How to limit your child's college list?

[Anonymous]

My child is struggling to cut certain colleges off of his list because he likes each college for different reasons. He has great grades and test scores so he is looking at prestigious colleges. Any recommendations for how your child narrowed down their list? Specific schools included please.

[Anonymous]

OP—there is a wide range of what can be considered too many schools. How many does your kid want to apply to at this moment?

[Anonymous]

Naviance scattergrams. For example, when you discover that no one from your kids high school has gotten into UNC-CH. Ever. Including legacies who ended up at Ivies.

Reddit helps too, r/college results to be specific. It’s amazing how many excellent students there are with nearly identical stats and ECs. It’s humbling.

I’m sorry for the cynical post, don’t know if this will help you.

[Anonymous]

Has your kid visited all of these schools that he supposedly really likes?

[Anonymous]

How can others tell what schools to include when you don't say which schools are in the list to begin with?

Some obvious differentiation factors:

Location - entirely urban, urban with enclosed campus, suburban, rural college town, entirely rural

Region and culture - Northeast, Southeast, West, Southwest, Midwest

Topography - Beach, mountain, bay, lake

Diversity - racial, socioeconomic - the latter will be limited to upper-middle class and wealthy at most top schools.

Vibe - Artsy, big-time sports, Greek, Southern, cosmopolitan, cutthroat

Greek Life - non-negotiable (70%+), dominant (40%+), minor (10%), not allowed

Sports - stadium NCAA, minor, non-existent

[Anonymous]

DC is the 2022 batch and we are a bit jittery because our senior batch warned us about the bloodbath that was 2021 batch. We are looking at colleges now and have narrowed it down to 10 schools for EA and ED. 3 safeties (2 we are very enthusiastic about, 2 are in-state), 4 hard targets (all 4 are dream colleges), and 2 reach (all 3 prestigious and 2 are dream colleges).

Basically, DC decided to pick mostly East Coast schools and decided on limiting to only 2 UC schools. We also chanced using CollegeVine website AND we saw the stats from our school for last year on Naviance.

For RD, we have 4 schools (reach) and 1 very good school that is ranked very high for the major and is a safety.

DC was not interested in midwest schools because of the cold, and was not interested in Florida, Texas or Washington.

[Anonymous]

Seriously consider applying to 15-20 schools, if sat all possible. Acceptance rates are at historic lows and it's good to have choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is the 2022 batch and we are a bit jittery because our senior batch warned us about the bloodbath that was 2021 batch. We are looking at colleges now and have narrowed it down to 10 schools for EA and ED. 3 safeties (2 we are very enthusiastic about, 2 are in-state), 4 hard targets (all 4 are dream colleges), and 2 reach (all 3 prestigious and 2 are dream colleges).

Basically, DC decided to pick mostly East Coast schools and decided on limiting to only 2 UC schools. We also chanced using CollegeVine website AND we saw the stats from our school for last year on Naviance.

For RD, we have 4 schools (reach) and 1 very good school that is ranked very high for the major and is a safety.

DC was not interested in midwest schools because of the cold, and was not interested in Florida, Texas or Washington.

That is not limiting

[Anonymous]

We are doing this:

1 match ED
1 match EA
1 safety EA (and by safety, I mean Naviance shows not a single rejection for anyone from his school, plus we visited, he liked it, and they have his major)

and then we will re evaluate for RD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously consider applying to 15-20 schools, if sat all possible. Acceptance rates are at historic lows and it's good to have choices.

Everyone applying to 15-20 schools is exactly why acceptance rates are at historic lows.

[Anonymous]

A balanced list is more important than quantity. To the OP: Do you want less schools to visit or less applications. How many is too many?

[Anonymous]

FOMO is a crippling disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously consider applying to 15-20 schools, if sat all possible. Acceptance rates are at historic lows and it's good to have choices.

Everyone applying to 15-20 schools is exactly why acceptance rates are at historic lows.

This. I remember filling out a unique application for each school. The Common App has made it too easy to go fishing for acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously consider applying to 15-20 schools, if sat all possible. Acceptance rates are at historic lows and it's good to have choices.

Everyone applying to 15-20 schools is exactly why acceptance rates are at historic lows.

This. I remember filling out a unique application for each school. The Common App has made it too easy to go fishing for acceptances.

Did you walk to school in the snow uphill both ways too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously consider applying to 15-20 schools, if sat all possible. Acceptance rates are at historic lows and it's good to have choices.

Everyone applying to 15-20 schools is exactly why acceptance rates are at historic lows.

This. I remember filling out a unique application for each school. The Common App has made it too easy to go fishing for acceptances.

Did you walk to school in the snow uphill both ways too?

So you’re saying it’s OK to apply to dozens of schools, regardless of fit, doing very little research to pare the list down?