Proper Reach/Match/Safety college app distribution?

[Anonymous]

We had very little help from Guidance this year for my son's college apps, so I tried to take a lot of it on myself in terms of helping him research and target schools.

When he was rejected early from his number one choice (but a "reach") we ended up applying to another 15 schools.

Of those schools, we currently have 4 accepts, 2 accepts but not to the school he applied to, 6 rejections, 1 waitlist, and 2 schools left to hear from.

Did we plan this operation properly? Shoot too high?

Is the goal to get mostly acceptances or is it to apply to such a variety of schools that you get a realistic picture of where your child is showing with colleges in larger context?

This is my first kid to apply to college so I appreciate any insights.

[Anonymous]

I think applying to 15 schools is about half a dozen too many. My kids were told they could apply to between 6-9. If they wanted to apply to more than 9 they had to give a compelling reason why.

One kid did two reach, two probables, and two safeties. The other kid did three of each.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean two accepts but not to the school he applied to?

[Anonymous]

Were the six rejections to reach schools? It would be helpful to see a breakdown of which of the 15 were reach/match/likely.

[Anonymous]

You really need to go to the College/University forum with this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean two accepts but not to the school he applied to?

wanted engineering but got arts and sciences.

[Anonymous]

I have four in or through college and we are now in the early stages with our youngest. I don't understand why your son applied to so many schools. My kids norrowed selections down to three - Their first choice and two back ups. They applied to those. It seems like maybe your son has no idea where he wants to go. Picking a good school is important, but allowing your son to pick a good school for him is even more important.

Also, using phrases like "we currently have 4 accepts....." tells me you might be too involved in this. "We" aren't going to college. He is. It's great that you are encouraging him to look at options. But he should be the one steering this.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean two accepts but not to the school he applied to?

He applied for a specific major. Such as engineering, for example. He was accepted but on condition he chose a different major in the liberal arts programs. He's not interested in liberal arts.

Also come on, give me a break with the criticism of the "we" applied stuff. Obviously I'm not going to college myself but I'm a single mom and yes I'm involved with him and have helped him with his apps.

HE applied to so many schools because as I said he didn't have much help from guidance and I'm flying solo here and so is he, we thought the early school was a possibility and we just threw out the net as far as possible. $1000 in application fees seems like a small price to pay to find a place to pay $250k. No we're not eligible for financial aid.

[Anonymous]

You really need to go to the College/University forum with this thread.

Thank you I didn't know there was one here. Will go there! tx

[Anonymous]

Has he been accepted at a school he's really happy with? Is it one that would not have been on his list list if you'd pared it down substantially? Was it a school that he could have applied to earlier without sacrificing the early app at his number 1 choice?

Basically, when kids don't get in early to their first choice school, there can be a tendency to cast a broad net, especially if they no other info (e.g. from a school with EA or rolling admissions) about their likelihood of success elsewhere. If casting a wide net wasn't a financial stress and if he caught something he wanted, no problem with what you did. Goal is to have your kid get into a school that makes him/her happy and that you can afford. The rest is just noise.

[Anonymous]

My first DS applied to 7 colleges, my second to 10 and my third, a HS senior, to 13. I think 10 was about right, spread out pretty evenly between safeties, matches and reach. Part of the reason my current high school senior applied to so many is he will need to be awarded merit aid if he attends out of state and we had no clue whether and how much he might get at many of the schools he was interested in. He also applied to a couple colleges that we'd likely never send him to but he insisted on applying. As it is turning out, so far he has been accepted with merit aid at some of his reaches but we did not expect that result. And about a third or more of the colleges he applied to waived or don't have an application fee so applying wasn't ridiculously expensive.

[Anonymous]

My DC applied only to matches and safeties, because we couldn't afford to send him to a private school without significant merit aid. Reaches would have been unaffordable.

He applied to 10 schools.

[Anonymous]

I think 10-12 is a good number (3 reach/4 prob/3 safety), so 13 is not far off. Obv you need a mix of reach, probables and safeties, and nowadays even with naviance it is not easy to predict the probables so you can't just apply to one in each category, or you could wind up with no options!

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you did fine OP. All he needed was one acceptance and he received 4! That is fantastic. No worries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think 10-12 is a good number (3 reach/4 prob/3 safety), so 13 is not far off. Obv you need a mix of reach, probables and safeties, and nowadays even with naviance it is not easy to predict the probables so you can't just apply to one in each category, or you could wind up with no options!

Agree. I would be uncomfortable if my kid only applied to 3.