Narrowing the List....If D loves her safety, does the depth of the list matter?

collegeshopping · 08-23-2010, 10:20 AM

Hi everyone....the fish continues to flop. As we narrow down the list for applications...we are at 12 right now...trying to trim to 6 mainly because of time limits, it occurs to me, most schools are high reaches, and not really any matches for D. When we discuss "match" schools, she says she would pick her safety (State U auto admit) over the match so why even apply. So under these circumstance is it okay to just let the list ride as 5 reaches and the safety?

thumper1 · 08-23-2010, 10:23 AM

DD applied to only 5 schools (and ONE of those was a "mom wants you to apply to this school" school). So really her list was four schools. One safety, two matches and one reach. Her top choice was one of the match schools. Her second choice was the safety. She (and we) saw no reason to make the list any longer. To be honest, it was a waste of time and money to apply to the "mom school". In retrospect, I shouldn't have insisted on that.

Erin's Dad · 08-23-2010, 10:44 AM

I know I've seen posts from others who have done the Safety + Reaches. I think it makes a lot of sense.

blossom · 08-23-2010, 10:53 AM

It makes sense if your D isn't going to balk at State U auto admit once she sees who else from your town is going there. I've seen kids who were happy to think of State U auto admit as both safety and match.... until April when they realize that a couple of the "dumb girls" and slacker dudes and stoners are going there as well. (Not saying the kids were actually dumb or slackers or stoners.... but that was the take on them in town.)

So if your D is happy with the school regardless of who else might be going there-- then terrific. But if she may have second thoughts it's easier to just add a match or two. Are the incremental applications that time consuming???

SamuraiLandshark · 08-23-2010, 10:59 AM

Is money no object?

One of the main reasons why students apply to a larger number of schools for which they might gain entry is to see the financial aid/scholarship offers.

I would question the wisdom of so many reaches and no matches. How far a reach are they? Will your student succeed if she gets into those reaches? Why are they reach schools?

Does she have the grades and test scores but those schools are hyper-selective? or are her grades/test scores a bit weaker but the schools have a higher selectivity?

If she loves her safety it may not be a problem, but we are seeing more and more students in California who could/should get into the second tier public universities (Cal State Universities) get rejected because of monumental numbers of applicants. They are being turned away when theoretically it should be an auto-admit based on stats. This is because of huge budget deficits and cutbacks; it may be happening in your state, too.

momma-three · 08-23-2010, 11:23 AM

You mentioned that all but one of your daughters selected schools were reach schools. I have seen many kids not get into any of their reach schools and, the safety school all of a sudden is the school that they hate. I think that your daughter should look for a couple of schools that are not so reachy, yet, share something similar to the reach schools. I only say this because of the fact that she has made her list a reach list. These are the kids who are generally hopeful that they will gain acceptance to a reach and are disappointed when the letters come. Good luck with the college process!

mathmom · 08-23-2010, 11:30 AM

Our original plan had been to have 2 safeties plus 6 or 7 reaches. My son loved his safety (American - it had everything he was looking for - international relations, nice size, residential neighborhood in a city, defined campus.) I thought he should have choices in the spring. When he got into Chicago EA, he didn't feel he needed a second safety. He still went and looked at American in the spring, and still really liked it. (They gave him a lot of money too, and he stayed with someone who had turned down Chicago to go to American!) In the end, money was not the deciding point and he went to Tufts. There were obvious match school for my son, it was just that he liked the reaches and safety better, so they all got eliminated.

I just think sometimes things change in the spring, so one other good bet on the list is probably a good idea. EA acceptance is my favorite safety if you can finagle one.

collegeshopping · 08-23-2010, 11:43 AM

Sam....to address some of your questions...the schools she wants to apply to are considered reaches because of selectivity and therefore reaches for most everyone...her grades/scores are in range for the schools (Brown, Princeton, Northwestern, Vanderbilt) Out of that list, Vanderbilt is probably a match/low reach. She is very attracted to schools with Greek Systems, and Brown at one point was going to be her ED school (now she has none) but because of their lack of a Greek system, she wants to see where the cards fall. She thinks she can get out of the dinning club system at Princeton what she might out of the Greek system, but she is not sure and that school comes and goes on the list because of that.

As far as her auto admit status. We are in Texas, and this year the State U she is interested in auto admits the top 8% of each High School Class and kids in that range are not turned away as long as they met some other requirements. So her safety is a true safety academically and financially.

collegeshopping · 08-23-2010, 11:51 AM

Any true match suggestions then? She has great stats...no need to go on and on about them here as I have posted them before (any they are in Ivy range), but she likes football, greek systems, interested in 4 seasons, and in a larger university with a strong honors college would be nice, but otherwise mid-size university is where she leans. She has strong EC's and wants to go to med school, but does not want to have her head stuck in a science lab for the next four years. She is interested in studying a multitude of things, with fine arts (music and dance) being of interest but not a major. Probalby majoring in some type science, but basically undecided at this time. (this is where Brown becomes attractive)

mom2collegekids · 08-23-2010, 12:34 PM

What match schools was she considering? Has she visited any?

Since match schools might cost more, is that ok? How much will you spend each year?

thumper1 · 08-23-2010, 12:47 PM

If this kiddo is happy with her safety school, why should she apply to more schools? As a parent who forced a kid to apply to one more school "just in case" I gotta say...it was not necessary. This kid is an auto admit to a school she likes. She has one match/reach (Vandy) on her list. I say...let it go. If she is truly happy with the safety don't force her to find schools just for the sake of finding schools.

collegeshopping · 08-23-2010, 01:05 PM

mom2...we are hoping for some type of aid, but have no idea how FA officers will see our situation (we will have three in college) and two young ones at home. We pay full for one son, and second son gets some aid (we had a lower EFC for son 2 than son 1, are EFC for D is even lower). We are prepared to pay all if we have too...we can make it happen. I want her to be 100% satisfied with her choices.

emeraldkity4 · 08-23-2010, 01:09 PM

Older D applied to 4 schools, then took a year off and applied to 5 ( she was accepted to all both times, but they didn't hold apps over).

Younger D applied to 2 schools, accepted to both, they did hold apps over and while taking a year off took some emailing back and forth, she didn't apply to any more schools.

I think as long as you have 5 schools or so, that aren't say schools with lower than 40% admit rate, that is plenty as long as you have one that you guesstimate are affordable.

When you throw in schools with lower admit rate, you also need to add a few more choices.

Fifty · 08-23-2010, 01:11 PM

Quote:

She is very attracted to schools with Greek Systems, and Brown at one point was going to be her ED school (now she has none) but because of their lack of a Greek system, she wants to see where the cards fall.

Brown has fraternities and sororities:

About Greek Life | Brown University Greek Community

So does Princeton:

Princeton Alumni Weekly: Q&A: Princeton's sororities

garland · 08-23-2010, 01:33 PM

My kids match for both of them was UMich. It seems to embody everything on your list--great academics, solid honors program, football, Greek scene, four seasons, strong in both arts and sciences. The one drawback would be that it is not a financial safety.