How many colleges to apply to this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suggest 20+. This year will be tought.

Ridiculous and unnecessary. Your kid is still trying to finish high school.

Be more disciplined about creating a good list (which should be tight, as described above).

Status-driven parents consider this a lottery and just try to buy more tickets, ignoring what that says to their child about the acceptability of anything over T20.

I am a quality and achievement-oriented parent. I don’t give a shit about the bumper sticker. Our family is very stealth about our goals and accomplishments.

DS is applying to as many as 17 schools, depending on ED and EA results. Seven or eight of those are lottery schools for him, 2 safeties and a bunch of high matches that the counselor says are “reaches” though DS is above their 75th %.

17? Oh my.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suggest 20+. This year will be tought.

Ridiculous and unnecessary. Your kid is still trying to finish high school.

Be more disciplined about creating a good list (which should be tight, as described above).

Status-driven parents consider this a lottery and just try to buy more tickets, ignoring what that says to their child about the acceptability of anything over T20.

I am a quality and achievement-oriented parent. I don’t give a shit about the bumper sticker. Our family is very stealth about our goals and accomplishments.

DS is applying to as many as 17 schools, depending on ED and EA results. Seven or eight of those are lottery schools for him, 2 safeties and a bunch of high matches that the counselor says are “reaches” though DS is above their 75th %.

How does your DS handle 17 sets of unique supplemental essays?

[Anonymous]

So 15/17 schools are lottery or reaches?

I guess you are a gambling family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these 35/36 ACT kids applying to Pitt as their safety are mucking it up for kids who actually want to go there.

You do understand that Pitt does know how to predict their yield, right?

I don't, can you elaborate?

I’ll take a stab. Every school has a formula (based on experience) for how many offers will produce a single acceptance. They evaluate this based on the stats of the kids, not just overall numbers, hence the discussion about “yield protection.” Some schools don’t offer to high stats kids who don’t show interest because they know the likelihood of acceptance is low (they know that they’re a “safety” school). So the number of offers that go out is not a fixed number. It depends on the projected yield for similarly situated students. For 2019-2020, Pitt’s overall yield was 22.15% & it was probably lower than that for high stats kids. Schools do mess up yield projection from time to time (*ahem* Virginia Tech), but they will generally know how many high stats kids will accept for every offer made. So, if for example, it’s 10%, then they know that they can make 10 offers for every one that will accept. The nine that don’t accept aren’t taking a space away from a lower stats kid. The bottom line is that the higher stats kids don’t soak up all the admissions (unless there really are that many high stats kids that will go to Pitt, in which case, fair enough).

I think Pitt overenrolled quite a bit forthe 2025s.

Based on what I heard about last year’s results, my guess would be that they got better yield on high stats kids then they expected. Test optional seemed to result in more kids getting shut out of reaches and targets, and only getting into their safeties. That would make the point even more valid — the high stats kids didn’t “waste” acceptances.

[Anonymous]

15 here, but 5 are UC schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suggest 20+. This year will be tought.

Ridiculous and unnecessary. Your kid is still trying to finish high school.

Be more disciplined about creating a good list (which should be tight, as described above).

Status-driven parents consider this a lottery and just try to buy more tickets, ignoring what that says to their child about the acceptability of anything over T20.

I am a quality and achievement-oriented parent. I don’t give a shit about the bumper sticker. Our family is very stealth about our goals and accomplishments.

DS is applying to as many as 17 schools, depending on ED and EA results. Seven or eight of those are lottery schools for him, 2 safeties and a bunch of high matches that the counselor says are “reaches” though DS is above their 75th %.

How does your DS handle 17 sets of unique supplemental essays?

There aren't 17 truly unique sets of essays. A few of the schools have none; these tend to be safeties for him.

He repurposes some of essays so the same essay can used for multiple schools. The thesis stays the same (and he would tell you this is the hardest part, devising a compelling, punchy topic) and he tweaks the intro sentences to make it fit the question. ie, school A: "Tell us something about yourself that other people don't know that has nothing to do with academics." school B: "Our college takes pride in fostering the passions of our students. How would you pursue your passion if you attend school B" ..... <<<< DS is going to use the same essay for both of these questions.

[Anonymous]

at least 8

[Anonymous]

4 schools, all applying ED. Two reach, one on par that our kid would be very happy with, one safety. Will re-evaluate if necessary after we see what happens. Our kid is competitive, but who knows. It's a weird time. We are in Virginia, but not in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 schools, all applying ED. Two reach, one on par that our kid would be very happy with, one safety. Will re-evaluate if necessary after we see what happens. Our kid is competitive, but who knows. It's a weird time. We are in Virginia, but not in the DMV.

You mean applying EA, right?

[Anonymous]

We also did 17. Have 1 super-safety so can close the books. Took over 60 pages of essays. With so many top schools essentially lotteries it gives DC a chance to attend a top program, with another set of highly rated big 10 schools that cannot be considered safeties due to the competition of the major and then 1 super safety. It is crazy that it has gotten to this but while I do agree you can get a good education in lots of places, there are variances in the NPV and ROI of going to a top program/school - fair or not - the data shows it is an accelerator, if not a game changer.

[Anonymous]

6- Univ of Md - College Park, St. Mary's, UMBC, 3 private schools. My kiddo has a good GPA at a magnet and a 1460 SAT so hopefully should be fine to get in somewhere, hopefully with merit.