To all the CC seniors this year: congratulations on reaching the end of your college application marathon!
Can you share your application experience? How did you go about choosing your list of schools?
In retrospect, would you have applied to more colleges? Less?
If you could give advice to next year’s applicants regarding the college list, what would you say?
Please share your experiences. Thank you!
It was an archaic process that I bumbled through, choosing schools to look into largely at random or from dubious advice from others. And if I was joking, that might actually be funny, but I’m not. My girlfriend bought Princeton Review’s Best 373 Colleges and let me use it, so that was actually a great help.
I ended up applying to a wide field, from metropolis to rural to this part of the country to that to big schools to small schools to state schools to private schools to Catholic schools to secular schools. It was a weird process.
I didn’t think in terms of “reach, match, safety,” and I think that was a good help. I thought in terms of “schools I would love to go to” and “schools I might like to go to.” Most of the schools I knew I would get into actually fell into the first category. I didn’t do this by design or through searching for safeties, just through looking at schools and deciding how much I liked them.
Somewhat less; I shouldn’t have applied to any schools I didn’t love, except for my in-state financial safety. Applying to several reaches sometimes felt like a bad idea, but it didn’t actually hurt me, and it was nice to get closure on some responses. However, some I applied to just because they were reaches, and I don’t think I actually would have went, so those I would have cut.
Find a few financial safeties, probably in-state public colleges. After that, only apply to schools you love, and apply to every school you love, if possible (you may have to narrow it based on logistics, if it’s a giant amount, or money for app fees; I had a waiver). Break out of the “safety, match, reach” mentality, and apply to schools you love. If your favorite school you can go to doesn’t have as much “prestige” as another option, who cares? Well, some people do, but you don’t want to associate with those types.
My story: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/1099647-billymc-s-advice-future-applicants.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/1099647-billymc-s-advice-future-applicants.html</a>
There is a “College Selection and Application” section.
I applied to about eleven colleges and was expecting to be accepted into perhaps four. I got in to seven and now have to figure out how to cut out six of them 
if I were to redo anything, I would have applied to fewer schools, and not have let my parents add schools to my list which I didn’t have the heart for (and didn’t get in to) anyway. Also, if your school gives you any time during the fall, make sure you finish your essay (I went on some trips and had to finish my essay and supplements over winter break 
).
If you’re really nervous about not getting in anywhere, see if you have a local school that offers guaranteed admission for certain combinations of GPA and test scores. You still have to apply, but they can’t turn you down.
Also, don’t forget to interview everywhere! Some schools accept interviews as late as early March, but a safe assumption is that they are unavailable after early January, as it has been my experience that said time is usually when colleges post their interview deadline.
Other than that, good luck, work hard, and don’t fret too much!
Apply to more, but a selective more. And please please PLEASE apply to more than 1 reach. I got into my one reach and rejected from my matches, and now i hella with i’d applied to more reach’s which would’ve taken my SAT/AP/extracurriculars into account (whereas my matches didnt).
Yup but right now i feel cornered into my one reach, and i hella wish i applied to cornell, tufts (finished the app, didnt want to ask mom to pay for another application fee), and U of M (paid for the app behind my moms back, then mom wouldnt let me pay to send SAT scores :(. such a shame ). Wasted ALL my moola on UC’s, which was a BIG mistake.
I attended a summer program at UCD, so I wanted to go there. I also applied to the more prestigious UC’s, such as LA, SD, and Berkeley. I also wanted to apply to Stanford, since, well, it’s Stanford. Same with Cal Poly. The rest I found out about because of the College Board’s email service. I wanted to apply to Illinois through the Priority Period so I’d have a better chance at getting in. Case Western and St. John’s were free for me to apply. RPI seemed like a good safety.
My advice: Start early, like in the summer, when you write your essays. It doesn’t matter which college’s essay you write for, they’re all essentially the same and can be used with little, if any, modifications for other schools. Read the emails from the colleges that find out about you through the College Board. They might select you for a special application with no application fee, no essay, and quick decision. However, sometimes they send this mail to increase their rejection numbers.
