What is the impact of kids applying to so many schools?

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

@James_West

Thoughts, opinions, concerns?

My take on the reasoning and impact, from another thread:
(click on the link to view the post properly)

UMich Ann Arbor Early Action for Fall 2022 Admission

This “broken system” is because of the vicious cycle the colleges have helped foster. Here’s how it goes… Start → Review applications “holistically” - which on the surface sounds like a great idea because after all who wants a whole college filled with just high stat kids? But in reality this makes the process highly uncertain for those high-stat kids, and non-transparent for all applicants. Result → Applicants apply to a much larger set of schools in the early round because they don’t know who will say yes, who will yield protect, who will “shape” them out, who was having a bad day when reading their essay, etc. Result → Colleges start seeing applications from lots of students that they hadn’t seen before, and now have to worry about who’s actually interested and who’s using them as a backup in case they don’t get into their dream school. Result → Defer an ever larger pool of applicants, looking to shake off the loosely-committed and those that get accepted elsewhere and withdraw…