The Spouse asked the Kid how many colleges he wanted to apply to, and the Kid responded that he wanted to limit his application fees to $1000 total. I do not mind if he applies to a lot of schools, as long as he has researched the colleges and would be excited to attend any college on the list. There are 13 colleges on his tentative list right now.
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I would love my kid to cap it at 9 or 10. We’ll see. My D23 applied to 13 and my S25 applied to 15, which felt like about 5 too many. It’s hard to stay on top of everything for that many schools!
My S27 has one school that he loves (his older sister attends) and it should be a likely for him, so I feel that he can limit the number of likely/targets that he applies to (definitely need at least one or two more). His current favorite is a low reach. Or maybe just a reach. Hard to know because he goes to a small high school with lots of recruited athletes, which really skews the data on Naviance.
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How do you stay on top of everything?!
this is so hard to finalize! I think a key is how much they really like their likely school(s) and how sure they are of their major/selections, etc.
MY 25 applied to a fair number (cant’ even remember now!) as they had, until fairly last minute, 2 career paths in mind that were very different and some schools were really much better for them than others 
- all schools could do both, but some were clearly leaders in one, but not the other, etc. By decision time, it really worked itself out, but in September? was less clear.
For 27, I think we will have a pretty tight list - maybe 9-10? They are pretty picky and really like a likely and low-target.
Another huge factor, IMO, is how many essays the schools have! I think doing 15 schools that each have a large number of essays is too much, myself, with all that kids have going on, but obviously, to each their own. But if only 5 have a lot of that..very different. My 25 had a couple of niche direct admission likely schools, which were easy peasy! (UNH which was one of their final choices!)
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I expect mine not to apply to many (less than 10?), given her interest in rather specific computational biology programs that are hard to find. Also, she hates essays with a passion. It’ll probably be me pushing her to apply to more, really. Left to her own devices, she probably would apply to 1 safety, 1 target, and a handful of reaches – most of the rest of what she’s researched don’t look any better than the safety on paper, so why bother? I’m inclined to think there are factors she might not be thinking about right now, or might not realize until after visiting, so having a few choices on the safety end might be nice.
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D25 applied to a little over 20 schools (I don’t remember the exact number). It was a lot of essays and very stressful, especially around Nov. 1 when many were due. I do not recommend it! She actually applied to way fewer than most of her classmates, most applied to 30+ schools. Crazy! Most students at the high school have aspirations for colleges with under 10% admit rates, so apply to a lot of them.
S25’s top school right now is definitely a reach. He does have some likelies on his list, but still has more reach schools than likelies or targets. He so far has 12 possible schools on his list (I counted the UCs as one since it’s all the same application). I guess if you count each of the UC schools separately he’ll be close to 20 too.
I think my son is still not in the list making stage, or even the exploration stage. Knowing him, he won’t have strong opinions as long as the school seems “good enough”. We visited one school…he liked it…at this point I could see him thinking he’ll apply there and to a true safety and then being “done” if we let him. Even my youngest remarked recently that she didnt think he cares too much about where he goes! I can imagine him applying to 5 or 6 schools (low targets and likelies) …only because I make him add 2 or 3. It’s funny because he is smart, serious about school, and works hard. There are just certain things he is not going to sweat (he’s always been that way). But who knows…he could have a different perspective next fall.
20 schools might seem like a lot, but to your point, if the admit rates are lower, applying to more should technically increase your chances! I guess it also depends on which schools you’re applying to as well
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My D22 applied to 3 schools (2 out of 3 were essentially safeties/guaranteed), and S25 applied to I think about 12 (though a couple of them were ones he wasn’t very serious about that he had “coupon codes” for a free application and they didn’t have extra supplementals in common app). I think S25 will be the only one out of my four kids to do even that many applications.
S27 could be a “one and done” – he leans very strongly at this point to go to Iowa State, which is a guaranteed admit based on formula. It’s where his older sister attends now and it’s where my husband and I went to school also. We have a lot of connections in Ames. My husband has a “rule” for all of our kids that they at least need to take three college tours before they decide on a school. We encouraged S27 to pick two schools very different from Iowa State to tour at, to see if a different kind of campus/environment would sway him or cause him to realize maybe he would like something different. So we will tour at WPI over spring break and Bethel University in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) area later this spring. But if that doesn’t sway his opinion of what kind of school he wants, we are fine with him just picking Iowa State right away! They have guaranteed merit scholarships (again based on formula), and we know it is affordable from having had D22 attend, so it will be an easy application season for us if that’s what he decides on!
