5 applications done and ready to call it quits?
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Anonymous
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So far DD has applied to 4EA schools and 1 RD. She really wants to be done but won’t hear back from her top choice (UMD) until RDs are due.
I vacillate between feeling confident about her strategy and anxious she’s not casting the net wide enough. She has very specific criteria and feels okay about taking a gap year if none work out. Accepted rates are predicted by CollegeVine based on her profile and validated by Naviance. They are not the overall acceptance rates and I know they aren’t reliable but they’re the best data we’ve got. Submitted: 1 private far reach (21%), 2 public targets (56% and 78%), and 2 public safeties (98 and 99%) Not yet submitted: 2 private hard targets (28% and 36%), 1 private target (85%) Would you push your kid to do the last three or roll the dice on 5 applications and call it quits? Her MCPS guidance counselor advised at least 8. |
Anonymous
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She's probably fine with those safeties, AS LONG AS she would really want to go there.
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Anonymous
| How much "extra work" (supplemental essays) is required for the remaining three? Is that what's turning her off? Can you find comparable schools that don't require much more work? |
Anonymous
She’d be happy at one of them, especially if she’s admitted to the honors college, but not so much the other. |
Anonymous
This. There's no reason to stack up acceptances just for the sake of having more. (My senior is applying to 4 because she's happy with where she was accepted rolling.) |
Anonymous
| I might try to push her to try 1-2 of her reaches so she isn't left wondering "what if"? My kid being rejected by a few high reaches was good as she knew she tried her best and is into the best school she could be. |
Anonymous
Especially if you can pay, say, $45,000 per year, she could just stop now. If she’s unhappy with the results, and she’s somewhat flexible about where she goes, she can always apply to schools that still have seats to fill in April or later. There’s a group called NACAC that always published a long list of schools that still have open seats well into spring. |
Anonymous
There’s a fair amount of extra work because she’ll need to apply for talent scholarships to the private ones and audition for 2/3 of them. Her early applications involved supplemental essays, honors applications, tours and interviews, and 3/5 required auditions. She’s pretty burnt out. And in the end, if she gets into UMD, she’ll most likely go, but of course there’s no guarantee from MCPS. |
Anonymous
| Personally I would encourage her to apply to the remaining 3 |
Anonymous
Good lord that sounds awful! My DD would be done too. |
Anonymous
What categories are the 3 schools? Reaches or safeties? Unlike the PP above, I'd encourage more safeties, not reaches. She has to be motivated and push for that herself; the fact she is ready to stop says to me she doesn't really want those schools. |
Anonymous
| Delaware, JMU and SUNY schools have no suplementals. Pick one of them and if common app just a push of a button |
Anonymous
| JMU is one of the safeties and she’d be happy to attend. She’s been admitted to the arts program by audition already. Waiting on university acceptance (CollegeVine predicts 98% chance of admission). |
Anonymous
The remaining three are 2 hard targets with acceptance rates lower than UMD and 1 target with a higher rate. She would only attend one if she didn’t get into UMD. |
Anonymous
In that case, I’d let her be done. School is solid all around and students are generally very happy there. If she likes it, I’d let her wrap up the process and enjoy her senior year. |