Our S23 is at UCB and he loves it… I think it’s a great school. It’s possible D26 will become more interested if she gets in, as she’d also like to be as close as possible to her big brother. I do worry a little that she might be steering herself towards more likely-seeming schools in an attempt to shield herself from disappointment. She has a tendency to underestimate herself.
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My oldest didn’t like Berkeley (my alma mater). At 17, he didn’t like the grunge and thought it felt pretentious and anonymous. He liked the vibe at Davis. He was admitted to several UCs and ended up choosing Davis. It was the right fit for him.
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My older one is at Berkeley too. He was very sure he wanted to go to UCLA, wasn’t a fan of Cal based on things he had heard. He got into all UCs including UCLA, and chose Berkeley. Now he loves it there and having the time of his life!
That being said, a few of his good friends at UC Davis and UCSB. And they all are very happy and enjoying their college life.
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My sister lives in S. Deerfield and works at Smith. Is your daughter looking at Smith at all? I hope she enjoys it- Western MA is so pretty.
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My daughter is a boarder at a school out your way, Stoneleigh Burnham:)
It’s a beautiful area.
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Yes smith is on her list to look at for a bunch of reasons- riding team, the curriculum, all girls, the houses vs dorm, proximity to walkable Northampton. And it’s on MY list for the generous aid lol.
I do love Western mass, we left about 15 years ago but we go back yearly to go to Deerfield to the Yankee candle store and to visit family. I’m hoping she loves smith when we tour. Also hoping she loves mount Holyoke. It might be TOOOOO rural though. She wants walkable to a city (hoping she thinks Northampton is a city for Smith- she has spent her entire life in a semi rural area of me so fingers crossed)
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My daughter also factoring riding teams into her college search!
What is your daughter’s planned major? I wonder how aligned their interests might be. Mine is looking for strong engineering programs, but doesn’t want a “tech” school due to the gender imbalance.
If this is helpful, we toured Smith this fall and our tour guide said the barn where the equestrian team rides is 19 minutes away, and they have both a team and club (team is bigger time commitment). The Mt. Holyoke barn is just a few minutes off campus, it’s easily walkable from some dorms or reachable by bike. Just sharing the info we gained on our tours since my daughter is also interested in riding wherever she ends up!
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Thank you for the info! I was on a riding team myself in the same zone and rode against both of those teams in my years. I remember Mount Holyoke being the ridiculously superior set up. It was amazing to ride there for shows. My daughter is not as into riding as I was, and she has no show experience, but I know how the teams in IHSA work and they need somebody in each division as a point rider so they welcome riders with all levels of experience. She loves riding, but she spent so many of her years with a massive time commitment for competitive dance that it left her no time to get serious about riding. We literally had a conversation when she was 10 years old, but if she wanted to be a competitive dancer, she would have to give up pursuing competitive riding. Both passions are such a time commitment that it was just impossible to do both. So riding took a backseat and she only rode intermittently through her summers growing up.
Ideally, she is looking for a school that has a strong humanities program. She loves writing, wants to be a writer someday, but is realistic, knowing that there’s a lot of luck involved in that as well. She also is very open to an all girls school, but not a requirement at all. She also will not qualify for as much need based aid as we were hoping so we’re really looking for a school that offers a lot of merit aid to a good student like she is. It seems like she also likes the smaller liberal arts schools. But does gravitate towards campuses that are in a metro area with public transportation so Mount Holyoke may end up right off of her list as soon as we step foot there.
Her want list far exceeds our able to afford list lol.
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So I am talking with S26 about colleges he’s interested in and being in CA the UCs are the top choice. He is interested in environmental engineering so he’ll have a tougher time getting accepted but thankfully it’s not as bad as CS. So his list is the UCs plus a few reach schools in the east coast like Princeton (my sister lives in NJ so he’ll have family close by) and Columbia. Outside the UCs he’s going to apply to 3-4 other schools. That seems reasonable to me. But looking at some of the posts on the forum I see CA parents looking for 20+ schools to apply to.
That seems nuts to me but maybe I am the one who is missing something ? Even if he doesn’t get into a UC he can always do TAG (community college to UC) so he has a backup. So am I missing something ? should I encourage him to find another 10+ schools he wants to apply to ?
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It depends completely on how he feels about CC as a backup! For some kids, CC is a great backup. Other kids would prefer a traditional four year college experience at another university, if they don’t get into one of their preferred UCs.
Since the UCs don’t release results until very late in the season, it can be hard for an applicant to get a sense of how competitive they are. If the kid wouldn’t be happy with CC as the backup, it’s definitely better to apply to a few likely OOS backup schools at the start, rather than to wait until after the UCs release decisions, and then scramble around at the end if decisions don’t go as expected.
Some kids might also find that they really like some OOS public schools better than some of the reach schools, or better than some UCs. My S23 originally put Oregon State on his list as his safety school… but then fell in love with it. In the end, he would have picked it over UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD, UCSC (and he was admitted to all of those in his preferred major).
Some CA kids also apply widely because it’s not so convenient to fly across the country for college visits, so it can make sense to apply to a wider set of schools, and then just visit the ones where they are admitted. Or at college application time in senior year fall, they might still be trying to figure out what major or type of college they want.
