high schools SHOULD limit kids to 12 college apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:too many of the top 10 kids in a big high school class gobbled up 20 acceptances.

everyone would be better off if people thought more carefully, ran the NPC early, and didn't apply to 5 safeties.

Look those kids earned those spots. If they want to choose or need to compare financial aid packages, that's up to them.

[Anonymous]

at our feeder, LORs are targeted to schools.

here's how it works.

Johnny asks Ms Smith to write his LOR. They talk. Ms Smith says, what school is your top choice or ED? Johnny says Wharton. Ms Smith write a letter to Wharton - about why Johnny would be so great there with specific examples of why. If ED doesn't work out, there will be a stripped down version. Some teachers will strip it down and make two or three version: business schools and jesuit and general. Or even business and engineering and general. Those go out to the appropriate 8 or 10 schools during RD.

The high school also limits how many letters a teacher can write.

Every counselor, every letter writer has a smaller number of kids they're doing work for. Every kid is writing fewer app. Every app, in the end, is just a lot more powerful. This is how schools like Brearley get so many kids into T10 schools.

And because you and 12 of your classmates are applying to Wharton, you have a much better chance of getting one of the 2-3 spots that the high school usually gets than if you and 30 of your classmates applied to Wharton, especially if in that group of 30 were the 5 superstars who are going to Harvard anyway.

For the same reason, if you apply and get into your SCEA, you are highly highly discouraged from applying anywhere else. Youre done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:at our feeder, LORs are targeted to schools.

here's how it works.

Johnny asks Ms Smith to write his LOR. They talk. Ms Smith says, what school is your top choice or ED? Johnny says Wharton. Ms Smith write a letter to Wharton - about why Johnny would be so great there with specific examples of why. If ED doesn't work out, there will be a stripped down version. Some teachers will strip it down and make two or three version: business schools and jesuit and general. Or even business and engineering and general. Those go out to the appropriate 8 or 10 schools during RD.

The high school also limits how many letters a teacher can write.

Every counselor, every letter writer has a smaller number of kids they're doing work for. Every kid is writing fewer app. Every app, in the end, is just a lot more powerful. This is how schools like Brearley get so many kids into T10 schools.

And because you and 12 of your classmates are applying to Wharton, you have a much better chance of getting one of the 2-3 spots that the high school usually gets than if you and 30 of your classmates applied to Wharton, especially if in that group of 30 were the 5 superstars who are going to Harvard anyway.

For the same reason, if you apply and get into your SCEA, you are highly highly discouraged from applying anywhere else. Youre done!

This is a great policy for a rich private school. But I struggle to see its relevance to the OP’s argument, which is that public schools should expend their limited resources to prevent their students from applying to colleges in ways that don’t require any high school participation at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:at our feeder, LORs are targeted to schools.

here's how it works.

Johnny asks Ms Smith to write his LOR. They talk. Ms Smith says, what school is your top choice or ED? Johnny says Wharton. Ms Smith write a letter to Wharton - about why Johnny would be so great there with specific examples of why. If ED doesn't work out, there will be a stripped down version. Some teachers will strip it down and make two or three version: business schools and jesuit and general. Or even business and engineering and general. Those go out to the appropriate 8 or 10 schools during RD.

The high school also limits how many letters a teacher can write.

Every counselor, every letter writer has a smaller number of kids they're doing work for. Every kid is writing fewer app. Every app, in the end, is just a lot more powerful. This is how schools like Brearley get so many kids into T10 schools.

And because you and 12 of your classmates are applying to Wharton, you have a much better chance of getting one of the 2-3 spots that the high school usually gets than if you and 30 of your classmates applied to Wharton, especially if in that group of 30 were the 5 superstars who are going to Harvard anyway.

For the same reason, if you apply and get into your SCEA, you are highly highly discouraged from applying anywhere else. Youre done!

interesting. our LOR are not targeted but they do ask for a lot of content from kids - not related to major at all - but related to their time in that teacher's class (specific readings, projects, assignments - why impactful and where it led the kid). tends to lead to great LOR that can be used at ANY school.

[Anonymous]

This is entirely driven by the uncertainty in the process.

The uncertainty was exacerbated by test optional policies, but has not dialed back now that scores are required at some top schools. Most are still test optional. Even ones that aren't test optional seem to weigh GPA so heavily, as a pretend standardized metric, that scores aren't enough.

The remaining uncertainty is the black-box of holistic admission. And that isn't simply the subjective views of the essays and recs, though that too. Decisions are largely driven by yield algorithms, which are secret.

[Anonymous]

Until students (and parents) feel confident that there could be a more reliable way for students to obtain admissions, we will continue to have increased college applications. As much as we like the idea of of "holistic admission", it is mysterious to us and we don't know what that means for admission nor scholarships.

[Anonymous]

yep, don't hate the player, hate the game

[Anonymous]

It’s all game theory. Everyone would be better off if they were all applying to fewer schools. But people individually are better off applying to more, and there is no coordination mechanism to get to the better point.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's anyone's business how many schools a student applies to, nor does anyone have any right to restrict it. For all of you who are pushing for restrictions, how many of you are only thinking about certain types of students and certain types of schools?

My kid applied to 35 schools (yes, 35) seeking admission to a highly competitive BFA major in theatre. Academic acceptance is required as well as artistic acceptance. Most schools receive approximately 1000-2000 artistic applications for a final cohort of 10-24 students.

