How many apps is too many?

3togo
Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:20:11 +0000

Here’s the part I don’t get … assuming your son is a rising senior … in mid-July the summer before his senior year why is your family frantically working on pairing the application list down. He has almost 6 months to figure this out … which frankly is just about how long most kids work on their list. Why the rush? Is the student driving this (OK I guess) Or is a parent pushing closure? Is so please consider letting the student drive the pace of the search; he has A LOT of time left.

Personally I think it is a good thing lots of schools are on the list at this point … it seems he is exploring options and finding lots of things interesting. If this were my kid at this time I would not be focused on the list but on helping him understand which attributes he likes best … use colelge visits to get a handle on … city/suburb/college town/boonies … big/small school … tech focused/well rounded … etc. Answering these questions will help narrow the list.

BTW I do not think a short list is necessarily a great thing if the student is driving the long list and motivated to do more apps … personally I think only having 2 reaches is a pretty limiting strategy. Short lists are also tough for folks shooting for merit scholarships or for schools with auidtion based admissions, for example.