Only applying to 2-3 schools?

[Anonymous]

DS is focusing on EA schools/rolling schools that he’s interested in first.

He’ll only apply/write more essays if he doesn’t get into any of the above. The plan is NOT to apply to 20 schools as a “just in case”. Waste of time, waste of money in fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what it is worth I was doing well at our state flagship before my parents pressured me into applying to a top 10 school. Somehow I got in and transferred. For the most part it was a big mistake. Looks great on my resume and opened some doors. Just not the doors I was hoping for

Impossible! You went to an Ivy - your life is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Op, you can choose to think of applications as a fluid process. Apps go in, decisions are made. More apps go in, choices are narrowed. Our kids never had a firm "list", it was fluid. Rolling school apps went in late summer. Heard by Oct. For some EA or RD, if they didn't get in ... should something else get added. Visited along the way.

You might have some ideas/suggestions for schools beyond those 3, just in case.

[Anonymous]

OP it sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan! A lot less work too.

[Anonymous]

DS put in the Pitt app super early (safe). He would have gone there if there rest of the plan fell apart, but it was not likely. Still, having an acceptance early seemed to take the pressure off a bit. He applied/was accepted to his ED1 school (a barely likely) but had an ED2 (super likely/safe) in mind if need be. It was solid plan.

[Anonymous]

I have this situation, too, and am fine with it. DS has a school he loves where he will likely ED. Has a true safety that he also loves. We’ve toured a lot of schools and really this safety is everything he wants and he’s super excited about it, despite its much lower rank and high acceptance rate. So he may only do 2 next fall and we’re at peace.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s refreshing to read about scenarios involving a very practical college application approach and more streamlined process. We need more of this and less chaos/hype!

[Anonymous]

My junior only has one school he wants to apply to, and he's in between the 50th and 75th percentile for scores. (And the admit rate for the school is over 70%.) I'm going to make him pick a couple of more schools to apply to, but it looks like his list will be pretty short. If he doesn't get into this school EA, then he'll expand the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My concern would be about limiting themselves to a very specific major. Some high schoolers think they need to have a major that is as specific as possible. In some cases this may be helpful or possibly even necessary, but in others it might be overly limiting. That also might not be the case of your child given the specificity of the major. Some kids just know.

I'd also make sure that they're applying to schools they'd want to attend even if they switched majors. A lot can change even over the next year, before making a final decision, and it's even more likely for them to change their minds over the next two to three years, once they're taking college classes.

This happened to our first but it worked out favorably, but in our kid's case it was four schools. One rolling; three EA. Considering two very different majors (one pre-professional, the other more of a general STEM) but only three of the four offered both.

In with money at the first school (rolling) but probably at the bottom of their list. Hard stop reject at the second school in EA which probably shouldn't have been a surprise but was at the time. Third school - the one the kid most wanted to go to and a match on paper - was waitlisted. Final school in and the good news is, it was one of the three that offered both programs and before our kid was even waitlisted started considering it because they had shifted their thinking on the major toward one that other didn't offer.

Three years later, happy with their decision and after the initial sting, never looked back.

[Anonymous]

This is exactly what 2 of my kids did.

Got in early to their top choices. They had only applied to 1 other school, but had a few other applications semi-ready that they would have finished and submitted if they didn't get in to their top choice early. They never submitted the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think so.

If you can afford the rolling admissions school and the ED school, then as soon as you are into one of them they become your safety.

This is what we did. We were done before Christmas. It was amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My concern would be about limiting themselves to a very specific major. Some high schoolers think they need to have a major that is as specific as possible. In some cases this may be helpful or possibly even necessary, but in others it might be overly limiting.

I'd also make sure that they're applying to schools they'd want to attend even if they switched majors. A lot can change even over the next year, before making a final decision, and it's even more likely for them to change their minds over the next two to three years, once they're taking college classes.

Yea... but that means before they even start college they will have already changed majors from what they want (at this moment) to what is available at the otherwise good school.

Sure, but according to OP the student is already eliminating at the vast majority of great schools because it's a very rare major. I'm not one for applying just based on prestige, but if the "the super competitive schools" don't have the major, I'm wondering what that major is and whether it is necessary for the student's goals.

If the student wants a job in "underwater basketweaving," it's quite likely that they could get a degree in "basketweaving" in a stronger school, then take SCUBA lessons, rather than just applying to the three schools out there that offer "underwater basketweaving" as an undergraduate major.

There may be some things you can't stitch together? Like does a degree in social work and religious studies actually equate to being a seminarian?

Absolutely, and if they want to be a plumber they might want to do trade school rather than an architecture program. But in my experience helping high schools with their applications, I think they overestimate how specific their major needs to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My concern would be about limiting themselves to a very specific major. Some high schoolers think they need to have a major that is as specific as possible. In some cases this may be helpful or possibly even necessary, but in others it might be overly limiting.

I'd also make sure that they're applying to schools they'd want to attend even if they switched majors. A lot can change even over the next year, before making a final decision, and it's even more likely for them to change their minds over the next two to three years, once they're taking college classes.

Yea... but that means before they even start college they will have already changed majors from what they want (at this moment) to what is available at the otherwise good school.

Sure, but according to OP the student is already eliminating at the vast majority of great schools because it's a very rare major. I'm not one for applying just based on prestige, but if the "the super competitive schools" don't have the major, I'm wondering what that major is and whether it is necessary for the student's goals.

If the student wants a job in "underwater basketweaving," it's quite likely that they could get a degree in "basketweaving" in a stronger school, then take SCUBA lessons, rather than just applying to the three schools out there that offer "underwater basketweaving" as an undergraduate major.

This is the crucial point: if the T20s or at least the T50s do not have the major it is probably not necessary and may not even be a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what it is worth I was doing well at our state flagship before my parents pressured me into applying to a top 10 school. Somehow I got in and transferred. For the most part it was a big mistake. Looks great on my resume and opened some doors. Just not the doors I was hoping for

What happened? Too hard? Did not like the peer group?

[Anonymous]

DD applied to 5 schools. It was a reasonable list with 2 safeties, 2 matches and 1 reach. She was excited about all five and got into her reach as ED. The whole process was not nearly as stressful as we saw other kids go through with 20+ applications.