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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Lessons learned (public VA HS student, top 10%, attending T20)

1) apply to max 2 safeties you would actually attend.  My DC applied to too many safeties, some just because friends applied, that he had absolutely 0 interest in ever going. We indulged but in hindsight was a waste of money, albeit an ego boost.

2) Would have narrowed down some of the reach schools as well, DC applied to 13 which was too many and again, there were some just applied for funsies to see what would happen but were not actually a good fit if they even got in.

In the end, DC applied to 23 schools but could have made a more precise list of about 14 schools they truly would want to attend.

3) Get started on the different types of essays as early as possible- work over the summer.  DC generally needed the main common app essay (had 3 versions, as they came up with better ideas), a community essay (a community you identify with and why), a why major and why school essay (that could be tailored to each school as needed, some schools do this as 2 essays others do it combined), most meaningful extracurricular and why....seemed to be pretty common and used multiple times, tailored for the school and question.  The most important part of your essays is to think, after reading it, what does it teach the reader about you? What do they know about you from the essay? It should be positive traits and aspects of who you are, and should not keep repeating (hammering) the same themes over and over.  You want each essay to teach the admissions reviewers something new and different about you so they get as full a picture of who you are from your application package as possible.

[/quote]

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.
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Yes, we did AN25.  We've done AN with our older kid so we also knew not to follow everything blindly.  She can be very conservative IMO and so we used a blended approach.  We do not pay for any of the extras.  [/quote]

What is AN25?[/quote]

It's a private counseling service known as Application Nation. AN26 is probably happening now.[/quote]

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