Can I apply to this many schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has to be a troll post. 33?!

I know someone at our MCPS high school whose daughter applied to 30 schools. I was part of a long conversation in the stands at an athletic event where the mom ran through in detail each school, the outcome, and the current status of decisions (it was April 2021). Kids are genuinely doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be a troll post. 33?!

I know someone at our MCPS high school whose daughter applied to 30 schools. I was part of a long conversation in the stands at an athletic event where the mom ran through in detail each school, the outcome, and the current status of decisions (it was April 2021). Kids are genuinely doing this.

where did this kid end up attending?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be a troll post. 33?!

I know someone at our MCPS high school whose daughter applied to 30 schools. I was part of a long conversation in the stands at an athletic event where the mom ran through in detail each school, the outcome, and the current status of decisions (it was April 2021). Kids are genuinely doing this.

where did this kid end up attending?

I wish I remembered. The acceptances were a mix of OOS flagships and SLACs with merit. I kind of got lost in it all and went back to watching the game.

If you’re wondering about T20s and the like, those were all WL and rejections.

[Anonymous]

Why, it is to chase merit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why, it is to chase merit?

Or FA. She’ll be an international requiring aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The amount of supplemental essays must be staggering with 33 applications?

DC with average scores applied to 15 or so schools last year, most were Common App only no supplemental essays. Got into top choice state flagship and is very happy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why, it is to chase merit?

Or FA. She’ll be an international requiring aid

Seems that focusing on fewer schools (with good international aid) and doing those applications well might be just as good or better for outcomes!

[Anonymous]

33? Why not try for 45 or 78?

Seriously, cut that down by a third or more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is planning on applying to 33 different schools. Many of these require transcripts. Do the counselors have a hard limit of schools they will send transcripts for?

To answer you question, no there isn’t a limit. However the counselor should have a conversation with her because this sounds like a very unclear focus.

At this point, it is reasonable that your daughter has 33 schools she’s interested in, but you are forgetting that there are also different application deadlines. She shouldn’t be applying to all of them right now (likely can’t). There is some prioritizing and order hat needs to happen.

1. If she’s 1000% sure there is one school she would definitely go to if she was accepted, then she applies early decision if they offer it. You can only apply ED to one school, and if accepted all other applications must be withdrawn. Many private schools are either early decision (ED) or regular decision (RD), so all of the ones that aren’t the single ED you wait to apply until after ED is heard from. (1)

2. She should identify her best fit, in-state public school and apply early action to it. (1)

3. She should apply to in-state public schools that are a reach compared to the best fit one (1-3 more)

4. Apply to rolling admission schools that are a fit or safety early on. (1-2)

5. Apply to private reach schools that offer early action (EA). Be realistic- a reach is where the school is selective (<30% admits) but DD stats are in range of admit averages. (1-4)

6. Apply to out-of-state public schools that are a good fit and are either similar or better than your best fit in-state public. Prioritize these and limit to 3 or 4. More than that means your DD hasn’t really thought about differences between schools. (3-4)

This is ~15 schools to apply to in ED or EA, which is still a lot IMO. (My 3 kids had 5-9 initial applications). Then you wait to hear. If you are accepted to ED school, you are done. Rolling will be yes or no. EA will be yes, no, or deferred to RD. If your DD did a good job selecting and selling herself, she should have several admission offers to consider. With offers in hand, the remaining schools of interest should be thinned down to only schools higher ranked or higher interest than her acceptances. At this point, only one of my kids still applied to 3 more top schools (got into 2), but still ended up picking a school from EA.