Although I shudder at the thought of Carolyn's D's friend who applied to 21 schools (many stratospheric for her, not even low enough to be called reaches) because of the sheer amount of work and time the poor girl put in...I shudder more at my D's classmate. Similar stats to Carolyn's D's friend. Thought she only needed to apply to 2 schools (despite a frank discussion with the GC): Barnard ED (rejected) and a competitive state school (rejected). I'm not sure what she's doing now. I just don't understand how some folks can be so obtuse.</p>
<p>And slipper, the numbers game does not always work. As evidenced by our recent high school class president with stats like this who blanketed the Ivies, MIT, Stanford and U of M and only got into U of M.</p>
<p>Recounting my entry above (#42), I'm not sure how I would classify the schools by reach-match-safety. Of the 7 my son applied to, only one was a "reach for anyone" -- a lottery pick -- but a couple of the others were a "reach for most applicants" and he got into those. We actually regarded all except the lottery pick to be a match or safety, and we were right. So, 6 for 7 success rate. He was far more interested in "fit" than anything else.</p>
<p>Of the 5 art schools my daughter applied to, she got into all of them, so 5 for 5. We considered two of them to be safeties and three to be reach, but we had no reliable way to read her qualifications because they were so portfolio dependent, though her "academic" qualifications -- GPA and SAT -- were above the norm for all the schools.</p>
<p>Sometime when you need financial aid, then you need to apply many as we have found that many Ivy League offer different packages. We know many cases from my daughter's friends who have been accepted to many Ivy League schools and got different financial aid packages. The difference in aid packages was sometime tune to $7000 dollars (even among HYPS). Most of the kids chose school based on the best fin aid offer. We may end up doing so and keeping our finger crossed.</p>
<p>For candidates for the top schools having four or more reaches makes sense. Of course you add four matches and a couple safeties.</p>
<p>Slipper ~ That's about what we did: four lottery type reaches, six matches, and two safeties. Both safeties are great schools that S would be glad to attend if nothing better presents itself.</p>
<p>Carolyn: To me, the real question is ... What happens if by chance she does get into one of these schools? Will she be able to keep up with the academics and have a life?</p>
<p>Quiltguru: I think to play the numbers game (assuming one does have the stats and ECs,) you have to spread your wings past the Ivies, MIT and Stamford and apply to other reaches as well.</p>
<p>Slipper: I agree. Top school applicants need several reaches; they should be carefully selected by the applicant though to be sure that he/she could be happy at each one.</p>
<p>The numbers game works if you are a viable candidate. Clearly this girl is not.</p>
<p>I have three kids (hence the name :) )</p>
<p>1) DD applied to six total: three reaches, two matches, and one safety. Went to and graduated from one of the reaches off the waitlist. One was SCEA, the rest, regular decision, due to financial aid.</p>
<p>2) DS1 applied to eight total: six reaches and two safeties. Going to reach. All were regular decision.</p>
<p>3) DS2 has applied to four, one reach, ED deferred. The other three are matches. He applied EA to two of them, and regular to the last. He has been accepted at the two EA schools, and has yet to hear from the last.</p>
<p>As far as the numbers game goes, I shiver for the young friend of Carolyn's dear daughter. It is very sad that the family has no respect for the vast majority of the middle group of schools. And I wonder with twinmom how she will fare if she does get in a very selective school. Yikes!!</p>
<p>Carolyn, your post #43 is so sad. It is going to be a sad spring for this girl when all those rejections start piling up. Oh, yikes . . .</p>
<p>Overdone (twice): First child, S, typed (yes, with a typewriter and correction tape) 14 apps in '98-99. Went 0 for 2 with the lottery reaches, 3 for 4 with the match/reaches (attended one), and was admitted at the rest (matches and safeties). All RD. '02-03 he filed 16 apps to law schools which were conveniently processed by the LSDAS. Admitted to 6, a couple with merit. Denied at 5, WL'd at 5 (there wasn't a pattern to the reach/match/safety decisions). I can't believe how much $$ we/he spent on fees.</p>
<p>Less stressful: Second child, D, was accepted ED to match/reach favorite. On-line app '03-04 was free. She had 6 apps ready to go if things had not worked out with ED school, and instate flagship safety had already come through. We learned alot from the two cycles that S went through that rubbed off on D.</p>