"accepted to [a large number] of colleges" stories 2025

Parents Forum
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There is at least one shared application that can be used to apply to 60+ colleges for one $20 fee, so a student who may be interested in one may check all at no additional cost or effort. Probably many of these stories involve such applications.

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agree, unless it is the got in to “all the Ivys” stories which I also see - a subset of the “large number ones!”

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Yes, I remember getting rather salty when I was proud enough of my okdest for just getting accepted to one or two UCs (and panicking about how we were going to pay for it) when my mom piped up with “well, So-and-so’s kid got a full scholarship to UC Berkeley”

But I’ve mellowed over time. And I suppose it would be hard for kids to report that they are low income and thus qualifying for aid. I do wish people (especially parents) would avoid talking about financial packages around others. It is a stressful enough time as it is.

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The story I read above about the girl being accepted to 60 schools and got $1.7M in MERIT scholarships is probably not all merit, but need based aid too. Again, sloppy journalism.

I understand that for the student to apply to 100 school may be as easy as checking a box, but there is still work on behalf of the schools and maybe on behalf of the federal program, and costs to those schools to process the applications is not $0. Maybe the schools think it is worth it if they get even ONE student to attend out of the hundreds of applications, but it still seems like a waste of money to me.

I think the students should have some skin in the game, as they say, and more than just a check mark. If it cost the schools nothing, then the UCs would allow students to apply to all schools with just the check mark and not require an application fee per school. If if didn’t cost anything to process documents, students could apply to 100 school on the FAFSA application but we know they can’t and have to remove schools and replace and keep doing that.

I believe students should do more work up front and I would not have a problem with there being a limit of 10 or 20 total applications per student. I know some high schools have this rule because of the work it takes their GC to prepare the applications.

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The schools on the “apply to 60+ for one $20 fee” application presumably think it is worth it to be on that application, since they are little known to most students. Note that they are unlikely to be of much interest to most forum participants.

A high school that wants to limit the burden on counselors and teachers should impose a limit on unique letters of recommendation that a student can ask for from counselors and teachers, rather than limiting the number of schools applied to.

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Idk think it’s ridiculous to apply to so many schools, but one of my daughters did put a great deal of effort applying to 20ish safety/targets (since reaches were off the table due to finances). Most didn’t have automatic merit, east coast schools.

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One HBCU app goes to 60+ schools, so that’s one way some students can have many acceptances/FA offers without completing so many apps.

Also, the rise of direct admission has increased the number of acceptances that students can have without ever having put in an app. Common app, niche, college board, and appily match all have direct admission programs (there may be more.) Generally these programs are for relatively less selective schools:

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It’s a little like collecting snow globes—not my thing, but


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https://commonblackcollegeapp.com/

Note that the colleges on it may do the “direct admission” thing that you mentioned, which is access the application and admit even though the applicant did not explicitly designate that college.

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So basically the reporter didn’t do any research or fact checking?

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For story about Higher Ed? I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!!!

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There was another one of these stories on the local news last night. It’s such nonsense. Good for the kid for getting lots of acceptances at low tier schools, with each coming with potential need based aid but come on already.

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And didn’t care to make a correction.

I get it that everyone thinks football players get scholarships, but the term scholarship is interchanged with Grant in Aid which is what it really is. At Ivies, it’s just plain need based financial aid. I saw an interview with Richard Sherman’s mother who wanted to correct the record that Richard had an academic scholarship not a football scholarship. Full academic scholarship. To Stanford. Sure he did.

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It was many years ago, but can I get my name in the news also. I got into 100% of the colleges I applied to. Had to choose which one of the TWO I wanted to go to!

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Argh!!!

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As long as she doesn’t try to spend that 1.8 mil all at once


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At least in this case she has one affordable, solid acceptance.

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Interestingly this story differs from many we share in this thread. This student has a parent with an advanced degree working in education so her process seems more intentional than many I read about. ETA: And also PR for her mother’s consulting business.

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Mostly that. I’m certain that the mother knew that Alabama was a sure thing and likely the best choice financially. In another article, the authors provide a few on the colleges to which she applied:

What CC posters understand, but the majority of the readers of “People” do not is that, since the family is from Georgia and they’re upper middle class but not wealthy, they would never have been able to afford Florida, LSU, MSU, OSU, and likely many of the other colleges on their list. With a handful of exceptions (Alabama being one of them), public universities, especially state flagships, do not provide merit scholarships to OOS students, or, if they do, it’s generally not enough to make it worthwhile for OOS kids whose parents aren’t affluent. However, like CC members, the Mother would have been familiar with this fact.

It’s not crazy like earlier entries, and not shady like that poor 13 year old, though it’s obvious that that more than half of applications were submitted without the applicant having any intention of committing, or even of using the offer as leverage. They were there to add colleges to the mother’s list of “colleges to which my clients were accepted” for her consulting business. And, as @DramaMama2021 pointed out - this is advertising.

I actually applaud the mother for this. I’m absolutely certain that she knows that these articles are meaningless fluff and that the “$1.8 million in scholarships” is BS. However, the time and effort put into an extra 40 applications is small compared to the amount that she would have to pay to get that level of exposure for her business in any other way.

So it’s dumb reporting, but a smart move on the part of the mother.

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Of course, if the student used one application for most of those extra 40 colleges, then the effort would not be that much.