Just realized application fee alone will cost $1000+

[Anonymous]

My kid applied to 20, her choice, more than half of them were LACs or state schools with waived or no application fee (think Reed, Carleton, Oberlin, Pitt). The rest came under $500, which she offered to pay from her summer earnings. It helped that we were also trying to find schools like Grinnell, Macalester, Wooster, etc that award merit aid. Additionally, most of the midwestern LACs or OOS schools had few essays, if any. She wrote the most for Pitt, ironically. It wasn't too bad for her, even though she got a late start and only finished her common app essay at the end of October. She already knew she was going to college, having heard back from Pitt in mid-September. The rest of the applications she cranked out herself. I don't think it's that big of a deal, as long as they truly apply to schools they are interested in. I do think it's more of a crapshoot now than it was even a few years ago, but you only apply to college (undergrad) once and if you truly want to do extra work to shoot your shot, then go for it. What I don't think is necessarily worthwhile is applying to elite or brand-name schools only for the prestige, especially if you don't really have the profile to be considered or accepted. It helps for kids to want to attend the schools that would want them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15 is a lot

Agreed.

Make a good list (tailored to fit), with 3 in each level of selectivity.

[Anonymous]

15 is too many! Does the school have a crappy college counselor?

[Anonymous]

15 is too many. 10 is reasonable (imho) BUT, Op the money spent on applications is a drop in the bucket. The money spend on appliications is a drop in the bucket compared to what you will be spending. Don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Or another saying ~ don't be so short sighted that you can't see the forest for the trees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid applied to 20, her choice, more than half of them were LACs or state schools with waived or no application fee (think Reed, Carleton, Oberlin, Pitt). The rest came under $500, which she offered to pay from her summer earnings. It helped that we were also trying to find schools like Grinnell, Macalester, Wooster, etc that award merit aid. Additionally, most of the midwestern LACs or OOS schools had few essays, if any. She wrote the most for Pitt, ironically. It wasn't too bad for her, even though she got a late start and only finished her common app essay at the end of October. She already knew she was going to college, having heard back from Pitt in mid-September. The rest of the applications she cranked out herself. I don't think it's that big of a deal, as long as they truly apply to schools they are interested in. I do think it's more of a crapshoot now than it was even a few years ago, but you only apply to college (undergrad) once and if you truly want to do extra work to shoot your shot, then go for it. What I don't think is necessarily worthwhile is applying to elite or brand-name schools only for the prestige, especially if you don't really have the profile to be considered or accepted. It helps for kids to want to attend the schools that would want them.

Pitt had no application fee??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid applied to 20, her choice, more than half of them were LACs or state schools with waived or no application fee (think Reed, Carleton, Oberlin, Pitt). The rest came under $500, which she offered to pay from her summer earnings. It helped that we were also trying to find schools like Grinnell, Macalester, Wooster, etc that award merit aid. Additionally, most of the midwestern LACs or OOS schools had few essays, if any. She wrote the most for Pitt, ironically. It wasn't too bad for her, even though she got a late start and only finished her common app essay at the end of October. She already knew she was going to college, having heard back from Pitt in mid-September. The rest of the applications she cranked out herself. I don't think it's that big of a deal, as long as they truly apply to schools they are interested in. I do think it's more of a crapshoot now than it was even a few years ago, but you only apply to college (undergrad) once and if you truly want to do extra work to shoot your shot, then go for it. What I don't think is necessarily worthwhile is applying to elite or brand-name schools only for the prestige, especially if you don't really have the profile to be considered or accepted. It helps for kids to want to attend the schools that would want them.

If your 20 included the 8 Ivies your kid would have been writing tons of supplemental essays. The 3 my kid applied to each had 4 extra essays---not something a senior really wants to do unless they truly want to attend that school, as it's time consuming and they do get burnt out with the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here who is trying to understand strategy now that it's basically a lottery. Let's say my kid has high stats, but that's not a differentiator anymore. Her favorite 3 schools are T20 and have low acceptance rates. They are all "reach", right? Then, "safeties" are ones where her stats are way above, right? But aren't people saying safeties are rejecting high stats kids b/c they would like to save the spot for someone who doesn't think of them as a safety? What even is a "target", then? If stats don't get you in and stats might keep you out, how does anyone get in?

