20 plus applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schools should not be able to dictate how many colleges a student applies to.

My kid’s HS limits it to 10. I’m glad because it forces you to do your homework and apply to schools where your kid will get in. No need to waste applications on long shots.

But every single year a private mom comes on in spring to say that their gifted kid applied to the 10 max … and got nothing. The counselors get it wrong

She’s an idiot for relying on anyone else. Buyer beware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Last year, when my kid was applying, some parent had twins, and they were maxing out Common and Coalition Apps to apply to 30+ schools each fishing for max merit aid.

To me, this is where it makes sense. If you're a donut hole family, it's not clear where the merit scholarship might come from, so you cast a wide net.

But in that case you are not applying to T20 schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I check out college confidential from time to time, and am shocked to see kids reporting they applied to 20 plus schools (one kid reported 30 plus). These are high stat kids “shotgunning” every school in the T20 or T30 and doing pretty well with acceptances. Of course, they can only attend one. It just seems completely ridiculous that their high schools allow this.

If this becomes the culture at a high school the colleges will start blacklisitng kids from that high school in future years. colleges track their matriculation rates.

Except colleges have no clue how many you apply to. They just know person X from HS ABC was accepted and did not matriculate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to the latest Common App report (2022 cycle), students with SAT scores (ACT equiv) of 1500+ (76,747 applicants) submitted on average 9 applications.

24% of students with scores >1400 submitted 10-14 applications and 28% submitted more than 15.

No surprise, but high volume applicants are applying to highly selective schools: "Naturally, this effect would tend to result in a greater concentration of high-volume applicants in the pools of the most selective members."

https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ca.research.publish/Research_Briefs_2022/2022_12_09_Apps_Per_Applicant_ResearchBrief.pdf

If a qualified applicant has a 10-20% chance at any given school and the chances at any given school are unrelated to the chances at other schools, it makes sense to shotgun applications

I understand why kids are doing it but the reality is it will only get worse for students because if more students submit 15+ applications to the same pool of T100 schools, the 10-20% chance will decrease to 5-10%, especially when you are competing with potentially 76000+ kids with at least a 1500 SAT score (ACT equivalent) and an additional 98000+ in the 1400 range.

Yup. worse for students, but for the colleges, if they miscalculate yield, they just pull from the WL. In the end the college wont care, their goal is to fill their freshman class. If they can make an extra $75*20K students, they will gladly take it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are doing this because acceptances at the higher ranked school are such a lottery and unpredictable. I don't blame them.

This.

Don't blame the victims in this horrible system who are trying to make the best choice for themselves. More power to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I check out college confidential from time to time, and am shocked to see kids reporting they applied to 20 plus schools (one kid reported 30 plus). These are high stat kids “shotgunning” every school in the T20 or T30 and doing pretty well with acceptances. Of course, they can only attend one. It just seems completely ridiculous that their high schools allow this.

No high school in the US has any control of how many apps a student does. That is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I check out college confidential from time to time, and am shocked to see kids reporting they applied to 20 plus schools (one kid reported 30 plus). These are high stat kids “shotgunning” every school in the T20 or T30 and doing pretty well with acceptances. Of course, they can only attend one. It just seems completely ridiculous that their high schools allow this.

No high school in the US has any control of how many apps a student does. That is absurd.

Privates can limit how many they will send official transcripts to and how many they will send recommendations to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I check out college confidential from time to time, and am shocked to see kids reporting they applied to 20 plus schools (one kid reported 30 plus). These are high stat kids “shotgunning” every school in the T20 or T30 and doing pretty well with acceptances. Of course, they can only attend one. It just seems completely ridiculous that their high schools allow this.

This is one reason why percentages of kids accepted and yield has gone down at T20 schools. Instead of applying to 6-8 school, students are applying to twice that. More applicants and the same number of acceptances. If the same kids get into numerous schools, then most of those schools will take a hit to their yield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid applied to 12 but kids friend applied to 24. Their logic is that since it seems a lottery at selective schools, you have to cast a wide net. Given how unpredictable results have been, I understand that logic. Each college has different institutional priorities and they are all independent. If you are able to put in the essay work, why not?

But… it’s a lot of work to do thoughtful essays for 20+ apps.

Basic college statistics - more applications don't increase the odds for independent events. It's far better to apply to schools where the child has a good fit than to cast a wide net at schools based on their "reputation," even if the child's needs, goals, and stats aren't a match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I check out college confidential from time to time, and am shocked to see kids reporting they applied to 20 plus schools (one kid reported 30 plus). These are high stat kids “shotgunning” every school in the T20 or T30 and doing pretty well with acceptances. Of course, they can only attend one. It just seems completely ridiculous that their high schools allow this.

This is one reason why percentages of kids accepted and yield has gone down at T20 schools. Instead of applying to 6-8 school, students are applying to twice that. More applicants and the same number of acceptances. If the same kids get into numerous schools, then most of those schools will take a hit to their yield.

+1 -- this is a very important point. Will T30s increasingly lean on deferrals in EA/ED to handle this or waitlists in RD? Also, I thought it is interesting that the average admit-rate for high volume/SAT >1400 applicants is 24%.

[Anonymous]

Op here, I guess my frustration is that kids are applying to a ridiculous amount of schools and then saying they aren’t remotely interested in some of the highly selective schools they are accepted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is because of TO. Targets are becoming reach schools for top students also, so they are playing the odds - you need to apply to a lot more for the hopes of getting into one.

Get rid of TO, and the numbers will come back down to normal

“Get rid of TO” is also a collective action problem, except that it’s the schools who have to coordinate their actions (and it’s illegal for them to do so).

According to the Common App 2022 report high volume/SAT >1400 (ACT equiv) are "eight times as likely to be applicants who selectively include test scores depending on where they are applying."

High-stats students are being strategic about TO but this is also driving up the 50% percentile SAT scores at T30 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here, I guess my frustration is that kids are applying to a ridiculous amount of schools and then saying they aren’t remotely interested in some of the highly selective schools they are accepted to.

Yes, but according to Common App, kids that are submitting 15+ applications to schools with an acceptance rate <40% are getting into 3-5 schools on average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, I guess my frustration is that kids are applying to a ridiculous amount of schools and then saying they aren’t remotely interested in some of the highly selective schools they are accepted to.

Yes, but according to Common App, kids that are submitting 15+ applications to schools with an acceptance rate <40% are getting into 3-5 schools on average.

So when they apply to 30, they are getting slots at 6 to 10 schools. No kid needs that many acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, I guess my frustration is that kids are applying to a ridiculous amount of schools and then saying they aren’t remotely interested in some of the highly selective schools they are accepted to.

Yes, but according to Common App, kids that are submitting 15+ applications to schools with an acceptance rate <40% are getting into 3-5 schools on average.

So when they apply to 30, they are getting slots at 6 to 10 schools. No kid needs that many acceptances.

They do if they're comparing financial aid offers.

Eyes on your own paper.