<p>Colleges don’t just “differ” , jym. Helping my niece through the process this past year (15 schools IIRC) with a single parent, two-part paycheck her OOP varied by well over $20K . A year. But feel free to judge. 
You and the quilt lady have my permission.</p>
<p>You misunderstand, 'mudge, and thats not like you. I am not “judging”-- just agreeing with the perspective in the articles I linked. Perhaps its because of the policy my s’s school took, and I agree with it. Sure, we can all say with 20-20 hindsight that we wouldn’t have known what offers would have been made if we hadnt thrown all these applications into the mix. But where does one stop? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? Thirty? Aren’t you “judging” those who disagree with the “cast a massively huge net and see what we get” approach? </p>
<p>Does one need 4 choices or 14 choices?? Did the student automatically pick the school with the absolute best aid package (eg no loans, campus job or summer work requirement) or did they pick one with a lesser package but because the school was a better choice? I recall what choice your dau made, and totally agree with it. How many school choices did she have? With her stellar record I am sure she had a lot.</p>
<p>As to visits, we toured literally dozens of schools from soph year on. Of her 17 she toured all but Scripps, Amherst, Yale, Duke, and Miami prior to applying. ( I had toured Amherst, Yale, and Miami.)</p>
<p>jym, I do think I understand. I just disagree. Substantially. For many kids, the process you appear to be advocating is simply ignorant of the facts on the ground. I’ve given two examples. How many more would be convincing? 3? 5?</p>
<p>No, I’m not judging anybody’s choice of how many schools. Unlike y’all. See my post above. Do what is right for your family. If we were capable of full-pay, she’d have never applied to 17.</p>
<p>Yes we disagree. Thats fine. But I am not “judging” any more than you are. I think the thread title here is problematic b/c no one likes the “ethics” word bantered around. </p>
<p>One of the articles I linked had a suggestion that perhaps all students be lmited to, say, 10 schools. That might not be such a bad idea. Yes people have different financial needs . But 10 applications is still a lot. One of the articles said something like 70% of students were attending their first choice school, and half of those that werent had gotten into what had been their top choice initially, but chose to attend elsewhere (probably because of aid- I forget exactly).</p>
<p>Again. You are making a value judgment on over ten. I am not making a value judgment based on number of schools. Over or under.</p>
<p>Fine mudge- we can agree to disagree. Did your dau get merit money for med school?</p>
<p>We are dang sure trying, jym. Thanks for asking. 21 schools. Just like before , some reportedly generous need-only’s added, too. Well-researched to be sure. There the average apps are around 16.</p>
<p>Edit: It is not unusual to see above 30 apps.</p>
<p>I’m still have some trouble understanding what people who think 10 applications is “too many” think is the sensible strategy for a student who (say) is interested in attending Harvard. While that kid may be happy at Tufts, or at his safety school, it’s pretty likely that he’d be happier at Yale, Princeton, Stanford, or Penn. Maybe Duke. But if he applies to 6 schools, with only two reaches, what is likely to happen?</p>
<p>Here’s a suggestion: perhaps the number of school to which one might reasonably apply is related to the likelihood of being admitted to one’s first choice school. The lower the latter, the higher the former.</p>
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You stop when you have applied to all the schools you need to in order to give yourself the best possible chance of attending a school that you will be happy and successful at–no more, no less. Could be three, could be thirty.</p>
<p>Our son had fairly specific criteria for his search: must have strong music program and campus musical life, must have at least respectable IR, must have Arabic and/or Chinese, must be in the Northeast/Middle Atlantic. We found about 25 schools that fit this bill, and even after we winnowed out a bunch based on issues like financial fit, campus culture or public transportation access, we still had about 15. It took a summer of visiting to narrow it down to 11, and I’m half worried we’ve narrowed it down too much.</p>
<p>This has *absolutely nothing *to do with “bragging rights.” Of those 11 schools, there are only maybe three that most people around here would consider worth bragging about anyway, and that whole mentality is completely foreign to our son’s and our family’s way of thinking. It’s about making sure you have choices come April.</p>
