Number of applications

Deja
Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:21:47 +0000

ed is just not an option for some students. they need to be able to compare the financial aid packages.

i think as long as there is tuition discounting, you’ll see multiple applications.

not all students have the financial resources to be visiting all schools before they apply.

with competitive admissions, there is a need for students to apply to multiple schools. they need to give themselves options.

Very well put, condor30. We did not have the luxury of time (or money, really) to take S on a cross-country tour of colleges before applying. So we only looked at schools in our region. We did promise to take him to any colleges that were under serious consideration after the acceptances and finaid offers came in. Because he had good stats, I encouraged him to apply to many places, and he did. 15. Some CC’rs will/did vehemently insist that is not necessary, but it worked for us. In hindsight, a few of the colleges were added at the very last minute (so perhaps shouldn’t have been added at all). The results? 8 acceptances, 1 guaranteed transfer after freshman year, three waitlists and three rejections. He was accepted to his dream school, but won’t be attending because their finaid award wasn’t enough. (Even though they meet 100% of need, the privates don’t look at dh’s business the same way that we do!) That’s okay, though – he will be attending a very good LAC on a full ride merit scholarship and and will therefore get money for law (or grad school) from us.

If he had it to do over again, would he have applied to 15 places? I’ll have to ask him!