Boy, I’ve seen a lot of “just because” applications this year from seniors I know. Kids who ONLY want a big city/urban experience applying to Dartmouth and Cornell because why not? Kids who only want the intimacy of an LAC throwing in an application to U Michigan and Wisconsin “just in case”. Kids who are completely and utterly committed to engineering ALSO applying to accelerated BS/MD programs because “I might change my mind”.
I applaud some of this- I have family overseas and so I’ve seen the fallout of kids having to make a career/professional decision in their teens when they don’t have enough life experience to make an educated choice. But some of it is just a wheel-grinding, time and money wasting exercise in the tyranny of too many choices.
18 schools, most of which are Hail Mary reaches? no. This strikes me as dumb- and now I’m seeing the fallout- kids are deeply wounded by being rejected by colleges they really weren’t interested in attending. Why would you set your kid up for that???