<p>MrsP,</p>
<p>Does your son’s H.S. place a limit on how many applications they can send out? My D’s high school had a limit of 8 applications.</p>
<p>sybbie719, that is a good question. I don’t know.</p>
<p>Sybbie, may I ask why they place a limit on the number of applications?</p>
<p>I applied to 12 schools. I was accepted at 5. I guess that means most of mine could be considered reaches, although the reach/match line was really blurred, especially after I was waitlisted by what was essentially a match/safety school for me and accepted (with a ton of money) by Wellesley (one of my big reaches) and Colby, both very well respected and competitive schools.</p>
<p>I agree that some people don’t put enough thought into their college search. So many people (many of whom are on this site–just look at the “What are my chances?” board!) seem to just throw together a list including all 8 Ivys, MIT, and Stanford, without really researching the colleges very much. When you’re a student who’s used to nothing but success and praise, it’s hard to imagine that you’ll be faced with rejection. Hearing “You’re not good enough” is a slap in the face. I fell into this trap to a point, although I tried to keep my emotions and pride out of the college selection process, to an extent. I still had a few very good options when all was said and done.</p>
<p>I have a friend who got rejected from every school she applied to except our local state school. The state school is a fine place, but it’s certainly not what she wanted, and she had to deal with a lot of disappointment before she got there.</p>
<p>The money situation is also kind of depressing. Like it was said before, it’s often the most competitive schools that give the best aid. It would actually cost me twice as much for me to go to my state school as it is for me to go to Wellesley this fall. This system is great for the students who get in to their first choice schools, but not for those that need to find other options.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because one does not apply to college alone. They need teacher recs, gc recommendations, transcripts and someone must do all of this paperwork with limited resources. </p>
<p>At my D’s high school they only had one GC who was responsible for writing evaluations for all students, pulling transcripts for the seniors in addition to teaching the senior insititute, coordinating internships for all of the juniors, meeting with student/parents.</p>
<p>Teachers teach a full course load, coach teams, check homework, exams etc.</p>
<p>My sister teaches at a high school that has over 5000 students and each GC has a case load of over 500 students whom they must take care of (freshmen to senior). In that case , who does not get services?</p>
<p>My S only applied to 3. None were reaches. He was sure he would get in all three (large publics). So he really had one favorite and 2 back-ups just in case something didn’t work out at #1 choice.</p>
<p>My daughter’s hs charges a $20 processing fee per application if you apply to over 6 colleges (the first 6 are free).</p>
<p>No kid applying this year but had two in past two years. </p>
<p>First child:
Applied to 8
4 reaches
2 matches
2 safeties
Plus was offered free ride and Honors College at state U</p>
<p>Accepted to 6
Waitlisted at 1 (Princeton)- reach
Deferred EA, then Denied at 1 (Yale)-reach</p>
<p>Attending:
Brown</p>
<p>Financial Aid applicant. Got need based aid from each school.
Most schools on list do not offer Merit Aid. Two did and she got scholarships. </p>
<p>Second child:</p>
<p>Applied to 8:
Specialized admissions process: BFA programs in Musical Theater (audition based)
All 8 were Reaches (all these programs have VERY low admit rates)</p>
<p>Accepted to 5
Accepted to College but deferred then denied to the BFA program: 1
Waitlisted at 1
Denied at 1</p>
<p>Attending:
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (CAP21 Program), Tisch Scholar</p>
<p>Financial Aid applicant. Got need based aid from each school.
Every school offered Merit Aid Scholarships and she won them at each.
Early graduate. </p>
<p>We feel their lists were appropriate and the outcomes seem to indicate that it was so. </p>
<p>Each is attending one of her first choice schools and is very happy there.</p>
<p>soozevt, what type of specialized admissions process did you use?</p>
<p>MrsP…I am sorry if I did not word that right. The admissions process she went through and the types of programs she applied to was not like regular college admissions. BFA programs are specialized programs and you must get into the program, not just the college. The Musical Theater BFA programs themselves have acceptance rates in the single digits. One must audition to be accepted. Perhaps I should have said: specialized colleges or specialized admissions. We did not “use” anything that was specialized. The process and the programs were specialized. It is not like applying to regular colleges as was with my first child. Besides ALL the stuff that regular students are evaluated on for admissions, which she had to ALSO do like any other applicant, there is the ADDITIONAL materials, skills/talents, and audition process to go through (thus more preparation beyond just applications). Also, the nature of this specialized college admissions process involves reaches and not a balanced list, though some add BA degree programs as fall back options. Anyway, applying to BFA programs requires applying directly into a program within a college, not just to the college. The admit rate for the program DIFFERS from that of the college and is lower.</p>
<p>Applied to 6 (one safety, two reasonable reaches, three difficult reaches), accepted at 4, waitlisted at 2.</p>
<p>I applied to eight last year, 3 far reaches, 3 matches, 1 match/safety, and 1 true safety.</p>
<p>Denied at 2 reaches, waitlisted and later accepted at the other.
