If your school limits students to 8-10 applications

[Anonymous]

I would be very pissed of our private school did this. Times are different. Kids are applying to ten plus schools. It is a lottery. Any counselor will tell you the old rules dont apply.

Re schools having to submit so many transcripts many many schools no longer require this. You self report your grades or send an unofficial transcript. You submit official only if you accept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re applying to more than 10 schools, you have too many reach schools on the list and need to pair it down.

You can’t effectively pay attention to 15 different applications. You start to get diminishing returns in the quality of the application at a certain point, also it’s not realistic some of the schools you really wont attend.

But with common app you don’t really need to pay attention to 15 different apps. I’m sending my 4th kid off to college in fall of 2024 and the CA has made it so easy. He is top 5% of his class with high 1570 SATs and his approach is not only “top schools” but many schools “below his pay grade” because he chasing honors programs and merit money.

He’s watched 3 other siblings do this and we pretty much have the formula down. It’s nice to evaluate at T10 school with no merit against a big state school, tons of merit (or a free ride to UMich in one case) and honors college.

[Anonymous]

PP, I agree. I think that people don't understand that lots of schools don't ask for more than the main essay, and even if they do request a supplemental one, it's not that hard for a kid to write a few paragraphs on a school they've researched and that fits what they're looking for. In my DC's case, he applied to five Jesuit SLACs, all located in urban settings, in addition to several other colleges. It was pretty easy for him to tweak the supplemental essays for each very similar school. Interestingly, he got into one that was more "selective" than others that waitlisted him, so had he taken that reach off his list, he would have lost out on that opportunity. Merit money outcomes were all over the place too.

I also don't understand how anyone can suggest with a straight face that a student who has attended a high school for almost four years and bonded with the students and teachers should suddenly leave in their senior year when they find out the school is going to actively hinder their attempt to find the best fit school they can afford. And I can't imagine that these schools would see that as a good outcome.

[Anonymous]

people have to understand that most top 20 colleges look at applications by school.

imagine the smartest, most handsome, super popular high school player deciding to run for leadership at every single club in high school school - from French club, to economics club, to debate, to beekeeping, to student government. He wins them all and takes student government.

But rule is you can only be president for one. So he takes student government. Good for him - he got the best one at the school.

But there is no second round and now those other leaderships will be empty, where surely a kid would have one if this guy hadn't run. And now all those other kids have no chance to lead the clubs they're actually passionate about.

High schools that limit apps are saying, you can't run for ALL the positions. You can run for a few. These are tip top private schools where you have the kids and grandkids or billionaires, movie stars and the grandchildren of Princeton's former president (true). Pick your spot, it's yours. But don't hoard opportunities - it's selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this happens at the elite private high school level, and is important at the elite private high school level. (reminder once again that there are no true elite privates in the DC area)

the top 10 kids at Collegiate or Trinity or Exeter or Brearley can get into every ivy league school. This is a fact. Then add in another 10 kids at each of these schools who are on every top school's D list. They can also get into every ivy league school. The problem is if they were to apply to all these schools and get in, they can only enroll at one school each. 20 kids getting 200 acceptance letter btw them at the very best colleges .. but they turn down180 of them.

This leaves the rest of the class at Trinity and Collegiate etc in a tight spot. All those spots were taken -- and 90% discarded -- by their classmates.

In addition to limiting apps at our private hs, our college counselors will also have a discussion with a student if they get admitted to Princeton (etc) SCEA and decide to throw our a few more applications in RD round. They will say, listen, you're a double legacy at Princeton and your dad is talking about a new building. You've been wearing a Princeton sweatshirt since 4th grade. We had this discussion when you decided to make Princeton your early pick. And now you want to see about Harvard? Okay, but just know you might very well get into Harvard, and in doing so you might very well be taking that seat away from a classmate, and then you might very well decide to go to Princeton anyway. So this move could cause harm. What do you want to do?

And most will not move forward with Harvard. This is a scenario that is talked about during the very first college presentation that is given to parents by the school. It's presented positively, "The student is almost always shocked -- they wouldn't dream of hurting a peer's chances! - so they stick with their EA choice". It's made very clear there is no hoarding allowed.