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My 2027 child was accepted to the Notre Dame Leadership Seminar for this summer - he is so excited because his older brother went to ND and it is one of his top choices, we think he will REA there. Taking him on a college tour next week for spring break!
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Congrats, that’s wonderful!
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Just adding that I’m pretty sure my younger brother who is EXTREMELY smart refused to apply to any schools with essays back in the day. He also had his heart set on one state flagship in particular (which must not have had an essay!) and so I think he only submitted two applications total. He did love it there, so worked out!
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Good luck to all those taking the SAT today!
It’s been six weeks of studying here in-between sport seasons. If she doesn’t achieve her goal score today but is close, will try one more time. If not, she’ll apply test optional. I’m so proud of her emotional intelligence to know her strengths and weaknesses and to problem solve around them.
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I’ll be very curious to see how many schools D27 ultimately applies to. After our February tours, she was joking that she could just apply to the rolling admissions safety she loved and ED to the high reach school that’s her current #1, and be done with it all. And I think that is a little bit true; she has never been a FOMO kid and she really does feel she could be happy at these two schools. We’ll keep our spring break trip plan but I’m so glad I listened to the advice to prioritize finding a safety where she’d be happy.
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Currently on what will likely be our last set of college tours (we have visited 14 and will visit 3 more). Have a good sense of what is resonating with 27 and will be able to build a solid list from that. Then will visit those they are accepted to before making final decision.
I think they will likely apply to one school ED and then about four or five others EA/RD. My oldest applied to 12 and my middle one applied to nine. This one has much narrower criteria and a stronger sense of what will work. Makes it both harder and easier!
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That’s great! I’m impressed, we’ve only been able to go on eight so far. We need to fit in two or three more before application season, which seems doable, but the spring schedule is tight. Her favorites have officially been visited but need to get in an official visit to another reach and safety. Both are local, so won’t be as difficult to figure out. We are on a college time out as of now though…no bringing it up for two weeks. I think we both need a mental break from it all. I’ve probably said it before, but if not…it was much easier with S24.
Just sent my D27 and D28 off with my husband across the country Boston area to visit a bunch of schools. The toughest part is not getting stuck on your way out (high winds, snow, sea ice, or a combo can sometimes make it actually impossible to leave town – and I missed an out of town meeting earlier this week), but they made it! Now it’s just all the TSA issues in the rest of the country to deal with.
D27 is excited about WPI and will visit their Spring Preview day on Saturday. Otherwise it’s a bunch of different types of schools (women’s colleges, an LAC, a small and large university), some of which my D28 is excited about. My D27’s actual list is a little too spread out geographically to do much visiting before she gets accepted, but this will hopefully give her the vibe of different size/type schools, give the younger kid a head start, and see if her current #2 (WPI) is someplace she’d be happy with.
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I talked to someone yesterday who had been on none, totally following the kids’ lead, who doesn’t seem to be in a rush (note, this is a high-performing, very smart kiddo). They will do them all this summer/fall or after kid gets in! Different speeds for different families I guess 
. We do live in northeast so what a college campus looks like feels like is not at all lost of them of course;) They probably see (in passing) 5 a month.
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I do know people who are waiting also. We like to see what the campus is like with students there though. I will note S27 is attending a school he toured over the summer, so it can work out. We are in MA and have been to BC games, so know what the campus is like, just need to do the official tour. I want to see the Newton Campus also…although I’m guessing that is not part of the tour. I think it may be part of Pine Manor College and S27 went to preschool there. 
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Me too! Then again, both my kids swore that they didn’t think it was that different So I have lost this argument, and we have punted the rest of our tours until summer/fall I think. We have done a bunch (9-10?), and they sort of saw some more (at least from afar) of 25s tours. After that, 27 has a pretty good sense of what they like, which has really narrowed stuff down, it seems, so there is that! It may be a matter of really just visiting a couple that really care about DI and finalizing which 2 will be big reaches (which may or may not need a tour to do..)
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