<p>alwaysbelieve: you should be the poster child for this thread…</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1034160-college-applications-fewer-more.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1034160-college-applications-fewer-more.html</a></p>
<p>You win the lesser is more award…</p>
<p>alwaysbelieve, a very excited congratulations to your daughter!! How exciting to celebrate and move on to enjoying her sr year!! 
</p>
<p>Our students require vastly different application strategies regarding the number of schools applied to, ED/EA/RD, etc., but I think we would all agree, it would be awesome to have that decision already made!!</p>
<p>btw - My son is applying to three schools. It’s right for HIM, not everyone.</p>
<p>wow, madbean, that’s the kind of surprise that puts some fun in this process! congratulations to your son.
with regard to number of apps, sometimes the GC is a big factor too. Especially in schools that don’t release naviance to the public, the GC’s have access to a lot of information that drives their recommendations. And as much as we want our kids to succeed in this they, too, have a vested interest in outcomes.
Together with the ease of use that comes with just adding a name to CommonApp, the pressure on high-stats kids to reach, reach, reach, and the heightened state of anxiety surrounding admissions, you have a recipe for way too many applications going out.
I’m definitely in the camp that says STOP THE MADNESS.
OTOH there is also some hype that drives the numbers that we don’t often consider. For example, some schools have a part One that asks for simple biographical information and no fee until Part Two is complete. If a kid submits Part One only, that still counts in the data as an application. So numbers up, yield down.
The best approach is to make informed choices. If that process yields two schools, perfect. If it ends up at ten, so be it. But no one will ever convince me that there is a real need to go much beyond a dozen.
For the record, in this house, we are at four apps out and four pending.</p>
<p>I wasn’t expecting to get a response from one of my schools until December 1st, so it was a good surprise to find the acceptance letter in the mail. It was a SMALL envelope, though. It’s my financial safety and my first response, so I’m thrilled.</p>
<p>DD also had issues with GC. Although we have since discovered the issues had a range deeper than she anticipated.</p>
<p>Thankfully she has been accepted to a school she loves and her GC cannot get her claws into DD’s future</p>
<p>Alwaysbelieve: Congratulations to your daughter! It’s great that she has decided so early. I’m glad that the GC issues did not hurt her. </p>
<p>Count me in the “stop the madness” camp. Some of the brightest students at my daughter’s school are aplying to 18-22 schools. I don’t really understand how all of the top 20 kids can be a fit for a kid. They just want to attend the best school they can get into.</p>
<p>My daughter did a lot of thoughtful reseach and ended with a list of 7 schools. We made sure to include a few rolling schools. Now that she’s heard from 2 of them, there’s no need to send out any extra apps as panic sets in. She’s submitted 5 applications, and will have to do 2 supplements if she doesn’t hear good news from her ED school in December. I really appreciate all the advice I’ve gotten on CC that has allowed us to approach this intelligently.</p>
<p>^ that sounds insidious.</p>
<p>above post meant for alwaysbelieve’s GC.</p>
<p>DD had some medical issues junior year. Missed >30 days (most of it second semester). Some of her teachers made it incredibly difficult for her to make up exams (double booking, etc). Her GC was supposed to be the liaison. Fail.
Since DD is committed to her decision, she has discovered her GC’s LOR left MUCH to be desired.
DD is not ‘top in her class’, nor has she scored ultra-high on ACT, but she is a very dedicated student who has worked diligently against her limitations. In fact, excelled at them. She pulled her second semester grades higher than her first and without ANY tutoring or teaching as she finished the year on her time over the summer.
