While I haven’t applied yet (junior), I really don’t buy your argument that kids who apply to 15+ schools must not have done their research. For myself, and others too I would conjecture, there is not one set of criteria (e.g. school must be in a big city, school must have precisely 4000-8000 kids, school must have certain major etc.) that I am looking for in a college. It is perfectly plausible that one may fit in at a variety of collegiate environments, depending on the criteria of that particular student.</p>
<p>N.B. I’m not saying that all (or even most) people who apply to 15 schools are like this though.</p>
<p>Yet a good portion of these students delude themselves into thinking this and end up hating their situations. Not all, but a lot. There are certainly troopers who happily adapt (a friend who attends the University of Hawaii has to share an apartment with one friend and two strangers), but there are many others who just won’t.</p>
<p>Answer to the OP question:
**Because they they’re selfish. Extra applications did not cost them extra application fees. (who cares that someone else doesn’t get the acceptance.)</p>
<p>**Because they’re insecure. They need to hear they were accepted over and over again. </p>
<p>**Because they don’t know themselves well enough to project where they’d like to go to school in three months.</p>
<p>**Because they’re egotistical: They want the admissions people to read their essay and say they want him/her.</p>
You’re talking about blindly stepping into a certain situation, while I was instead pointing out that after careful consideration one might find it possible that a variety of colleges may fit his/her needs. There’s a big difference between the two.</p>
<p>And most importantly, to decrease everyone else’s chance of getting in. The increased competition will make society better, albeit at a cost to the people who were squeezed out. Assume a kid gets into MIT EA. Now that same kid is evil so he applies to every school that is top 20 even though he is sure he wants to go to MIT.</p>
<p>While it costs him a thousand dollars extra, he gets the satisfaction that comes when he “squeezes” his fellow class mates out of their first choice.</p>
<p>^^^Ah, but Jason…the biggest offenders of sending out gazillions of applications are from kids who don’t have to pay for them. It doesn’t cost them thousands of dollars. To some, it’s completely free. [Worst offender I discovered sent 30+ applications. Total costs: <$100]</p>
<p>I applied to 28 schools. My parents were ok with paying all the bills, and I was ok to write all the essays and fill out applications (which I actually enjoyed). It just gives me more opportunity to choose a wide-range of colleges. And yes, it’s actually fun to watch which colleges I get accepted to and denied from.</p>
<p>Jamie, how much did that cost you? 28 applications x average $50 = $1,400, plus transcripts plus scores. And what did your teachers think? your GC? The secretaries who have compile all the paperwork? That’s a tremendous amount of effort for one kid who will turn down a majority of acceptances from these schools. </p>
<p>Was it fun to watch everyone scurry around trying to get everything sent? What about these colleges? They had to hire more staff just to read those extra applications. Was that fun to waste their time? And what about the kids who didn’t get in, because you got the acceptance? Was that fun to disappoint?</p>
<p>S applied to 15+ schools. This number was required because he is a top student eligible for significant merit aid, a recruited athlete, has a creative arts talent, and financial need. A mix of schools was necessary.</p>
<p>Do you honestly think there’s only a handful of good matches for every student? If so, that’s pretty naive. Do you think the colleges flooding your email and post office boxes care about reducing the flow of applications they receive so that those most interested have better odds of being admitted? Of course not. Please spare us the Pollyanna worries about easing the burden of other applicants. If you haven’t noticed, the process is driven by the schools, not the applicants. </p>
<p>Colleges and universities are very sophisticated marketing machines that employ a wide variety of strategies to engineer admissions. While not true for many, the average applicant is overmatched in terms of maximizing or even fully understanding all of his or her opportunities. True, some don’t need to worry about financing their education, so a few simple acceptances are probably sufficient. However, for the vast majority, they are better served playing across a wider field. </p>
<p>Most colleges are not especially transparent about how they make decisions. Many Adcoms can be misleading and often promote false hopes; they inspire many kids and their families to apply who really don’t have much chance of being accepted or receiving the level of financial aid suggested. Why? Because most of them are ■■■■■■■■ for as many applications as possible. Well, if that’s a fair strategy for the schools, I think it’s also a fair strategy for applicants. Most importantly, it works.</p>
<p>Your point hardly matters because the majority of the people (on this site, at least) who apply to 15+ schools apply indiscriminately to schools in the top 20. And 1 state flagship.</p>
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<p>I never said that.</p>
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<p>It’s quite possible to understand one’s opportunities before applying to schools, rather than after hearing back from 20 schools.</p>
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<p>Okay. I didn’t say anything that runs contrary to this.</p>
<p>I applied to 12. I have to admit that three were honestly random. Like, “Oh, I can apply to three more and I don’t have to do anything other than press a button? No more essays or application fees? Awesome! Let’s press some buttons!”
And if I had waited until closer to the deadline (ie: post EA results) to apply to one of them, I might not have, but as it was, after already having paid the $65 or whatever, it didn’t seem worthwhile to withdraw, especially since I do honestly like the school and might still go.</p>
<p>At the time I was applying, I considered all but one of my American schools to be in my number one/first choice group. So, I applied to seven. And then, for my UK schools, I had one I really liked and one I liked a good bit. There’s absolutely no difference between applying to two schools and applying to five in the UK (the max). However, if there hadn’t been a limit, I probably would have only applied to two. Maybe three. I did sort of like the third one a lot. But then I visited and realized that London is as awful a metropolis as New York (no offense! I just really hate it).</p>
<p>Oh, and one thing that colleges do is send invitations to students, complete with applications (some of them already filled out!) and all sorts of inducements (decisions in a week! No essays! No application fee! Automatic scholarship!) to encourage kids to apply. That doesn’t take responsibility off of the applicant, but it definitely helps encourage people to apply to more schools than necessary.</p>
<p>That’s a broad assumption and I have no idea how accurate it is. I know it doesn’t reflect our approach because there was nothing indiscriminate about the schools she selected. Also, I don’t think there is some arbitrary number of applications beyond which you can start making negative assumptions about an applicant’s motives, degree of due diligence, or quality of applications. </p>
<p>That said, if your objection is merely pointed at the indiscriminate submission of a large number of applications with no substantive evaluation, then I have to agree with you - that’s a waste of time. However, I think there is a big difference between something like that versus maximizing a greater number of realistic opportunities, which was our approach.</p>
<p>@jaddue: well said. Well, I didn’t pick all of the ivies, just some…the “lower” ivies, and some public ivies. My safeties are in Ontario, seeing as I live in Canada. I guess it’s because we’re just nervous about what universities will accept us. I’d gladly go to any of my american universities (except NYU, which is more or less my “safety” there)</p>
<p>I know this is totally based on general perceptions, but I’ll have to agree with this. At least at my large public high school, where guidance is more concerned with scheduling than any sort of college advice, there’s no real advising system to tell us how to go about picking schools. So kids pick a set point school that they think they can get into (say, UPenn) and then apply to every college around that one in the USNWR rankings. Then the state flagship for good measure. </p>
<p>I do know a few kids making more thoughtful lists, but these are the ones with college professor parents. The rest are left to fend for themselves and end up making vast, poorly informed lists.</p>
<ol>
<li>It really isn’t as hard as most people think. There are only so many schools with difficult supplements. </li>
<li>Options, options, options - more college options, more financial aid options. </li>
<li>Your college preferences may change from January 1 to April 1.</li>
</ol>
<p>I applied to 19 schools because I was deferred early decision from the Ivy League school at which I am a legacy. Basically, I freaked out, thought I wouldn’t get into any schools, and started applying everywhere. I feel that a lot of deferred/rejected early decision applicants apply to more schools.</p>