My college search was completely haphazard. The lists and college guides were very daunting. Just pick whatever colleges you like (I focused on California colleges, since I wanted to stay here).
Ah, the college process…a really stressful process for me. Everyone told me that as a Californian Asian from a pretty new charter school without a stellar track record in top college placement and with only two APs taken junior year thanks to my school’s fixed track, I would have a significantly less chance of getting into top colleges. Really discouraging.
In the end, I decided to apply to a dream school - Penn for ED. I also applied to Chicago EA. Since I had no confidence in getting into either of those schools, I immediately wrote and sent out other applications for RD schools, as well as four UCs. My safeties were Drexel (I often joked that if I don’t get into Penn, I could at least go to Drexel and admire it from afar), RPI, and UC Davis.
The day before Penn decisions came out, a classmate of mine got rejected from Columbia. A weekend earlier, my counselor called up my dad and started preparing him for my rejection from Penn. My counselor had no confidence in my ability to get in thanks to my SAT, Asian status, and my school. However, I got in. I’m still in a state of happy disbelief today.
Advice: Don’t sell yourself short. Start early in the summer for writing your essays. If you apply ED, don’t waste hundreds of dollars sending out other applications before you receive your ED results. Show interest in the schools you’re applying to - like, write your supplement essays individually for each school instead of ctrl-ving it. Doesn’t hurt to do well on your interview either…I feel like I rocked my Penn interview. Also, choose colleges you like and would honestly consider attending. I did not follow this advice for my safeties (save for RPI), and I think that, in this sort of ultra-competitive college admissions world, you should love your safeties.
I applied to 16, and was accepted to 14.5 of them (one waitlist). My process for selecting them was quite haphazard and reason-less.
<pre><code> I did, though, only apply to schools that I would like to go to (except for two added to appease my mother), and I’m very glad about that. The biggest question for me was financial, in that (like most people) our EFC was more than twice what we could actually pay. So I had two in-state publics (one of which I liked a lot, the other, not so much), a OOS public where our state gets in-state tuition, and another OOS public with strong programs in my field and excellent merit/NMF scholarships. I also had a private school with NMF full rides, that I quite disliked, despite their excellent academics (and to be fair, I never visited either).
Then I had a few mid-tier OOS privates that I hoped might give me a lot of merit aid because I was in the top percent or so of their applicants. They did all give me merit aid (most ~20k/year), but it really wasn’t enough to afford them or to compensate for the trade off in prestige/quality.
I had 2 private schools that I absolutely loved, but that I was unlikely to get aid at. Initially both were impossible, but I received a very selective full-tuition merit scholarship at one that has put it into my final consideration. The other is still impossible, so its out of the question.
Then I had my “lottery” schools, that I might be able to afford: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT (my absolutely ideal dream school). I knew that my chances of getting in were miniscule, but that their financial aid might actually make it possible to attend if I did. I ended up getting into Yale and MIT, and while Yale is quite possible, the package from MIT makes it extremely difficult to afford. I can’t quite bear to rule it out though, and therein lies to danger of applying to schools you love but cannot afford.
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In the end, I might have applied to fewer schools, there was kind of that middle category that I liked but didn’t love, that I couldn’t really afford anyways, but all’s well that ends well, right? I’m currently deciding between three amazing schools that I absolutely love.
I went 11-0. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have applied to so many. I wanted to put off an unpleasant discussion about college with my parents and chose to apply to basically every imaginable type of school in order to appease them. Of the 11, I had a genuine interest in 7.
I think 6-7 would have been a reasonable number for me, though I would have changed things up a little bit. The College Navigator search tool from IPEDS is very good and can probably help you make an initial list.
I have it down to 3 now and should be decided by the end of this week.
I applied EA to a school I would want to go to which worked out well since it cut back on my list of apps from 20 to 10.
Visit as many schools as possible because some schools that you though you’d like you’ll hate and the other way around.
I applied to nine privates and four UCs. Since I’m a California resident and have ELC, UCs weren’t that big of a worry for me…but now I really wish that I had chosen to apply to more schools. Rejections, no matter where they’re coming from, sting, and being waitlisted at multiple schools is agonizing.