She had reach schools on her list and now believes with that LOR, she wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Pathetic how the school trounced her when she was physically down, but to extend it into her LOR’s after she devoted her summer and SURPASSED expectations is reprehensible. While I appreciate the GC identifying DD’s struggles health-wise, she never ONCE mentioned that DD OVERCAME it. Only how DD was ‘not one of her favorite students’ and how that impacted her as a GC.</p>
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<p>Whoa!!! I think the GC has no right to torpedo the chances of any kid at any school over her own personal issues…report just the facts, m’aam. Unless a kid has done something like assaulted the GC or vandalized her car…</p>
<p>Wow! I am so glad I didn’t see the GC rec or any of the teacher’s recs. You would expect the GC to be bland at worst…not detrimental. If your daughter was not set where she wanted to go it would be something to pursue. I am with you…I raise my glass and say ‘good riddance!!’.</p>
<p>wow…that’s all I can say…I thought GC’s are supposed to “help” the kids…this is disturbing on many levels…</p>
<p>Wow, alwaysbelieve, that is truly horrific. I would suggest sending a letter to the principal, even if they ignore it,you will feel better and the witch will have the letter in her file forever. </p>
<p>As to attacks on kids applying to lots of schools, I don’t get it. If the kid is applying to top ivies and wants to maximize chances both to get into the best school he can and to get in somewhere at all, he needs to apply to lots of schools. This is simply a mathematical fact that applying to a 15 schools that take 10 percent of the pool significantly increases chances of getting into one of them versus applying to only 5 of them! In any case, we will follow our philosophy and my son will be applying to 16-18. Most kids I know who are shooting for top elite schools are applying to around 15, it is almost foolish not to, really, unless you are not that focused on getting into one of them, which is certainly great for those who feel that way.</p>
<p>And to think, that because the right to see the recommendations is waived, GC’s can do this and no one is the wiser.</p>
<p>Wow! Sad and frightening to me.</p>
<p>Quite disturbing rodney. Combined with all she went through since freshman year there, I think BIG changes should happen. I have fought 3 years for her there. Sadly, I know they won’t. All I can do is pray DD2 has a better experience. However, she is not near as dedicated so the impact won’t be as significant.</p>
<p>Exactly why I can’t go further with this. Although, the principal is one of DD’s biggest supporters!</p>
<p>Not trying to attack. Sorry if I offended you, and I do understand the philosophy of wanting to get the best education possible. Maybe my disconnect is wondering how a given student could be happy at Dartmouth if an urban setting is desirable. Or thinking that the campus culture at Duke would be a good fit for a kid who also applied to UChicago.
Obviously kids like lots of different things, and are highly suggestible, but I would think that certain criteria other than prestige are salient.
We all make the right choices for our respective families. In my case, I think that if my son had to churn out 18 supplements, we’d both die from the stress.</p>
<p>@alwaysbelieve: that kind of LOR should be sent to the district superintendent. No child deserves that kind of statement. Give me the GC’s name, and I’ll hunt her down.</p>
<p>Aniger - I hope you didn’t take my response to in any way disparage ANY students strategies. This is a highly personal thing base on many, many factors. For instance, my son is only applying to one top elite. It is the only one that has his specific major that we can afford, so in his case it is not foolish. For other families such as you described, a wider net would certainly be a good approach. I didn’t mean to suggest any single strategy was better.</p>
<p>I also didn’t mean to imply that I think there is anything to be concerned about in my son’s LORs… I’m just glad I didn’t see them and worry how anything would be interpreted or wish they would have emphasized one quality over another.</p>
<p>ab’s daughter was treated with gross unfairness at best.</p>
<p>I’m going to quit posting now…I’m not doing a very good job in the communications dept today.</p>
<p>I also want to apologize if I offended anyone whose child has chosen to cast a wide net. Like College4three, I don’t think it makes sense to apply to schools using prestige as the primary basis. I do realize that chances at the top schools are very unpredictable for top students, and that they would want to maximize their chances. I still think it’s a good idea to review the list and eliminate any that don’t really appeal to the student, as long as you have some good safeties and matches.</p>
<p>Alwaysbelieve: I’m shocked that your daughter was treated so poorly. It sounds like she has handled her misfortune quite well.</p>