<p>Agree with suzy100… We are in a position of sending twins next year and a 3rd kiddo in two years. The FAFSA estimates seem to think we can afford a lot more than we actually can… would have to sell our current home, tell all the siblings no pay-to-play sports, etc. to be able to come up with EFC. Blech!</p>
<p>One twin has autism and needs to go to a school with supports. He applied ED to Rochester Inst. of Technology and he will just have to take loans for beyond what we can afford. This is more do-able for him with the expectation of going straight to work in a tech field after college. Only one app for him - and done, yeah!!</p>
<p>My other twin plans on a long educational road with grad school. She would rather not have tons of loan debt (what the schools say she should take in loans plus gap b/w FAFSA and what we can actually afford)… thus, the quest for merit aid and 11 applications… Fingers crossed!!</p>
<p>If it were me, I’d be uncomfortable with an ED application and EA applications. But that’s me. </p>
<p>I think it’s very hard for a 17 y.o. to fully know what he or she wants, and it’s good to have options. They grow so much in this final year of high school. I’m much more comfortable with making decisions closer to when they will actually attend, and without the acceptance calculation influencing decision, and that means having choices come spring. But that’s me.</p>
<p>D is applying to 8 schools. When this while thing began, she said no more than 7 but then she found eight schools she liked. Four of the applications do not have supplemental essays while the other four have one or two. Then I added a ninth one as a local safety.</p>
<p>Six applications are in. Two admissions, both with merit aid. We dropped the ninth addition because of the early admissions, and D is rethinking submitting the last two applications.</p>
<p>I can sort of see limiting applications but going into the process, you just don’t know. You don’t know if your child is going to be admitted. (yes, I realize there are auto admit schools. None are on D’s list). You don’t know if your child will get the merit aid. You don’t know if your child will get the necessary amount of aid. Your child may be eminently qualified for both admissions and but taking these things for granted seems like a dangerous strategy. Any way, I’d rather D have more choices than fewer or worse, no choices.</p>
<p>D is applying to 8 schools, 2 safeties, 6 matches. She has already applied to 5, 3 were EA, one was rolling. Admitted to Rolling (safety) - really nice to have one! Won’t hear from EA’s until December. She is thinking of adding 1 or 2 reaches, but she might not want to add to the essay list. I think given her personality, a reach might not be a great fit for her. But, I think her friends are applying to reaches and she feels left out of the party. </p>
<p>I think the decision to apply to 1 or 2 or 12 colleges is so personal, and really depends on the schools one is applying to. If her safety was her absolute dream school, then we would be done. While we would all be happy with her safety, it isn’t her first choice. The other schools she is applying to are very good matches for her, but somewhat selective. And, as we have all seen here on CC, sometimes kids who are perfectly qualified don’t get in. Then, there are the additional considerations, like finances, auditions (been there), athletics (there now). I would rather kids have choices in April, than no choices. There is just too much uncertainty in this process. </p>
<p>D has 13 - mix of reach and target/safeties. 9 in and 4 more to go. For us, the list reflects two objectives - 1) having affordable choices when the dust settles and 2) making sure she understands hard work pays off in life. </p>
<p>I will share that; my experience is the only real disparity (> a couple thousand dollars) comes from whether they are CSS Profile or FAFSA only schools. Some how (magically :-??) the spectrum of CSS profile schools end up within a couple thousand dollars of each other and the FAFSA do as well. Same kid, same stats. Go figure.</p>
<p>Talent scholarships (including sports) I have no experience with.</p>
<p>Work ethic is important as is allowing yourself to feel satisfaction for job well done. I agree. We were a little more cautious on fostering any aspirations for the HMFR schools (I don’t consider acceptance there necessarily a recognition for hard work. Its much akin to winning the lottery). You get out what you put in, is a good lesson. And you can thrive and succeed coming out of almost any school.</p>
