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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS is applying to 4 schools he really likes, including one that I think is not going to be academically challenging enough. He’s also applying to 1 school that I like but he doesn’t. All 5 are somewhat to very competitive. Should he also apply to 1-2 backup schools? If he ends up accepted at a backup and waitlisted at one or more of the schools he really likes, how difficult would it be to switch later? Along that line, does the waitlist just mean for that year and you reapply the next year? Or are you on the waitlist for multiple years? If you have to reapply every year, how does that work if you need recs etc from the backup school you’re attending? If you still don’t get into your preferred school, have you hurt your standing at the backup you’re attending? Or do you just accept that if you only get into the backup that that’s where you’re going til the end?

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Always, always, always apply to backups.  This is true for applications to schools for all academic levels - lower school through and including graduate school.  I remember the tears flowing from my high school classmates at my very competitive high school in northern Virginia when their parents had selected only the most competitive colleges for their kids to apply to, with no real backups.  And they didn't get into any college.  Not a single one.  In this area, with so many talented kids competing for spots, always, always, always have a backup plan.  You won't regret it.  You'll also find that, in some instances, those schools you thought were a backup end up being a wonderful place for your kid and they end up being happy there.  I applied this philosophy to our kids, when we were applying for private schools for them.  Even though we ended up applying to a lot of schools, which was certainly a lot of work for us, it reduced the stress on the kids considerably.  They knew they'd go to some school where they'd be happy, so no pressure to get into "the one."
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I agree with this advice, but seriously, you knew kids who got into no colleges? That is really awful. [/quote]

This is drama. Plenty of colleges would have opening after everything shakes out. Worse scenario you go to community college for two years and move on to UVA[/quote]

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