<p>Look at the admit rates.</p>
<p>-thats why everyone is spamming their applications.</p>
<p>^ The converse makes more sense.</p>
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<p>It would be completely foolish for many people aiming for a “good fit” to apply to only 4 schools. Much of what people desire at their future colleges are academically strong peers and access to the top-notch facilities, faculty, resources and opportunities that prestigious colleges are much more likely to provide. Sure, there are colleges with less prestige that may offer these, but it is much riskier and there are bound to be shortcomings in at least one of those categories. The ultra-prestigious colleges, supplemented with enormous endowments, will be far less likely to experience these shortcomings.</p>
<p>Students can adapt to a variety of conditions. It’s not necessary for a student to be able to come up with a list of “must haves” and “cannot haves” in categories such as location, greek scene, and other qualities I’m sure you must believe are of the utmost importance.</p>
<p>Additionally, it’s laughable to request that all applicants visit their prospective colleges before applying, especially when the chance of being accepted at many of these colleges is so low. The fact that you believe all applicants must be able to whittle down their list of colleges to 4 colleges shows that you have completely lost touch with the application process. Strong applicants oftentimes allow prestige and high academic standards to influence them into writing off unimportant preferences (which are likely to change anyway). These students have every right to give themselves options. Singling out and attempting to denigrate these students’ decisions (including mine) is, quite frankly, pathetic. Your views aren’t viable for many students. Move on.</p>
<p>boomshakalaka
I saw you were a UGA Ramsey- Are you attending the Foundation Fellows weekend?</p>
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<p>Want to know a fact? I was being completely sarcastic about which schools I applied to. I thought you would pick that up since I said that I had applied to all of the ivies.</p>
<p>Realistically, my real list was composed of a few ivies and alot of normal schools. Lighten up.</p>
<p>P.S. : And btw, it is entirely possible to visit 11 schools. There is something relatively new on the scene that has the ability to let students do this and it’s pretty amazing. It’s called a “College tour”. Since people on a college tour usually visit a few colleges in that area, it is entirely possible to them to go on multiple tours and see 11 or more schools idiot.</p>
<p>The idea that all students can visit all the campuses that they may be interested in on a “College Tour” is ludicrous. Airplane tickets are extremely expensive and add up quickly when combined with hotels, transportation, etc. In this economy, it’s unrealistic to expect a student to visit 10 colleges thousands of miles away in order to narrow down their college list. </p>
<p>For example, one student may be high achieving but extremely low income and wants to apply to Stanford, Yale, Rice and MIT as well as a few state universities and two safeties. Here are four great “reach” schools that may suit the applicant perfectly. There is no reason that the applicant should be expected fly to California, then to New Haven, drive to Boston, hop on another plane to Houston and then back home. That kind of expense is out of most people’s budgets.</p>
<p>Harvard
Georgetown
UCB
UCLA
GW
Northeastern (Accepted - Honors Program)
UC Irvine (Accepted - Honors Program)
UC Riverside (Guaranteed)
Penn ED (Rejected)</p>
<p>Who said the applicant is expected to do this? I am saying that it is possible due to personal experience.</p>
<p>In case you had no idea, there are many college enrichment programs that offer college tours. My best friend and I are in one of these programs, and we have gotten taken on college tours every school break (and even sometimes during the school year).</p>
<p>P.S.: We do not have to pay for these tours by the way.</p>
<p>Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Dartmouth
Duke
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame (accepted EA)
Georgia Tech (accepted EA)</p>
<p>And I thought my 8 applications were excessive…</p>
<p>Programs like these are very rare for students who are not located in or nearby large cities.</p>
<p>
Yes (10 char) s</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Cornell
Vanderbilt
…
UMich
UF
UCF</p>
<p>
I wish I applied to more like MIT 
low income student/single-parent family/immigrant mom…so I kind of didn’t know most of these schools existed until November last year (except Harvard, Yale, and Cornell. lol - not even Stanford or Dartmouth or Brown) since practically all the information I ever know is from my own head and through my own means of acquiring knowledge. I guess it shows what kind of ignorant life I live lol.
I found out about the financial aid <$60,000 thing in November…so… I didn’t even CONSIDER any of the schools above the “…” until I found out about the financial aid. Oh well…what can I do about it? Just need to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again…ha…</p>
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<p>lol, thank you</p>
<p>man, should have applied to Rice, too. I thought it was really nice when I looked it up. Lol, when I heard some people at my school getting accepted, I was like “Rice?..what?..you mean what people eat?” It would have been nice to have a few more between the HYPSM level and my state schools’ level of acceptance.</p>
<p>Havard
Yale (accepted)
Princeton
Stanford
Dartmouth</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale (deferred SCEA)
Columbia
WashU
Emory
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
GA Tech </p>
<p>Still waiting anxiously for a decision. I’m kind of regretting not applying to Stanford, but hopefully it’ll work out in the end.</p>
<p>when did you get Duke and Vande’s like;y letters?</p>
<p>^The Duke one was postmarked on Feb. 1st and the Vanderbilt one was postmarked on Feb. 9th.</p>
<p>YPS
Duke (likely)
Chicago (in EA, University Scholar)
UNC (in EA, Honors)
Georgetown (in EA)
WashU (no scholarship, not going)
Pomona
Amherst
Brown
Columbia</p>
<p>Wish I applied to fewer schools after getting into Chicago early. Oy.</p>
<p>UChicago (in EA)
BC (in EA)
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Brown</p>
<p>Stanford (in EA)
Harvard</p>
<p>Should have applied to more schools</p>