Admitted to the others. I’m now at the reach at which I was waitlisted</p>
<p>soozevt, thank you. I do understand the arts admits are different (auditions, portfolios), but didn’t realize that is what you were referring to.</p>
<p>only four for me</p>
<p>Dd did six: USNA, USCGA, USAFA, Hillsdale, Embry-Riddle and School of Mines. Accepted/Appointments to all six, will be attending USNA in 33 more days!</p>
<p>D applied to 12 (or 8 plus the common app to 4 UCs) with the intent of trying to get merit aid, and got accepted to all 12, with merit aid at 8.</p>
<p>UCLA
UCBerkeley
USC
UCIrvine
UCSanDiego
UNC Chapel Hill
Duke
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)
UT Dallas
Baylor
Pepperdine
Biola</p>
<p>D decided to accept the full tuition scholarship to Baylor. (the schools she did not receive merit aid offers were UCB, UCLA, UNC, and Duke)</p>
<p>DD applied to 13 schools. 5 ivy, georgetown, swathmore, tufts, jhu, northwestern, notre dame, union, lake forest. Did not apply for FA.
Accepted to 2 ivy, all the rest (some honors programs) and received merit aid at union and lf.</p>
<p>We both feel it would have nice to apply to fewer…but given the acceptance numbers at most of these schools, despite her stats (SAT 2350, IB diploma candidate with a predicted somewhere around 42-43) there were no sure things…in other words, we broke her list into super reach (ivies), reach (just based on accept %'s we didn’t classify any schools as match but did break it into reach and likely/reach…remember Andi’s son) and safety. Did she love her safeties? NO. But she would have been happy to go to either.</p>
<p>IMO, as schools continue to market themselves more and more, and receive more and more apps driving their acceptance rates lower and lower, more kids will submit double digit numbers of apps, driving the numbers lower and so on …until acceptances and FA get more predictable I can’t imagine the trend reversing.
Maybe the UK is on to something with the single app to max of six schools thing…</p>
<p>DS applied to 3 schools.
1 safety
1 match
1 reach
Accepted to all three. Will be attending the match with an excellent merit scholarship.</p>
<p>D (class of 2009) applied to 7 schools. Hard to tell exactly what was a reach and what a match, because her record was affected by a transfer, and she had some very, very strong things (test scores, achievement in her field) and some weaker things (a number of B-range grades, lowish class rank due to issues translating her record between schools with very different philosophies/grading systems). Accepted at four (three matches, one LAC and two private universities, one of which was nonbinding early action and might have been considered a reach but everyone thought she should go there and she does, and one state university safety with rolling admissions), waitlisted at one LAC we thought was a match, and turned down at two clear reaches (super-competitive Ivies). She had an additional 3-4 applications in the works (including two realistic reaches and one safety) that she would have completed if she hadn’t gotten the early action acceptance, and only applied to the pure safety because they waived the fee and promised her a decision by October 10. </p>
<p>S (class of 2011), who is a more straightforward candidate (great everything but less demonstrated achievement in one field), currently has 11 schools on his list (four super-competitive, five very competitive but realistic, two relative safeties). He will probably put in two early applications, one EA and one rolling, and depending on what happens there could ultimately apply to as few as 3 schools and as many as all 11 or more.</p>
<p>I have something of a problem with kids (including my own) submitting double-digit applications. I recognize that the lottery-ticket aspect of Ivy-and-equivalent admissions encourages this, but I think that peoples’ experience as reflected in this thread shows that almost everyone could/should apply fewer places. I recently met a kid who had applied to 22 schools and gotten into 17 of them (plus two waitlists). That was a little ridiculous. In the end, she was only seriously considering 2-1/2 of them (half of HYPS and a full merit ride at a second-tier school closer to home). She could have trimmed her list a lot without sacrificing anything she really cared about.</p>
<p>applied to four (Udel, Umich, Cornell, Penn State)</p>
<p>Accepted All PSU for honors</p>
<p>S applied to 3 including ED first choice reach school , and 2 rolling admissions schools- one flagship in state and one competitive out of state place. He was fortunate to get into his ED school, but if that hadn’t panned out he had additional reaches and matches on the list. No need for more safeties at that point because of the rolling acceptances.</p>