Applying to 20 schools, crazy or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We wasted a lot of time and energy writing essays for a Dec 1 deadline. Waitlisted. I said we because I had to hear about it. Overall I think they applied to 8 each. 2 rejects. 2 waitlist.

I think you have to encourage your kid to look at it as a learning and life experience. Hopefully the two rejections can give your some information on what type of schools they should be applying to RD. It is hard not to feel defeated. I've been a realist when discussing with my kid. I've also tried to step back as much as possible and not comment/speculate on what is going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"OP again. There is some serious logical fallacy going on in responses above. I have a 3.98 UW with 15 AP/IB classes before I graduate. All As except for 1 A- last year. 1530 SAT.

The only reason not to increase number of applications is the time and fees it costs.

People who think that the quality of applications goes down after 10 apps have it exactly wrong. My 11th essay is much sharper and wittier than my first, when I was finding my voice."

I love your attitude and wish you only the best! And you're totally correct that each essay is easier than the one before. You find a groove.

And to those old farts who think that students are crafting beautiful applications for their dream schools, sorry, but no. The romance is gone! There's no thick paper that you carefully type on like when we were kids. It's all just buttons you click that yield a badly offset application in the Common App that hurts your eyes to look at. There's one long essay that all the schools use, and then you write a shorter one for each specific school. But the short ones are honestly not that different from one another, so your general themes and the aspects of yourself you want to highlight can be applied to these "variations on a theme."

- Someone who applied as a first-gen POC from a high school that never sent anyone out of state or to an elite HYS. Applied to about 20 schools, including 4 safeties, and got into every single HYSP MIT whatever the acronym here is. I had no idea what my odds were, much less whether they were cumulative, since nobody from my school had ever tried for those places before. But I really, really wanted a shot at the life I imagined I'd have if I got into just one of those schools. I figured that some admissions person somewhere might find my story interesting and keep me in the "maybe" pool long enough for me to make it all the way to the admits, so I kept on filling out applications. And that did seem like kissing a frog. But everyone knows you have to kiss a whole bunch before the prince shows up. I don't see why you care that I spent all that time or that OP is spending more money than is absolutely necessary. We all have our thing that we're willing to splurge on, right?

You are the classic “exception that proves the rule.” If you got into every Ivy that you applied to, there was something in your app that appealed to all of the the ADs. It’s not just test scores and grades. Being a POC and first gen with an “interesting story” certainly didn’t hurt. For every student like you, there are a dozen who applied to multiple top 20 schools and were admitted to none. If you’re a princess, kissing the frogs may work every time. For your dime a dozen UMC kid, not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's crazy.

Agree.

Disagree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's crazy.

Agree.

Disagree

Undecided

[Anonymous]

Yes you should apply to only 3 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. There is some serious logical fallacy going on in responses above. I have a 3.98 UW with 15 AP/IB classes before I graduate. All As except for 1 A- last year. 1530 SAT.

The only reason not to increase number of applications is the time and fees it costs.

People who think that the quality of applications goes down after 10 apps have it exactly wrong. My 11th essay is much sharper and wittier than my first, when I was finding my voice.

So, do you recycle your essays or research each school and have something school specific to say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you really think you’ll just get into 1?

You must be a three year old to make this kind of argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crazy. Make better, more focused choices.

+1. Reflect on what you really want and where you want to be. If you actually picked 10 schools that include safties, matches, and reaches, you would be all set. 20 applications says you like the thrill of the chase more than you know what you want.

[Anonymous]

My DD applied to 13 schools. Admittedly, three of them were because she was emailed fee waivers and the supplemental essays were short (or none) and easily recyclable from other applications. FYI, one was Fordham where even if she did get in (small chance of being admitted) we cannot afford.

In retrospect I don't think that is a good reason and shouldn't have bothered if she has no chance of going there. The other two were safeties. DD is average girl compared to DCUM kids, FYI, and this board had me worried!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crazy. Make better, more focused choices.

