Am I being realistic here?

Millancad
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:25:02 +0000

Northstarmom’s advice about concentrating on paying for college is quite worthwhile.

You should also think about the cost of simply applying to all of those colleges. Application fee is around $65 per, which comes to $390 for the reaches you’ve listed here, not including the safeties and matches. If you can get fee waivers, go ahead, but if not, it might not be prudent to spend hundreds of dollars on a lot of huge reaches. Take a look at those colleges and decide which aspects you really want in a school. Especially when the schools are in the same area, like NYU and Columbia, try to eliminate one.

I don’t know when you’re planning to retake the ACT, but if you get your scores back before apps are due, you might want to not apply to the less realistic reaches, just to save money.