Apply to the reaches!

[Anonymous]

I'm returning to this forum to encourage you to encourage your kids to apply to their reach schools. My DS did and to everyone's surprise got in (I won't post the school or his stats because people will claim I'm lying and derail this thread.) He's now a sophomore and doing great. We were worried it might be too much academically, but he got a 3.2 his first year, with many STEM classes. He's working hard, but not burnt out or overwhelmed. It can happen, but it won't if you don't try.

[Anonymous]

Mine applied and got into most of his reaches but didn’t get merit money so he couldn’t go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine applied and got into most of his reaches but didn’t get merit money so he couldn’t go.

This is the challenge. You don't generally get merit from a reach. Both of my kids only applied to one reach, public in-state schools we could afford -- UVA for the one who liked big colleges, W&M for the more LAC-inclined. Applying to reach colleges where you can't afford what the net price calculator tells you is a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm returning to this forum to encourage you to encourage your kids to apply to their reach schools. My DS did and to everyone's surprise got in (I won't post the school or his stats because people will claim I'm lying and derail this thread.) He's now a sophomore and doing great. We were worried it might be too much academically, but he got a 3.2 his first year, with many STEM classes. He's working hard, but not burnt out or overwhelmed. It can happen, but it won't if you don't try.

Sure I agree, mine is at a "reach for all". Caveat however of course is to have a good game plan - a brutally balanced list of safeties, targets, reaches. Leaning in to those safeties and targets that one would be happy to attend is very important in case those reaches/lotteries do not pan out. Agree with your sentiment and best to your DC!

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm returning to this forum to encourage you to encourage your kids to apply to their reach schools. My DS did and to everyone's surprise got in (I won't post the school or his stats because people will claim I'm lying and derail this thread.) He's now a sophomore and doing great. We were worried it might be too much academically, but he got a 3.2 his first year, with many STEM classes. He's working hard, but not burnt out or overwhelmed. It can happen, but it won't if you don't try.

Ditto. So unexpected, but applying to reaches is part of a balanced application list.

[Anonymous]

I agree. It doesn't hurt to try!

Mine applied to 3 reaches, and go into 1.
Then he looked at the merit aid offered by one of his target/safeties, and went to that one instead. It's a decent school, and he likes it, so we're happy.

[Anonymous]

Definitely it’s worth a few applications. My kid did not get into any reaches but she didn’t expect to (as they were reaches) so at least she gave it a shot. She was waitlisted at one but not interested in playing that game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely it’s worth a few applications. My kid did not get into any reaches but she didn’t expect to (as they were reaches) so at least she gave it a shot. She was waitlisted at one but not interested in playing that game.

It's not a game it's a process. You make her sound a little narcissistic tbh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely it’s worth a few applications. My kid did not get into any reaches but she didn’t expect to (as they were reaches) so at least she gave it a shot. She was waitlisted at one but not interested in playing that game.

It's not a game it's a process. You make her sound a little narcissistic tbh.

It is kind of a game; no one wants to be on the B list if they have other options.

[Anonymous]

Waste of time for my NOVA unhooked CS major: Harvard and Penn denied; UVA and NEU waitlist. Still accepted 8. Enrolled with some merit as direct admit to CS at UMD, so he's happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm returning to this forum to encourage you to encourage your kids to apply to their reach schools. My DS did and to everyone's surprise got in (I won't post the school or his stats because people will claim I'm lying and derail this thread.) He's now a sophomore and doing great. We were worried it might be too much academically, but he got a 3.2 his first year, with many STEM classes. He's working hard, but not burnt out or overwhelmed. It can happen, but it won't if you don't try.

Sure I agree, mine is at a "reach for all". Caveat however of course is to have a good game plan - a brutally balanced list of safeties, targets, reaches. Leaning in to those safeties and targets that one would be happy to attend is very important in case those reaches/lotteries do not pan out. Agree with your sentiment and best to your DC!

I agree with this. And I think a big part of it for my DS was fit. He did best at schools where he really fit the school's mission and identity as an institution. So a scattershot approach is likely to be less successful than one focused on fit, at least in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely it’s worth a few applications. My kid did not get into any reaches but she didn’t expect to (as they were reaches) so at least she gave it a shot. She was waitlisted at one but not interested in playing that game.

It's not a game it's a process. You make her sound a little narcissistic tbh.

It's a game when there's so much randomness, luck, and unpredictability factors present. College admissions shouldn't be like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine applied and got into most of his reaches but didn’t get merit money so he couldn’t go.

This. Applying to reaches is pointless unless you can afford $90k/year. We cannot.

[Anonymous]

Glad it worked for you OP. For most, it doesn’t, like my DS.