On choosing a list: most of the colleges send you viewbooks, so definitely start looking through those, and do it early on (if you let them pile up, you end up with hundreds and won’t want to even look at them). If you know or think you know what career path or major you’re going for, then all the better for you. If not, just look out for colleges that interest you. It might also be helpful to post up your stats/ECs in this forum and just ask for advice–in my experience, people have been very, very helpful in suggesting schools.
Definitely visit schools if you can. It’s a way to experience the “feel” of the college in ways that research can’t really help you with, and it may just give you something to add to your essay, if you do eventually decide to apply.
In all honesty, if you like a college and wouldn’t mind going there, do try and apply (given that you have the time to write the essays, the money for the app fee, etc.). It’ll give you more choices in the long run, and you won’t as many regrets once decisions start rolling in.
I love math and physics, and I’ve been at the top of my class/school for a long time, so I did some research and got most of my schools from lists of the top 5/10 math and physics programs in the US. This was silly and I do not recommend it.
I also considered schools where my older friends were going and schools that I was already familiar with. My list ended up being Princeton, where my dad went and where a friend ended up; Stanford; MIT; and UChicago, where my girlfriend goes; with GA Tech as a mid-level school and UT Knoxville as backup. I would call this an overly ambitious list that could have had disastrous results, if I had not been accepted at one of those first four schools. I am wait-listed at Princeton and MIT and accepted at UChicago.
Changes/Advice
I would apply to more schools than six. I would apply to more schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, WashU, Rice, etc - schools that are not HYPSM, but where I could be with brilliant students and have success. I would also not apply to UT Knoxville, because I am a National Merit Finalist, which guarantees a full ride at a number of schools that are higher ranked than UTK. UT Knoxville did offer me several scholarships, but I still would have had to pay. I would put the ideal number for colleges to apply to at about ten for myself, but it is different for everyone.
I would also like to emphasize that it is extremely important to treat every school like they are your first choice. I interviewed for GA Tech’s Presidential Scholarship, but I did not show enough interest in the school, did not ask questions, and of course did not win the scholarship. I was also late to Princeton’s interview because I did not put it in the calendar and I had a lot of work that day. I don’t think this was the reason for my wait-listing, but it was a blunder.
^ I would argue that 6-9 is the perfect amount of schools to apply to. Any less and you have no safeties if you get rejected to all of them, any more and you have trouble choosing from the ones you get admitted to, or you get extremely discouraged because 20 schools denies you.
I’m probably a freak of nature, because I pretty much read the whole Fiske book before starting my list…
That being said, read “The Colleges That Change Lives” and don’t get single-minded about where you want to go. I applied to two safeties and seven pretty far reaches - I got into both of my safeties and one reach. Find safeties that you LOVE - I am now having trouble choosing between the safeties and eliminated the reach. Don’t get caught up in the name/prestige of a school. Look at it in the context of you, not the context of numbers.
Oh, and PLEASE FIND A SAFETY SCHOOL THAT HAS EA/ROLLING ADMISSIONS.
Get an acceptance in your pocket early; it helps you keep from panicking when the first rejections roll in and overall helps you take things in a better light. Knowing that you have somewhere to go in December is probably the best thing you can do for your nerves.
I started with a list of about 20 schools ranging from the smallest LACs to my state flagship and winnowed it down from there. Or that’s the way it should have gone, though it actually went more like this:
“Well, every kid in-state applies here.”
-Duke
-Chapel Hill (plus I was after a writing scholarship)
“I don’t want to regret not having the option of a LAC, despite spending my whole life in a college town.”
-Pomona
-Amherst
“This is where I belong and think I have a shot.”
-Chicago
-Brown
“I want to be Rory Gilmore.”
-Yale
“This is where I belong and have no shot of getting in.”
-Princeton
“Dad, shut up. I’ll apply there already.”
-Harvard
-Stanford
“Well, my grandpa and uncle went here, it’s pretty, and I like government.”
-Georgetown
“I like urban environments and I want a good creative writing program.”