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<p>I’m so proud. Bravo. Well said.</p>
<p>Not sure what you are asking, Hunt, or to whom. Why would someone necessarily be happier at Duke or Stanford than Tufts or a safety? Some don’t want warm weather, or CA or the south. They’d prefer Middlebury or Bard to Duke or Stanford. My s liked Tufts and Brown, but not Yale, Harvard, Dart or MIT.</p>
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<p>Can we bold this and underline it twice?</p>
<p>D currently has 15 schools on her list. She would be happy at any of them so why shouldn’t she shop for best COA when the time comes in April? I see no ethical issues whatsoever and I resent outside suggestions about what is right for D based on what was right in another applicant’s case.</p>
<p>Earlier on in this thread (post 74), I mention my baseball playing 2008 son who applied to and got into 20 or 21 schools while chasing his baseball dream. </p>
<p>Looking back on the spreadsheet he created (which I have on this laptop) of merit aid offers, it is really amazing how far they differed. In his case, the merit aid ranged from 80% to zero. </p>
<p>Most interesting were offers from schools that I consider roughly comparable - like Lewis & Clark, Willamette, Occidental and University of Puget Sound. </p>
<p>The high offer for these four school was a 65% Merit ride and low offer was zero. Note that these are all prior to any FA. Same kid, same stats, same undeclared major, and, as I recall all took the common app, so same application. </p>
<p>Doing it over again, I would not hesitate to have him apply to just as many schools. In his case, acceptance was only acceptance into the school - and did not deal with two of the major remaining issues in his case - would he be able to play baseball and what kind of aid would he get. I do think that it is important to manage those acceptances responsibly, that is, once he knew that he would not go there either for financial or a lack of interest from the baseball coach, he declined his offer quickly so as to open up spots for those on the waiting list.</p>
<p>11 seems to be a reasonable number of applications IMO, nightchef. And you had very targeted programs. Fine. What I dont get are the people who are juggling 12 acceptances. I would encourage posters to read the articles linked above. Just a different perspective. This issue has been bantered around time and time again on CC. Read that thread started by Roger Dooley. Posters go round and round. </p>
<p>For those who have a good reason to apply to more than the average, fine for them. For those who are trophy hunting or apply just to see if they can get in, bad plan. Others posted this.</p>
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For some kids–and I think a lot of those on CC–a paramount interest is in attending a school with a very academically strong student body. If that’s the primary reason a kid is interested in Harvard (and I think it’s a common, and very good reason), he’s highly likely to be interested in several other schools that are at the same level of selectivity as Harvard. It might be Yale, Princeton, and Penn, or it might be Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore. But if you tell that kid that he can only apply to ONE other school at the reach level, what are you accomplishing for him? It seems to me that you’re restricting the likelihood that he will be able to get the kind of college experience he is looking for.</p>
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On this , we whole-heartedly agree. And yeah, we are both judging the trophy-hunters…and I am more than fine with that. ;)</p>
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<p>This is by now off-topic since this comment was a few pages back, but I’ve heard from college representatives that some colleges do pay attention to this data - not only which colleges are listed, but some colleges treat the order they are listed in as a proxy for the student’s preferences. I expect you’re right that the most selective college don’t do this. Just in case, I think alphabetical order is a good idea.</p>
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<p>IMO, bragging rights is really only applicable when someone is full pay, has an EA or SCEA at their reach / dream college, and instead of saying, “Wow, I hit the jackpot! I’m withdrawing all other apps, I’m done!” chooses to continue the other apps in hopes of seeing acceptances from places he doesn’t want to go anyway. That, to me, is a far cry from a student needing FA who wants to compare a lot of different schools / offers, and a far different cry from a student who has a bunch of reaches, all of which he would be happy to attend.</p>