Does your school cap the number of colleges kid can apply to?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hmm. I have kids at Sidwell and have sometimes wondered if the Sidwell kids might be better served with a cap. It’s such an inhumane process. Works out generally by spring for most, but it’s a slog.

There is a cap. It is just that some abuse it.

What's the cap? My friend at Sidwell says no cap, just a recommendation.

Your friend is correct - it's a recommendation at Sidwell and that comes with guidance on how to create a balanced list that is also manageable and results in high quality applications.

I'll add that the recommendation is NOT to protect middle of the pack from the top students as the GDS person keeps saying

Then who do they protect? VIPs’ kids?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Application numbers are restricted so the top students don’t get all of the acceptances. They need to spots open at top colleges for the next tier of students.

This is it.
Do you guys not get it or are all your kids in the top 10%?

I have a straight A student at GDS. Do you really want him applying to all the top 20 schools? your B student is not going to get admitted if both our kids apply.

I thought we are in a free country... How could a school restrict kids how many schools they can apply?

Because GDS is a private school, and sending your child there is entirely voluntary. If you doin't like their rules, you should pull your kids out and find a school that allows you to apply to more than 10 colleges.

Not a GDS parent but this comment has no basis in reality. Parents applying to HS don't know that GDS is going to restrict applications.

Caveat emptor. I don't know of any highly selective independent school in the area that allows students to apply to as many colleges as they want. Do you?

I know that ours gives good counseling advice on how many to apply to but doesn't restrict. I am ok with this. I am also in the "10-12 is plenty" camp - there is a lot of value in putting in the work to create a thoughtful list. With that work done, a student can also submit higher quality applications. Finally, if they still get shut out of top 10, top 20, top 30 - it will all be fine (but I know others aren't ok with some of these stances).

But despite my own feelings, I'm still saying it's not really fair to say "you chose private school and if you don't like it go elsewhere" when a person who applied for their child to start at GDS for 9th grade might not have been hyper focused on the details of college admissions. For some people this sort of detail might not be discovered until later, not to mention policies change over time (they have at our school, for sure).

I know it's hard to believe, but there are actually parents who do not choose a Big X HS with Ivy-or-bust college placement in mind.

Is this a Big-3? AFAIK, Sidwell, GDS, and the Cathedral schools all limit to around 10.

NCS does not limit. As a NCS family, we support that.

NCS has the reputation as being the worst of the pressure-cooker schools in this area. Not great from a mental health perspective to allow limitless college apps.

You attack a school for a different reason because the school does not match your claim? For one thing, NCS is not the worst of the pressure-cooker schools. Another big 3 is (you can figure it out). Based on our experience, limiting the number of colleges a student can apply creates a lot of anxieties.

Limiting the number might work in the old days. But under test optional and other changes in policies (e.g. first gen), non-top students in private schools benefit the most from applying widely.

For those non- top students, don’t they benefit from the top students skipping those applications? If a top kid applied to more than 10-12, they would likely add safeties that the non- top kids are applying.

yes, i don't understand why people think that unlimited apps would benefit the average student. This actually really hurts the average student.

If NCS allows unlimited apps it makes sense as their college admissions this year were really bimodal--more than the other top high schools. Girls (non sports recruits) seemed to either
get into top schools or schools ranked 100+. In contrast, GDS seemed to get a larger number of kids into top 50 schools---a few to each school. NCS (for non sports admits) was literally either Princeton/Penn for the top kids or Penn State/Alabama for some of the rest. I really wonder if this is because those Princeton/Penn kids also got all the Michigan, Virginia, etc. spots.

Do you have support for your claim? I do not think this is true.

DP - the kids post instagram pages that have a lot of this information. They were shared in this forum earlier this spring.

Not every kid posts to Instagram so this GDS person who is trying to say NCS students were either HYPSM or 100+ has no basis if using Instagram. At our Big 3, only 1/2 of the students posted their school this year and it whether they posted or not was not related to the competitiveness of their school because I know of multiple students who didn't post for Ivy, top 10, top 20, top 50....

DP. The NCS instagram is pretty complete. Only 2-3 did not post. The class sizes are small at NCS.

My DD is at NCS and has been advised by the counselors to ADD schools to her list of 10. I would guess my DD is at the lower end GPA wise with a 32 ACT (about average ACT for NCS).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Application numbers are restricted so the top students don’t get all of the acceptances. They need to spots open at top colleges for the next tier of students.

This is it.
Do you guys not get it or are all your kids in the top 10%?

I have a straight A student at GDS. Do you really want him applying to all the top 20 schools? your B student is not going to get admitted if both our kids apply.

I thought we are in a free country... How could a school restrict kids how many schools they can apply?

Because GDS is a private school, and sending your child there is entirely voluntary. If you doin't like their rules, you should pull your kids out and find a school that allows you to apply to more than 10 colleges.

Not a GDS parent but this comment has no basis in reality. Parents applying to HS don't know that GDS is going to restrict applications.

Caveat emptor. I don't know of any highly selective independent school in the area that allows students to apply to as many colleges as they want. Do you?

I know that ours gives good counseling advice on how many to apply to but doesn't restrict. I am ok with this. I am also in the "10-12 is plenty" camp - there is a lot of value in putting in the work to create a thoughtful list. With that work done, a student can also submit higher quality applications. Finally, if they still get shut out of top 10, top 20, top 30 - it will all be fine (but I know others aren't ok with some of these stances).

But despite my own feelings, I'm still saying it's not really fair to say "you chose private school and if you don't like it go elsewhere" when a person who applied for their child to start at GDS for 9th grade might not have been hyper focused on the details of college admissions. For some people this sort of detail might not be discovered until later, not to mention policies change over time (they have at our school, for sure).