<p>I think DC#2 has hit that stretch of the marathon course where you know there are about ten miles left to run but the crowds have diminished and the cheering has gone silent. (If you’re a runner, think of Haines Point during the Marine Corps Marathon.) What’s left now is the hard work of putting one foot in front of the other over and over while fighting through fatigue to do so. For me at least, the only way to push through that feeling is to visualize two things: The first is the finish line. The second are the people I’m running for. I’ve been reminding DC#2 about both recently and letting him know that, even when he thinks the course is desolate, there are many, many people cheering him on. They know how hard he is running, and they’re very proud. </p>
<p>I’m sure I’ve posted today’s song before, but it is sort of a mantra of mine and bears repeating. This version is a grainy, but exceptionally cool, video of the Alarm performing at the Queen Margaret Union at Glasgow University as returning local heroes at the height of their popularity in 1987. It’s worth a listen just for the crowd sing-along. (More generally, the QM is the “hipster” student union at Glasgow and has a long tradition of bringing in big acts right before they break big – most recently including bands like Arcade Fire and CHVRCHES.)</p>
<p>At one time D had 16 schools on her list. She may end up applying to only one. If you would have asked me a month ago, I would have scoffed at that possibility. But situations change. Sometimes radically. </p>
<p>Giterdone, with my 2012er, I found radical differences in cost of schools to which my son was admitted-radical as in a difference of 20K from the least generous to the most generous school. That is one reason why my 2015er is applying to many more. He is not going to do near as well as my oldest did in admissions, but by casting a very wide net, I’m hoping he lands with one affordable option that he likes well enough to attend. There are no stars in his eyes, for sure. He’s not invested in any college. He just wants little or no debt.</p>
<p>For him, community college will always be the ultimate safety and we’re totally on board with that.</p>
<p>I think everyone here has done their due diligence on what schools and what number of apps are right for their child/family/finances. Much like EVERYTHING associated with the college search process, there is no one right answer or “one size fits all” approach. I don’t think anyone has left their child or themselves vulnerable to being “shut out” of going to college next fall or being forced into an unwanted gap year because of an unbalanced school app list. We might not all see our kids end up at their first-choice school, but they’ll all end up somewhere they can be happy and where they’ll get a great education. I don’t think we could ask for anything more than that!! :-bd </p>
<p>I can’t believe you saw a 20k difference between schools =; . Unless you’re comparing public to private? profit to non-profit? That is amazing to me.</p>
<p>Between D’12 and S’15, I’ve seen 13 apps total to a good cross section of schools and the only material difference in our net cost was between CSS and FAFSA schools.</p>
<p>I’ve run a ton of net price calculators, all at private schools offering exclusively or primarily need-based aid, and the range from high to low (considering grant aid only) is at least $17k.</p>
<p>It was actually between two privates. WUSTL gapped my son and we would have been billed about 22K each year according to their offer. Caltech would have been $1400 a year. Vanderbilt would have been $900 a year! All other schools feel in between, but even those varied. For MIT, our billed amount was about $9500; Penn was about 7-8K; Mudd was 10.5K; Princeton was around 5.5K. Some packaged loans (MIT, Mudd, Penn), some didn’t.</p>
<p>(To clarify, how I do aid is I take billed amount-tuition, fees, room and board-and subtract need-based grant, or in the case of Vandy, scholarship + need-based aid.)</p>
<p>So yep, pretty crazy.</p>
<p>The other factor for us was the National Merit Scholarship my son won. Because we are low enough income to qualify for a Cal Grant (and this year, some Pell Grant), at least at most schools here in California, that NM Scholarship would have disappeared. Harvey Mudd came off the table at that point because of that. Caltech didn’t reduce their aid on the offer they sent, but it probably would have happened sooner or later. Basically, the govt. will take outside scholarships to a certain point to make up for their giving you a Cal Grant. At least that’s what Mudd said.</p>
<p>So, if my current senior somehow manages to win this special NM scholarship, it may go bye-bye if he ends up at a California college.</p>
<p>There is just no magic number that is right for every kid. I do like that, as far as I can tell, the kids on this thread have safeties and won’t be completely shut out next Spring due to unrealistic lists. </p>