And this is how 40% of Brearley (etc) end up at Ivies + Stanford + MIT

Wrong. That is not a fact--it is simply your belief.

No, this is exactly why the elite privates limit # of applications.
It's a good thing IMO. Nobody actually wants to attend all Ivies or all T20 schools---they should narrow down their choices beforehand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thoughtful about your list and not shotgunning a bunch of reach school there's really no need to apply to more than 8-10 schools.

^ This, in spades.

Whether or not that is true, why should you get to decide that, or any hs administration?

Shouldn't a student and their family be free to make that decision?

/FYI both my kids ED admits so this did not affect us, so no accusations please. But right it right and this is wrong.

Because the private school wants to pride themselves on the students getting into top schools. That won't happen if the Top 10-15 kids get all the "admits" at the T10 schools. And yes, elite schools do limit how many they take from each HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thoughtful about your list and not shotgunning a bunch of reach school there's really no need to apply to more than 8-10 schools.

^ This, in spades.

Whether or not that is true, why should you get to decide that, or any hs administration?

Shouldn't a student and their family be free to make that decision?

/FYI both my kids ED admits so this did not affect us, so no accusations please. But right it right and this is wrong.

Because the private school wants to pride themselves on the students getting into top schools. That won't happen if the Top 10-15 kids get all the "admits" at the T10 schools. And yes, elite schools do limit how many they take from each HS.

This is not what's happening though. The admits are all hooked. The college admissions have no problem choosing which hooked kids out of the pile they want. What's hard - and where the limit does the damage (and where it didn't do damage in the "old days" of 4 years ago) - is that not only are T25 mostly accepting hooked but that the T40 are too - or are expecting you to ED. It's really a crapshoot for unhooked private school kids with high stats/rigor. It's fully reasonable that a thoughtful list could include more than 10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thoughtful about your list and not shotgunning a bunch of reach school there's really no need to apply to more than 8-10 schools.

^ This, in spades.

Whether or not that is true, why should you get to decide that, or any hs administration?

Shouldn't a student and their family be free to make that decision?

/FYI both my kids ED admits so this did not affect us, so no accusations please. But right it right and this is wrong.

Because the private school wants to pride themselves on the students getting into top schools. That won't happen if the Top 10-15 kids get all the "admits" at the T10 schools. And yes, elite schools do limit how many they take from each HS.

Yes, that is understood. Many, many times . What still not been explained is why that is not unfair to the top student? Why should that student have fewer options?

Also, colleges have things called waiting lists for this very purpose.

This isn’t golf. The top player shouldn’t suffer from the handicap of others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thoughtful about your list and not shotgunning a bunch of reach school there's really no need to apply to more than 8-10 schools.

^ This, in spades.

Whether or not that is true, why should you get to decide that, or any hs administration?

Shouldn't a student and their family be free to make that decision?

/FYI both my kids ED admits so this did not affect us, so no accusations please. But right it right and this is wrong.

Because the private school wants to pride themselves on the students getting into top schools. That won't happen if the Top 10-15 kids get all the "admits" at the T10 schools. And yes, elite schools do limit how many they take from each HS.

Yes, that is understood. Many, many times . What still not been explained is why that is not unfair to the top student? Why should that student have fewer options?

Also, colleges have things called waiting lists for this very purpose.

This isn’t golf. The top player shouldn’t suffer from the handicap of others.

Last year at our private school that limits apps, a kid got in Princeton SCEA. He was super hooked AT Princeton via a parent with close ties, but this is name brand rich family and any school would take him. Princeton was the "dream school" as communicated to counselor. He got in. Yay. Then he decided he wanted to put in the rest of the apps to the limit "just to see". This kid was going to Princeton, it was clear and the counselor called him/parents in to say, "What you're proposing will very likely take a seat from a classmate. I've been doing this a long time. I know the AOs at these schools. THey'll only take x number of our kids. You're going to Princeton, so let's not do this". These people are pricks to be honest and they said they took the "high road" and only apply to Harvard and Stanford. The kid got into both and went to Princeton. This is what they want to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thoughtful about your list and not shotgunning a bunch of reach school there's really no need to apply to more than 8-10 schools.