-Columbia
A bit sad, really. Word to the wise: Pick a school you like to apply to EA. I adored Chicago, got in EA…and didn’t alter my college list. That’s just dumb. My list could have been much shorter if I didn’t have this deep-rooted fear of being rejected everywhere RD and having no options. Chicago’s now in my top-three shortlist, and all those other apps just seem like a massive waste of time. (Though, in defense of my massive list, my shortlist now also includes H, which would have never made the cut.)
How’d I go about picking? There was really no rhyme or reason to it. Aside from Ivy League schools I didn’t know which were considered “good” and which were “not as good”. I applied to the 3 I visited before the process started: Dartmouth, BC, UNH, and my dream school: Notre Dame. Other than that I just picked randomly I guess, applying to Villanova, UCONN, UVM, Cornell, Syracuse, Quinnipiac, and UCol Boulder.
In retrospect, this (11) was too many schools, especially too many safety schools.
I’d recommend that they look at average stats. of schools to get a good idea of their area and what should be reaches/safeties. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, if you know what you want to major in find out what schools are good for it! This may seem obvious, but as a PoliSci major that would’ve had a good shot at Georgetown and didn’t apply there I still kick myself
My experience? Stress I guess. Freaking out about where I’d get in. Freaking out about where I didn’t apply. Generally a lot of freaking out. I ended up 8/11, didn’t get in to Cornell, Dartmouth, or Notre Dame. I’ll likely be going to Boston College next year.
Good luck to next year’s applicants.
Here’s my list:
Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Carleton College
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
George Washington University
Macalester College
Occidental College
Pomona College
Skidmore College
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
University of Chicago
University of the Pacific
University of the Virgin Islands
Vassar College
Yale University
Prior to applying, I visited Amherst, Columbia, U-Chic and Vassar (and some other schools that didn’t make the cut) on my personal college tour. Carleton and Swarthmore paid for me to attend their prospective student visits so I thought that would give me an edge. Yale, which I had absolutely 0 interest in was added on after my mother asked me to. In fact, the only Ivy I really wanted was Dartmouth. Macalester, Skidmore, U-Pacific and George Washington were added on because I was afraid of rejection (although 17 rejections can really scar someone for life). Occidental, Pomona (originally CMC) and Stanford were included because I wanted a few choices on the west coast as my cousin had originally planned on attending Chapman and I thought it would be cool to be close to each other. My best friend applied to Bowdoin so I figured “Hey, why not?” and decided to apply as well (submitted my app 4 days late). U.V.I. was added because my school advises all students to apply there “just in case.” Now, the decision is between Occidental, George Washington University, Pomona College (gonna appeal FinAid decision) and Vassar College (my dream school that I am hoping offers me some semblance of need-based aid).
Good luck to the next set! You’re in for quite the roller coaster! Also, don’t be afraid to apply to a few schools outside of what may be your match. You might be surprised. I know I was. 
Peace, Love & Hair Grease
I applied to 13 schools. 5 UC schools and a number of reaches with only one true safety (and I’d call it more of a match). It all worked out in the end, but I say apply to every school you like or think you might like. No regrets.
Nice thread here :D.
For my list, I first went to my counselor and my parents. They said I should start out with as broad a list as I would want. The first list included all the Ivies, top state schools (UMich, Rutgers, UNC, Penn State), LACs such as Bowdoin and Dickinson, and top privates such as Stanford, MIT, Emory, Duke, etc.
Then, I visited all of them. Through 10th and 11th, I seriously visited all of them. I’m lucky, because I had the chance. After the summer of 11th, I narrowed my list down to 12: HYPS, Columbia, Dartmouth, Georgetown, UMICH, Rutgers, Bowdoin, Duke and UCBerkeley. I eliminated the latter three after careful consideration.
My results came in like this: Accepted at HYPS and G-town and RU, Rejected at D-mouth and UMich, and waitlisted (then accepted) at Columbia.