I know it's hard to believe, but there are actually parents who do not choose a Big X HS with Ivy-or-bust college placement in mind.

Is this a Big-3? AFAIK, Sidwell, GDS, and the Cathedral schools all limit to around 10.

NCS does not limit. As a NCS family, we support that.

NCS has the reputation as being the worst of the pressure-cooker schools in this area. Not great from a mental health perspective to allow limitless college apps.

You attack a school for a different reason because the school does not match your claim? For one thing, NCS is not the worst of the pressure-cooker schools. Another big 3 is (you can figure it out). Based on our experience, limiting the number of colleges a student can apply creates a lot of anxieties.

Limiting the number might work in the old days. But under test optional and other changes in policies (e.g. first gen), non-top students in private schools benefit the most from applying widely.

For those non- top students, don’t they benefit from the top students skipping those applications? If a top kid applied to more than 10-12, they would likely add safeties that the non- top kids are applying.

In current admissions landscape, top students also need safeties. They will apply to the same number of safeties whether they are applying to 10 schools or 15 schools. If they apply to more top schools, it increases the chance that they will not end up at safeties. If you follow the trend, you will know a lot of safeties schools for top students will just waitlist them. If the top students express they will go to that school, they will be admitted from the waitlist. On the other hand, if top students get into the top schools they applied, they will not accept the waitlist, and the school will take the average students from the waitlist.

It is more unpredictable where average students will end up unless they just want to go to their safeties. Applying to more schools helps them to get into at least some of their match schools.

Explain how this scenario does not add to the toxicity and hyper-competitive atmosphere at NCS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Application numbers are restricted so the top students don’t get all of the acceptances. They need to spots open at top colleges for the next tier of students.

This is it.
Do you guys not get it or are all your kids in the top 10%?

I have a straight A student at GDS. Do you really want him applying to all the top 20 schools? your B student is not going to get admitted if both our kids apply.

I thought we are in a free country... How could a school restrict kids how many schools they can apply?

Because GDS is a private school, and sending your child there is entirely voluntary. If you doin't like their rules, you should pull your kids out and find a school that allows you to apply to more than 10 colleges.

Not a GDS parent but this comment has no basis in reality. Parents applying to HS don't know that GDS is going to restrict applications.

Caveat emptor. I don't know of any highly selective independent school in the area that allows students to apply to as many colleges as they want. Do you?

I know that ours gives good counseling advice on how many to apply to but doesn't restrict. I am ok with this. I am also in the "10-12 is plenty" camp - there is a lot of value in putting in the work to create a thoughtful list. With that work done, a student can also submit higher quality applications. Finally, if they still get shut out of top 10, top 20, top 30 - it will all be fine (but I know others aren't ok with some of these stances).

But despite my own feelings, I'm still saying it's not really fair to say "you chose private school and if you don't like it go elsewhere" when a person who applied for their child to start at GDS for 9th grade might not have been hyper focused on the details of college admissions. For some people this sort of detail might not be discovered until later, not to mention policies change over time (they have at our school, for sure).

I know it's hard to believe, but there are actually parents who do not choose a Big X HS with Ivy-or-bust college placement in mind.

Is this a Big-3? AFAIK, Sidwell, GDS, and the Cathedral schools all limit to around 10.

NCS does not limit. As a NCS family, we support that.

NCS has the reputation as being the worst of the pressure-cooker schools in this area. Not great from a mental health perspective to allow limitless college apps.

You attack a school for a different reason because the school does not match your claim? For one thing, NCS is not the worst of the pressure-cooker schools. Another big 3 is (you can figure it out). Based on our experience, limiting the number of colleges a student can apply creates a lot of anxieties.

Limiting the number might work in the old days. But under test optional and other changes in policies (e.g. first gen), non-top students in private schools benefit the most from applying widely.

For those non- top students, don’t they benefit from the top students skipping those applications? If a top kid applied to more than 10-12, they would likely add safeties that the non- top kids are applying.

In current admissions landscape, top students also need safeties. They will apply to the same number of safeties whether they are applying to 10 schools or 15 schools. If they apply to more top schools, it increases the chance that they will not end up at safeties. If you follow the trend, you will know a lot of safeties schools for top students will just waitlist them. If the top students express they will go to that school, they will be admitted from the waitlist. On the other hand, if top students get into the top schools they applied, they will not accept the waitlist, and the school will take the average students from the waitlist.

It is more unpredictable where average students will end up unless they just want to go to their safeties. Applying to more schools helps them to get into at least some of their match schools.

yeah, but letting top students apply to more school clutters up the entire process and makes it far less predictable.
Your middle students are waiting for the top students to decline waitlists, hoping they themselves get off waitlists, etc.


I have a student at GDS (limits applications) and NCS (does not) and I can tell you that last year admissions for kids outside the top 10-20% were better at GDS.

NCS had quite a few athletic recruits so at first glance, their results look great. But if you know the back stories, when you take these kids out of the equation and the top academic kids out, their results were much worse than those at GDS. GDS managed to get almost the entire class into top 50 schools. This means they were getting kids with a few Bs and even Cs in. Not the case at all at NCS.

NP: It doesn't work this way. You both seem to think everyone applied in a strict linear fashion to the same list of schools. This isn't the case. You seem to assume that if someone chooses a school ranked 51, it means they applied to and didn't get into any of the top 50 National schools, when the truth is they either didn't apply to any or applied to a few and either didn't get in, or did, but liked #51 better.

[Anonymous]

A kid’s future should not be decided by the school. I know some unhooked kids were asked not to apply to the top Ivies…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid’s future should not be decided by the school. I know some unhooked kids were asked not to apply to the top Ivies…

How is this any different from when a PK/K-whatever school at outplacement time discourages parents from applying to Big X schools that are likely out of reach?