^ This, in spades.

Whether or not that is true, why should you get to decide that, or any hs administration?

Shouldn't a student and their family be free to make that decision?

/FYI both my kids ED admits so this did not affect us, so no accusations please. But right it right and this is wrong.

Because the private school wants to pride themselves on the students getting into top schools. That won't happen if the Top 10-15 kids get all the "admits" at the T10 schools. And yes, elite schools do limit how many they take from each HS.

Yes, that is understood. Many, many times . What still not been explained is why that is not unfair to the top student? Why should that student have fewer options?

Also, colleges have things called waiting lists for this very purpose.

This isn’t golf. The top player shouldn’t suffer from the handicap of others.

Last year at our private school that limits apps, a kid got in Princeton SCEA. He was super hooked AT Princeton via a parent with close ties, but this is name brand rich family and any school would take him. Princeton was the "dream school" as communicated to counselor. He got in. Yay. Then he decided he wanted to put in the rest of the apps to the limit "just to see". This kid was going to Princeton, it was clear and the counselor called him/parents in to say, "What you're proposing will very likely take a seat from a classmate. I've been doing this a long time. I know the AOs at these schools. THey'll only take x number of our kids. You're going to Princeton, so let's not do this". These people are pricks to be honest and they said they took the "high road" and only apply to Harvard and Stanford. The kid got into both and went to Princeton. This is what they want to avoid.

This. There are formal limits because some people are a**holes. How many "options" does a top kid need? The school is looking out for the entire community, as they should. If you have a one-man-for-himself attitude, you should probably go to public school where they don't care.

[Anonymous]

yeah, this is why this is a policy at about 10 high schools. and it's the high schools with these kids. it's not a problem for most of us.

[Anonymous]

I don’t get the point of the anecdote.

The policy didn’t help! It didn’t prevent the bad behavior, and it didn’t prevent the harm to the other students.

If anything, it exacerbated the harm, because they couldn’t apply to additional schools to offset the applications nullified rich jerk’s vanity application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is probably fair and reasonable to expect the school to send transcripts and letters of recommendation for each student to 8-10 colleges.

It is not exactly fair and reasonable to expect them to send to 20-30 colleges. Work load / time suck.

Like it's hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thoughtful about your list and not shotgunning a bunch of reach school there's really no need to apply to more than 8-10 schools.

^ This, in spades.

Whether or not that is true, why should you get to decide that, or any hs administration?

Shouldn't a student and their family be free to make that decision?

/FYI both my kids ED admits so this did not affect us, so no accusations please. But right it right and this is wrong.

Because the private school wants to pride themselves on the students getting into top schools. That won't happen if the Top 10-15 kids get all the "admits" at the T10 schools. And yes, elite schools do limit how many they take from each HS.

Yes, that is understood. Many, many times . What still not been explained is why that is not unfair to the top student? Why should that student have fewer options?

Also, colleges have things called waiting lists for this very purpose.

This isn’t golf. The top player shouldn’t suffer from the handicap of others.

Last year at our private school that limits apps, a kid got in Princeton SCEA. He was super hooked AT Princeton via a parent with close ties, but this is name brand rich family and any school would take him. Princeton was the "dream school" as communicated to counselor. He got in. Yay. Then he decided he wanted to put in the rest of the apps to the limit "just to see". This kid was going to Princeton, it was clear and the counselor called him/parents in to say, "What you're proposing will very likely take a seat from a classmate. I've been doing this a long time. I know the AOs at these schools. THey'll only take x number of our kids. You're going to Princeton, so let's not do this". These people are pricks to be honest and they said they took the "high road" and only apply to Harvard and Stanford. The kid got into both and went to Princeton. This is what they want to avoid.

Yeah, let's not pretend this is common.

[Anonymous]

It’s not common, but schools that limit apps isn’t common. It’s a very elite school thing.