That's a 1-2% acceptance rate. There is no such thing as a reach, target or safety school and there is no way to predict your admissions as much is dependent on a student's audition and the "character type" that school needs to round out their program.

If these students were limited to 12 schools, many of them would not be accepted anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:at our feeder, LORs are targeted to schools.

here's how it works.

Johnny asks Ms Smith to write his LOR. They talk. Ms Smith says, what school is your top choice or ED? Johnny says Wharton. Ms Smith write a letter to Wharton - about why Johnny would be so great there with specific examples of why. If ED doesn't work out, there will be a stripped down version. Some teachers will strip it down and make two or three version: business schools and jesuit and general. Or even business and engineering and general. Those go out to the appropriate 8 or 10 schools during RD.

The high school also limits how many letters a teacher can write.

Every counselor, every letter writer has a smaller number of kids they're doing work for. Every kid is writing fewer app. Every app, in the end, is just a lot more powerful. This is how schools like Brearley get so many kids into T10 schools.

And because you and 12 of your classmates are applying to Wharton, you have a much better chance of getting one of the 2-3 spots that the high school usually gets than if you and 30 of your classmates applied to Wharton, especially if in that group of 30 were the 5 superstars who are going to Harvard anyway.

For the same reason, if you apply and get into your SCEA, you are highly highly discouraged from applying anywhere else. Youre done!

This is a great policy for a rich private school. But I struggle to see its relevance to the OP’s argument, which is that public schools should expend their limited resources to prevent their students from applying to colleges in ways that don’t require any high school participation at all.

the OP didn't say public or private.

[Anonymous]

private high schools that state on their profile, "students are limited to applying no more than 12 colleges" have better outcomes. kids aren't yield protected.

high schools that limit the number of LOR a teacher can write would also be a big advantage. I hadn't heard of that before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:at our feeder, LORs are targeted to schools.

here's how it works.

Johnny asks Ms Smith to write his LOR. They talk. Ms Smith says, what school is your top choice or ED? Johnny says Wharton. Ms Smith write a letter to Wharton - about why Johnny would be so great there with specific examples of why. If ED doesn't work out, there will be a stripped down version. Some teachers will strip it down and make two or three version: business schools and jesuit and general. Or even business and engineering and general. Those go out to the appropriate 8 or 10 schools during RD.

The high school also limits how many letters a teacher can write.

Every counselor, every letter writer has a smaller number of kids they're doing work for. Every kid is writing fewer app. Every app, in the end, is just a lot more powerful. This is how schools like Brearley get so many kids into T10 schools.

And because you and 12 of your classmates are applying to Wharton, you have a much better chance of getting one of the 2-3 spots that the high school usually gets than if you and 30 of your classmates applied to Wharton, especially if in that group of 30 were the 5 superstars who are going to Harvard anyway.

For the same reason, if you apply and get into your SCEA, you are highly highly discouraged from applying anywhere else. Youre done!

This is a great policy for a rich private school. But I struggle to see its relevance to the OP’s argument, which is that public schools should expend their limited resources to prevent their students from applying to colleges in ways that don’t require any high school participation at all.

the OP didn't say public or private.

Oh, you’re right! I assumed “big” meant public. Are there any 2,000-4,000 student private high schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's anyone's business how many schools a student applies to, nor does anyone have any right to restrict it. For all of you who are pushing for restrictions, how many of you are only thinking about certain types of students and certain types of schools?

My kid applied to 35 schools (yes, 35) seeking admission to a highly competitive BFA major in theatre. Academic acceptance is required as well as artistic acceptance. Most schools receive approximately 1000-2000 artistic applications for a final cohort of 10-24 students.

That's a 1-2% acceptance rate. There is no such thing as a reach, target or safety school and there is no way to predict your admissions as much is dependent on a student's audition and the "character type" that school needs to round out their program.

If these students were limited to 12 schools, many of them would not be accepted anywhere.

there aren't 35 schools with good BFA programs in theater with acceptance rates of 1-2%. there are 5. I'm sure your child applied to those reach schools and also have 10 schools where the odds were heavily in their favor if not a sure thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all game theory. Everyone would be better off if they were all applying to fewer schools. But people individually are better off applying to more, and there is no coordination mechanism to get to the better point.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's anyone's business how many schools a student applies to, nor does anyone have any right to restrict it. For all of you who are pushing for restrictions, how many of you are only thinking about certain types of students and certain types of schools?

My kid applied to 35 schools (yes, 35) seeking admission to a highly competitive BFA major in theatre. Academic acceptance is required as well as artistic acceptance. Most schools receive approximately 1000-2000 artistic applications for a final cohort of 10-24 students.

That's a 1-2% acceptance rate. There is no such thing as a reach, target or safety school and there is no way to predict your admissions as much is dependent on a student's audition and the "character type" that school needs to round out their program.

If these students were limited to 12 schools, many of them would not be accepted anywhere.

there aren't 35 schools with good BFA programs in theater with acceptance rates of 1-2%. there are 5. I'm sure your child applied to those reach schools and also have 10 schools where the odds were heavily in their favor if not a sure thing.

Wanna bet - I can give you stats for all 35. The best odds were about a 12% admittance rate. There are no sure things.