How many applications are too many (or too few)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

The horrible truth is that the more competitive you are, the more schools you have to apply to in order to hit your targets and maybe reaches.

[Anonymous]

My kid applied to 14 schools (including UCs) just in EA. Accepted to REA and not applying to additional schools RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well…school Counselors always say no more than 9.But reality is the average number is often above 10. For Asian, 20-30 is not uncommon.

Is this possible? I thought common app allows up to 20 applications? Are the rest international schools?

It’s certainly possible to apply to more than 20 schools. UCs, MIT, UMD, Pitt have their own applications outside of the common app, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

The horrible truth is that the more competitive you are, the more schools you have to apply to in order to hit your targets and maybe reaches.

I completely agree with this. For top stats applicants some targets will yield protect and waitlist them and reaches are by definition random and long shots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

The horrible truth is that the more competitive you are, the more schools you have to apply to in order to hit your targets and maybe reaches.

This is very true today. There are a lot of students with north of 4.0 GPAs and SAT/ACT scores above 1500/34. And many will be very accomplished in their ECs. The top 10 percent or so of Gen Z students are extremely bright, disciplined, and talented. And there's a lot of them. Many more than the spots available at the top 20 or so schools, which often prioritize their "institutional priorities" over a super talented kid from the 'burbs.

It's a lottery for these kids. They have their safeties. They'll likely get merit at tons of places. So they are good. But everything between MIT and USC is basically a crapshoot for unhooked students today. So they tend to apply widely to see what their options are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

The horrible truth is that the more competitive you are, the more schools you have to apply to in order to hit your targets and maybe reaches.

This is very true today. There are a lot of students with north of 4.0 GPAs and SAT/ACT scores above 1500/34. And many will be very accomplished in their ECs. The top 10 percent or so of Gen Z students are extremely bright, disciplined, and talented. And there's a lot of them. Many more than the spots available at the top 20 or so schools, which often prioritize their "institutional priorities" over a super talented kid from the 'burbs.

It's a lottery for these kids. They have their safeties. They'll likely get merit at tons of places. So they are good. But everything between MIT and USC is basically a crapshoot for unhooked students today. So they tend to apply widely to see what their options are.

I get this but also my kids hit a limit beyond which they just could not put care/attention into every app. That limit was around 12-14.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

The horrible truth is that the more competitive you are, the more schools you have to apply to in order to hit your targets and maybe reaches.

This is very true today. There are a lot of students with north of 4.0 GPAs and SAT/ACT scores above 1500/34. And many will be very accomplished in their ECs. The top 10 percent or so of Gen Z students are extremely bright, disciplined, and talented. And there's a lot of them. Many more than the spots available at the top 20 or so schools, which often prioritize their "institutional priorities" over a super talented kid from the 'burbs.

It's a lottery for these kids. They have their safeties. They'll likely get merit at tons of places. So they are good. But everything between MIT and USC is basically a crapshoot for unhooked students today. So they tend to apply widely to see what their options are.

I get this but also my kids hit a limit beyond which they just could not put care/attention into every app. That limit was around 12-14.

That sounds 100% reasonable to me. Also feels like good parenting. Kids have limits, and it’s really important to respect them.

Did they apply this year or in past years? If the latter, how did it turn out?