reaches, well those are anything with an acceptance rate under 20%, doesn't matter what your kid's stats are

Targets: acceptance rates between 20-50/60%, kid at/above 50% (and somewhere you can afford)

Safety: acceptance rates over 50/60% and your kid's stats at/above 75%. For safeties especially, your kid needs to show demonstrate interest, and present themselves as if this is their dream school and convince them they would really attend if they get in. Because yes, kids do get "yield protected". Contact the admission officer, schedule an interview if possible, visit in person a few times if possible, if not then do as many online visits/interactions as possible. Ask to meet with the departments your kid is interested in, etc. Because yes if the avg scores are 1400 and 3.9W and your kid is rocking a 1580/4.5 you need to convince them that you really want to attend, otherwise there's a chance they wont accept you because all schools wants to improve their yield. The ultimate goal for a school is to fill their freshman class with the right group of students---so if your kid is out of the range of they typical student who normally actually enrolls, then you must convince them you want to go there, as they will think (possibly correctly) that you are using them as a safety and aren't really interested.

That is why you need more than 1 viable safety and why you MUST show demonstrated interest.

Then again it varies at each school. My own kid was accepted at a target they had not visited and only did the basic "online visit" once or twice. Knew it would be a great choice and would visit if they didn't get into their ED school (over 2K miles away). Even got the 2nd highest merit award that are given out automatically without any additional applications. My kid was only at the 75% for SAT (not 90th), but it's still a T50 school, so acceptance rates of ~25-30% most years and the school is known to yield protect as it's a "safety" for many Ivy/T20 Wannabees. I suspect my kid's scores were just right to make sure they didn't get yield protected but even so, many with similar scores didn't get accepted this year.

But that is why nothing with a 25-30% acceptance rate is a true safety. True safety must be 50-60%+ acceptance rate. So no matter how high your scores/gpa are, acceptance rates define what a true safety is. But show interest, real interest (fake it if needed but really you should find 2-3 that your kid is actually interested in that would be a good fit once you get over realizing you might not get to attend a T20 school) and you won't get rejected at most of your safeties. Problem is that for a HYPMS qualified candidate, that doesn't mean Tufts/Case/Rochester/Boston College/BU/Northeastern/GAtech/Purdue/UMich/Berkley/half the UCs/etc are Safeties. Those are not safeties for anyone.

This is extremely helpful. Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15 is a lot

Agreed.

Make a good list (tailored to fit), with 3 in each level of selectivity.

Glad we didn't take that advice. We'd be praying on wait lists right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15 is too many! Does the school have a crappy college counselor?

This really depends on the profile of the student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is not even planning to apply for that many, probably around 15, which is not much for high stat kids, since their reach and target schools overlap, it's like playing the lottery

As long as rich families pay it, they’ll get upping it.
Zero concern about poor people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is not even planning to apply for that many, probably around 15, which is not much for high stat kids, since their reach and target schools overlap, it's like playing the lottery

As long as rich families pay it, they’ll get upping it.
Zero concern about poor people.

keep, not get

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15 is a lot

Agreed.

Make a good list (tailored to fit), with 3 in each level of selectivity.

Glad we didn't take that advice. We'd be praying on wait lists right now.

If you were waitlisted at all three safeties, then they weren't really safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15 is a lot

Agreed.

Make a good list (tailored to fit), with 3 in each level of selectivity.

Glad we didn't take that advice. We'd be praying on wait lists right now.

If you were waitlisted at all three safeties, then they weren't really safeties.

Ok, troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15 is a lot

Agreed.

Make a good list (tailored to fit), with 3 in each level of selectivity.

Glad we didn't take that advice. We'd be praying on wait lists right now.

If you were waitlisted at all three safeties, then they weren't really safeties.

Ok, troll.

DP here, and respectfully, I don't think this is a troll and PP right, although it could have possibly been phrased nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15 is a lot

Agreed.

Make a good list (tailored to fit), with 3 in each level of selectivity.

Glad we didn't take that advice. We'd be praying on wait lists right now.

If you were waitlisted at all three safeties, then they weren't really safeties.

Ok, troll.

What were the “safeties” then? Seriously.