@texaspg, Thanks! I’ll be in the lookout for @sbjdorlo. I think that hooks are a tricky thing, though. Not all hooks are created equal and some hooks appear to be hotter on different years and for different schools.
My son’s school friend that I mentioned had all the hooks you could imagine, all of them. Minority,1st generation college, low income, single mom (immigrant), MITES, the kid was even Gates Millennium. Nothing 
I mean, he got 740 in the SAT Math, but I really don’t think that there is a huge difference between 740 and 800. His rejection really shook me to the core. If this kid didn’t get in with all those hooks …
Did he have good EC and essays? MIT essays are very much different from CA essay. If he got into MITES he probably have.
@kittymom1102 Check this link for the other folks on “NMSF watch”…you may get “unofficial” information sooner thna you hear something official from your school.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1696275-class-of-2016-nmsf-nmf-qualifying-scores.html
@Sophmore1 thanks for sharing that poem - it was a huge trip down memory lane, with my supply of tissues diminishing greatly!
@4kids2graduate, Nice finding a Gator! As I mentioned, my son is wearing his Gator t-shirt today. He is by no means turned off by the idea of attending UF. He is throwing a really big net and will be comfortable with any school on his list as long as he is learning.
@LKnomad, Good for you that your son is not applying to to many lottery schools. My son has a pretty good list but we prefer to not think of any of them as safeties. UF is as close as it gets because it is our state school and is pretty much stats-driven for instate kids. Good luck!
@kittymom1102 Welcome. My daughter’s list has a number of lottery schools. Not sure where she ends.
@LKnomad If your son has stat for MIT or CalTech, it must be very hard to make a list. The biggest problem is very blurred match and reach schools. Most of match schools are also very selective. My daughter’s case, school put cap on number of schools to apply and it is a quite stress to make a list.
@texaspg, He ended up at CMU, which is nothing to cry about.
@ballerina16, I don’t know exactly about his EC and essays, but he got into MITES and got Gates Millennium. I would speculate that they were kind of decent.
@NYDad513, Good luck to your daughter!
@4kids2graduate, Thanks for the link. It would be great not to wait for too long.
@kittymom1102, as others have said, welcome! It’s fun to see the forum getting busier as the senior year gets underway, and I so appreciate the variety of viewpoints here. My daughter is casting a wide net too. We have been unable to visit many schools due to our somewhat isolated location, and finances will be an issue in paying for college. So though she may have the stats for certain schools, going there would require earning scholarships that she may or may not receive. It’s worth trying, but would be a mistake to count on any of this! Also, since visiting before application is not practical, she is applying to a variety of schools, as she is not sure how she will feel about various locations until she sees them.
@AKFirefly, Thanks for the warm welcome. I totally understand what you are talking about. We have not visited out-state schools for the same reasons you mention. However, we make a point of attending all local informational sessions, so schools know we are interested. We just happen not to have a lot of money to be traveling around 
Money is the other big reason why we are throwing a net as wide as possible, we need to compare financial aid. This college thing is not easy, for so many reasons.
Is it common for schools to charge small additional fee for submitting supplemental materials?
My DD is sitting beside me and worries if she’s not accepted from any of her list.
@NYDad513, I think pretty much everyone around here is on the same boat. Try to throw a big, wide net and cross your fingers. What else can we do?
@kittymom1102 My daughter’s school caps number of school students can apply. So it need to be very careful when chooses the schools. Her list is almost done and try to tweak a little bit.
@NYDad513 See the problem. Well, it would have to be within those parameters. Try to not make it heavy on “lottery schools.” I would call anything below ~25% acceptance a lottery school.
Why not putting on the list 3 schools where her stats are in the top quarterly, above 75%, AND acceptance rate is more than 30%? Just an idea
Admittedly it’s not even close to a perfect solution, but applying ED (or SCEA) is one way to turn a ‘wide net’ to an itty-bitty little net, like the one we used to use to scoop up tropical fish (usually dead ones, in our family). Obviously not for everyone – would not have even been a consideration for our S14 – but if there’s a dream school where one has some sort of legitimate (albeit lottery-like) shot AND if it’s a school where one’s odds are enhanced by going ED, it’s something to think about. Many of the highly selective schools are admitting over half their students via the ED route, so the RD rate can drop from the quoted overall admit rate in the teens/twenties down to single digits.
As I’ve written many times here I think that this is another ugly side of the whole process.
@NYDad513 How about Northeastern? Boston College? I’m sure her stats are at the top of those two schools and their acceptance rates are about 30%. Now, the question is, do they offer what she wants to study?
I think it highly unfair by school to limit number of colleges one can apply to. Did anyone ever try to ask to apply to few more schools over the the limit?
@kittymom1102 Boston College is safety school for my daughter based on Naviance and my daughter does not have interest in that school. It’s kind of tricky.
@AsleepAtTheWheel My daughter is going SCEA route. Not sure how it will impact on her application. When she did her summer camp, the camp staff indirectly said that the students in the camp can be easily accepted to Cornell, almost safety level. Hope that is the case.