Great advice from all the folks so far, but one bit of parental advice. Please, please, please have a frank and open discussion with your parents as early as possible to know what the financial realities are in your family situation. I’m not saying to leave high pricetag universities off of your list (especially if they’re on your “dream” list) but go into the application process with your eyes open and your outlook realistic. Understand that just because a school says they’ll “meet 100% of financial need” that often means you’ll be looking at $25K/year in unsub/Parent Plus loans to attend. Also understand that FAFSA EFC doesn’t necessarily equal the university’s EFC so don’t be surprised if there’s a sizeable difference (usually not in your favor). It’s painful to read postings of students who got accepted to their “dream” school only to find out after the fact that it’s nowhere near a financial possibility for their family when a disappointing FA package comes in. Shoot for the moon, but don’t have unrealistic ideas about what FA you might get. Absolutely don’t mortgage your personal financial future or ability to attend grad/professional school by burdening you or your family with an excessive amount of loans. A rough rule of thumb many on CC seem to recommend is a maximum of $25K total for 4 years of undergrad. Good Luck and enjoy the ride!!
I started considering schools at the end of junior year. I first used Collegeboard’s college search tool, and came up with a long list of schools that fit what I was searching for then. At that point, I was seriously considering universities like Harvard, Stanford, etc. – I’m fully aware of my family’s financial status, and knew that I’d need a full-ride from a school that could afford it or from a state school. Some I had in mind, other than the Ivy League schools, were also places like Northeastern, William and Mary, Northwestern, etc. with programs that I was interested in (e.g. Northeastern’s co-op). My dream school then was Stanford – I loved its beautiful campus, perfect weather, great academics, and diverse student body.
My dream changed once I realized that large universities would not work for me. I go to a relatively small parochial school (about 1200 students total), and I couldn’t imagine the having to sit in a lecture hall with 100 classmates (!!!). I definitely prefer a discussion/seminar which I can engage in. In a lecture hall with so many people, I know I’d end up doodling or dozing instead of actually paying attention. So instead of looking at larger universities, I used my school’s college search engine (we use Naviance) which generated a long list of liberal arts colleges for me. My counselor and I went through it together, crossing off ones (like women’s colleges) that wouldn’t quite fit me socially, academically, or location-wise. I researched the ones left over and pared my list down to about 8-ish by the time senior year started. Now, Williams College had become my dream, and this time I actually knew enough to have real reasons other than weather and how pretty the campus was! (:
And then came the day when I finally opened all the college mail that had piled up in the corner (a little late, but oh well…). I found a letter from Questbridge about the Prep Scholarship for juniors, which had ended months ago lol. Still, it mentioned a scholarship for seniors, so I looked them up and found the Questbridge College Match program. Once I discovered that Williams was one of the colleges participating it it, I knew that this was my chance! So I talked to my counselor about it, applied and made Finalist, and waited for Dec. 1.
In the meantime, I also finished applying to my other schools, since I had to be realistic about the whole thing. I’d narrowed the list down to one in-state university (a safety) and five liberal arts colleges (one other safety, two matches, and two reaches). My parents weren’t involved much in the process, as they’re not English-speakers and know few colleges other than the Ivy Leagues and in-state ones, but my counselor was a great support all the way.
In the end, I got the scholarship! Williams 2015!! (:
So, that’s my tale. Hope it was…enlightening? lol…
I would apply to the same number of colleges if I had to do it again. I think I picked a good number, especially considering the whole safety/match/reach thing. Enough for options if I got into most, enough to be secure if I didn’t, and not too much so that I could concentrate on each application and give the essays a more personal touch.
My advice? Figure out what kind of school you’ll really be comfortable at. If you can adapt to a range–large, medium, small, etc.–that’s great, but for those who can’t, make sure you actually know the kind of school you’ll enjoy living at for four (!!!) years. Also, make sure that you do like all your non-first-choice schools, instead of using them as fallbacks. If I hadn’t made it into Williams, I know I would have been content at my other schools.
Also, like the person above says, definitely know the financial side of the process, and how that affects your college possibilities, especially if you’re from a middle-class family. Many of my friends are, and they’re having issues with the financial aid packages from the schools they’ve gotten into.
Good luck everyone!!