+1. Reflect on what you really want and where you want to be. If you actually picked 10 schools that include safties, matches, and reaches, you would be all set. 20 applications says you like the thrill of the chase more than you know what you want.

This from the department of arbitrary choice: 10 is not too many but 20 is. So silly!

People are different and can do things differently. Some apply to 1, some to 3, and some to 20. Doesn't make anyone "crazy". If you want to apply to 20 schools, and can do 20 applications well, and afford the fees, then do them, and good luck.

Most importantly: Don't listen to anyone who uses pejoratives and take judgmental positions.

[Anonymous]

My DS has applied to 13 schools so far, although 5 are in the UC system and it just seemed easy to tag a couple of additional campuses in addition to the one he was interested in for family reasons. If he gets rejected from his ED school, he'll submit somewhere ED2 and add at least a few RD applications as well.

I don't think there is a 'right' number, frankly, and this year is especially hard. Thanks to Covid, there wasn't a lot of college touring for some of us and even those schools he visited didn't let him enter any of the buildings or get any serious sense of the student experience. And we all heard the horror stories from last year about kids who were shut out at schools that didn't look like crazy reaches. So I don't think 20 schools is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Yes, 20 is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, 20 is crazy.

No, 20 is not crazy. But 25 is

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"OP again. There is some serious logical fallacy going on in responses above. I have a 3.98 UW with 15 AP/IB classes before I graduate. All As except for 1 A- last year. 1530 SAT.

The only reason not to increase number of applications is the time and fees it costs.

People who think that the quality of applications goes down after 10 apps have it exactly wrong. My 11th essay is much sharper and wittier than my first, when I was finding my voice."

I love your attitude and wish you only the best! And you're totally correct that each essay is easier than the one before. You find a groove.

And to those old farts who think that students are crafting beautiful applications for their dream schools, sorry, but no. The romance is gone! There's no thick paper that you carefully type on like when we were kids. It's all just buttons you click that yield a badly offset application in the Common App that hurts your eyes to look at. There's one long essay that all the schools use, and then you write a shorter one for each specific school. But the short ones are honestly not that different from one another, so your general themes and the aspects of yourself you want to highlight can be applied to these "variations on a theme."

- Someone who applied as a first-gen POC from a high school that never sent anyone out of state or to an elite HYS. Applied to about 20 schools, including 4 safeties, and got into every single HYSP MIT whatever the acronym here is. I had no idea what my odds were, much less whether they were cumulative, since nobody from my school had ever tried for those places before. But I really, really wanted a shot at the life I imagined I'd have if I got into just one of those schools. I figured that some admissions person somewhere might find my story interesting and keep me in the "maybe" pool long enough for me to make it all the way to the admits, so I kept on filling out applications. And that did seem like kissing a frog. But everyone knows you have to kiss a whole bunch before the prince shows up. I don't see why you care that I spent all that time or that OP is spending more money than is absolutely necessary. We all have our thing that we're willing to splurge on, right?

You are the classic “exception that proves the rule.” If you got into every Ivy that you applied to, there was something in your app that appealed to all of the the ADs. It’s not just test scores and grades. Being a POC and first gen with an “interesting story” certainly didn’t hurt. For every student like you, there are a dozen who applied to multiple top 20 schools and were admitted to none. If you’re a princess, kissing the frogs may work every time. For your dime a dozen UMC kid, not so much.

That first-gen POC from a less prestigious high school probably goes from 1530 to 1600 SATs if he, she or they had attended the same high school and had the same advantages as the "dime a dozen UMC kid". That's why this kid is a princess and the UMC kid isn't.

[Anonymous]

Do colleges and universities know that you're applying to 20 schools? If so, I would think they're less likely to admit you because you can only attend one. If ten admit, then nine have hurt their yield by admitting you when you weren't serious about attending.

And of course, yield is one of the key factors in the USNWR rankings.