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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My biggest takeaway from this cycle (my 2nd kid to go through this) is aim medium. Obviously this only works if you have a kid who isn't invested in prestige (mine isn't), but everyone will be spared a lot of heartache and anxiety if you focus on schools that are attainable and of interest to your student.

I would also add that we cast a small net, mainly due to DC's top choice being an in state non-flagship school where their stats were on the high end. Applied EA, got in, and was able to spend winter break relaxing.[/quote]

My second aimed mostly medium and got into 11 of 12 schools, including all but one of his reaches. All of his schools were excellent fits for his major. He didn't end up choosing the highest ranked school, at least not according to US News list though maybe he did according to Wall Street Journal list that focuses on ROI?

But this doesn't work well for kids who want a very intellectual or very driven environment. My oldest was a high stats applicant and he wanted to be around peer who were ambitious and would challenge him. I thought we put together a great list in that we had a safety (out of state flagship with honors college), and 4 or so targets that he was very happy with. But all the rest of his apps (15 more) were to reaches. He got into 5 of those and I would not have been able to predict which ones, so it felt like the strategy was appropriate.[/quote]

Original aim medium poster here, and I will gently push back on target schools not having ambitious, intellectual students. Because you will have students like mine who just find the target school a better fit, or who find the specific program at that school the right one, or who are cost conscious, or who were shut out of the state flagship. Also, there's always the possibility that being the "bigger fish" in the pond provides more access to professors and opportunities for internships or whatever else.

But all kids are different, and this strategy absolutely won't work for some students, particularly the very top ones, who rightfully feel like all of their hard work should pay off in admission to a "top" school. [b]I feel strongly that those who are a step down the ladder, like my child, have an easier time with this process[/b].[/quote]

I agree 100% with this. A good friend’s three sons did this. They all applied early to schools they had a good chance of getting into and got in. All three happy. One of mine shot for the moon and ended up at her safety school. She’s very happy now but it was a long, rollercoaster year.

A happy medium might be doing what my other daughter did. She didn’t apply early anywhere but did lots of EA to “Medium” schools as well as to two high reaches. Somehow the universe rewarded her and she got into one of the reaches and is there now, but she probably would have been happy at any of the other schools.[/quote]

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