Reply to What if your child, who was qualified for their "reach" or "stretch" school, chose not to apply?

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Reply to "What if your child, who was qualified for their "reach" or "stretch" school, chose not to apply?"

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[quote=Anonymous]My DC attends a mid-size, very well-respected and competitive school somewhere in the United States (perhaps here, perhaps not).  (I am going to omit details like school, grades, test scores, ECs, etc., so that we can focus on the core of the question, as opposed to "quibbling" over qualifications.  Thank you for that indulgence.)   Every year the school has good success, in that a certain number of its students earn admission into H/Y/P/S, as well as many other excellent schools -- including but not limited to UVA, UMd, Columbia and other Ivies, Michigan, Berkeley, Georgetown, Duke, Rice, Amherst and other SLACs, Georgia Tech, Chicago, MIT, Caltech, Texas, William & Mary, UCLA and other public universities, etc., et al.  DC is one of the very top students at the school and is solidly within that top range of students (let's say top 5, again, just for example) which typically earns admission to one of the top 4 colleges or universities as defined by U.S. News -- that is, H/Y/S/P.  DC has briefly and quickly visited many of the colleges and universities mentioned above, but has never spent more than a couple of hours on each visit (typically inserted into a parent's rushed business trip or a chaotic family vacation).

Based on only those brief visits, and no other independent research, DC now says that she does not want to apply to any of P/Y/S/H, because s/he did not get the "right" feel from them, but will apply to 6-7 other excellent colleges and universities (including, of course, their "safety").  Now, I understand that the chances that DC, as would be the case with anyone, will be admitted to any one of those four top colleges or universities, are not very good.  That said, the school's academic counselors and teachers consider DC one of the students who are among the best candidates for those schools -- and they generally have a positive record in that respect.

My question, then, is should I let DC go with their instinct -- based on only brief, three-hour visits -- and not apply to the top four "reach" schools?  Or should I insist (after all, we are paying for college) that they apply to all of the top reaches, and then visit the decision again based on the outcomes?  I suppose that this question applies to all parents, any where along the spectrum of possible outcomes.  Do we encourage our children to apply to their "reaches"/"stretches", or do we let them choose where to apply?[/quote]

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