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Do those 20 include all or most of the UCs? That seems a bit excessive to me, especially given the time to write essays for each of them, but given how much of a lottery the UCs are these days I can also see why people do that. I think a lot depends how reach-heavy the list is, and how enthusiastic the student would be about their safeties.
My D22 in CA applied to 19 as a political science major. I think she could have applied to fewer schools but for students with high stats who want to apply to selective colleges, it’s tempting to cast a wide net since they are so rejective. She was not initially looking at the UCs but applied to UCLA, UCSB, and Berkeley. She did not apply to any CSUs. The rest were a mix of OOS publics (Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin, Michigan) and large and small private schools (Fordham, USC, Smith, Kenyon, Macalester, Middlebury, Wesleyan, BU, Tufts, UPenn, Columbia, Yale).
She was rejected at Berkeley, USC, Middlebury, BU, Tufts, UPenn, Columbia, Yale. Waitlisted at Wesleyan. She had the stats and ECs to be a competitive applicant, but admissions being what it is, she was rejected many times.
She’s been super happy at UCLA and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It was a long, up and down journey but it all worked out.
I agree that it depends on your kid. Mine wanted a lot of shots on goal, and a lot of choices at the end, so applying to 19 schools was how she accomplished that.
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I would make sure the posts you are reading are talking about number of applications vs number of schools.
As you know, for the UCs it is one application for 9 schools. Add 3-4 CSUs on one application (w/o essays) and you are already 2/3 if the way to 20 with only two applications. Add Princeton, Columbia and your 3-4 other campuses and you are pretty much at 20.
What is he interested in doing with environmental engineering? I would read through the description of the environmental engineering major at each campus to see if it is what your son is looking for. Also look at the description of the other engineering options at each campus to see if one campus might house his interest in a different major.
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Oh yeah is counting the UCs as one, I am seeing people mention at least a dozen in addition to the UCs. You re-use a lot of the essays I suppose . I guess not being able to see the schools in a way it would make sense to apply to a ton and then see where you get in and make a choice. But there’s such a big difference between Columbia and Cornell how can someone be happy in both ?
For S26 I can’t see him in Cornell and maybe the area has changed a ton in the last 30 years but when I visited it in my day I thought I was in the middle of nowhere and the thought of spending 4 years there scared me.
He became interested in environmental engineering because of a teacher in HS. As someone who switched majors and tried 4 different minors graduating with 220 credits when I only needed 120 to graduate I can’t imagine knowing what you want to do in HS. Heck I’ve changed careers multiple times. I figure ok that’s what he’s interested in now, I’ll support it, if he changes his mind later on that’s ok too. Who know what the future will look like in 20 years.
We wont’ qualify for aid so I have already told him the budget is going to be about 50k/year. So that cuts down a whole bunch of schools.
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The school I was thinking about is UCSD. UCSD discontinued their environmental engineering major four years ago. Environmental engineering is now integrated into Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. They have a ME major with a specialization in renewable energy and environmental flows. Not sure if that is what your son is interested in.
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I think that some students apply to a number of schools because the kids don’t yet know what kind of college they want to attend. Maybe they’re toying the idea of a more intimate experience at a smaller college vs. one at a mid-size university or the option of a big state school (and questioning whether they’ll get an admit to the honors program at the big state school). Or maybe they’re not sure how far away from home they’re willing to be, so maybe they have some schools further away, some a middle distance, and some closer by. Or maybe they’re deliberating about going to school in a college town vs. one in a more urban location? And then if you add on having a range of admissions likelihood (i.e. high probability, toss-up, low probability) for the different types of schools they’re considering, it can add up.
Alternatively, maybe they’re hunting merit aid. They may be competitive for Big Merit™ at a number of schools, but realize the likelihood of catching the biggest fish is slim. So maybe they send out ten or fifteen apps and end up with some generous merit aid offers but only one offer for full tuition or a full ride.
All of this to say, there can be logical reasons for a student to apply to a larger number of colleges than one would at first expect.
It is, thank you I plan on driving down to socal next week and we’ll stop by and check out UCSD.
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Makes sense but not knowing whether you want a big school or small school is the most basic thing to me. Same with how far you are willing to be from home. It’s cast a wide net then make a decision and you are setting yourself up for stress/unhappiness imo.
Just talked to a friend whose kids got into an ivy school. You think great except they now realize it’s fare more expensive than they expected.
The kid is super excited and the parents will most likely take out loans to pay for it since it’s a prestigious school. IMO a mistake, they should have had a discussion earlier about their budget and expectations. They will end up paying 200-300k for a name brand because they are afraid of missing out.
We will probably add a few more schools to S26s list for next year but ultimately wait for a UC answer.
Ideas about these things can change when you are 16 or 17 though. A year ago my kid could not imagine being more than a few hours drive from home, now they are willing to go further. Kids can also change their minds about a prospective major, which can also change which school you want to be at. Because of how long this process can be in the US I can understand those casting their net wider, especially if they haven’t had a chance to visit all the schools first.
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