My DS only applied to schools he could get into. His HS limited applications to 10 so I didn’t want him to waste any on maybes. He got into all 10 so I had 10 FA packages to compare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

[b]grad year; 2024
public v. private HS;[/b] public
major; science/engineering
hooks; none
any special or unique ECs; standard EC's: sports, music, volunteering, etc
geographic region; Pacific Northwest
college and uni names accepted at: Harvard, Northwestern, JHU, Vanderbilt, UChicago; rejected: Stanford, MIT, Princeton; safety at Texas A&M
and
where kid is attending. UChicago

Geographically diverse? Perfect SAT? Valedictorian?

not perfect SAT but good enough (within the 50th%iles of these schools); yes Rank #1 in the high school. Recommendation letters were pretty good and the kid is a really good writer. Very well rounded and not particularly super high performing in one area and has not specialized (like I could see why MIT was a rejection). Very curious and just loves to learn.

My DD was 2024 graduate. She applied to 5 (all targets IMO, though many would say UVA is a reach) for engineering.
- VaTech (accepted)
- William & Mary (accepted)
- UVA (waitlisted)
- NC State (accepted)
- Penn State (accepted)
She is going to NC State amd loving it.

Anonymous wrote:

[b]grad year; 2024
public v. private HS;[/b] public
major; science/engineering
hooks; none
any special or unique ECs; standard EC's: sports, music, volunteering, etc
geographic region; Pacific Northwest
college and uni names accepted at: Harvard, Northwestern, JHU, Vanderbilt, UChicago; rejected: Stanford, MIT, Princeton; safety at Texas A&M
and
where kid is attending. UChicago

Geographically diverse? Perfect SAT? Valedictorian?

Anonymous wrote:If you have a kid in college or a recent grad, (not looking back to when you were in college) to how many schools did they apply and how many acceptances did they receive?
Bonus if you indicate how many reaches v target v safeties.

Applied to 21; accepted to 10. 3 rejections. Rest were WL; didn’t wait to hear. Of acceptances, 2 were top 25 schools.

She went 4 for 4 last year.

Safety - in with merit
Low Target (safety in general, target for major) - in, and in for major
Low Target (thought it was Target while making original list, but crushed her junior year grades, so it became low target) - in and attending
Reach - in, with lots of merit $$, decided she didn’t want a SLAC

Made the absolute right choice, and would have HATED SLAC. Also, has changed major to undecided, so I’m glad she didn’t over focus on major when she made final decision.

[b]grad year; 2024
public v. private HS;[/b] public
major; science/engineering
hooks; none
any special or unique ECs; standard EC's: sports, music, volunteering, etc
geographic region; Pacific Northwest
college and uni names accepted at: Harvard, Northwestern, JHU, Vanderbilt, UChicago; rejected: Stanford, MIT, Princeton; safety at Texas A&M
and
where kid is attending. UChicago

this is all so fascinating.
wish people would create a new post with profile:

grad year;
public v. private HS;
major;
hooks;
any special or unique ECs;
geographic region;
college and uni names; and
where kid is attending.

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2024, a ridiculous amount that was silly in hindsight

15 reaches (4 accept, 7 waitlists, 4 reject)
3 target (all accept)
2 safeties (all accept)

Similar with my kid, 2024. 20 applications
15 reaches - 6 accepted, 4 waitlist, 5 rejected
4 targets - 3 accepted, 1 waitlist
1 safety - accepted

Class of 2024:

Applied to 20:

Reaches: Applied to 10 (R at 3 (incl ED); A at 3; WL at 4)
Targets: Applied to 5 (A at all)
Likelies: Applied to 5 (A at all)

Attending an Ivy (reach).

Class of 2023

Applied to 5. Accepted to 3. WL at 1 (declined). Rejected by 1.

Anonymous wrote:If you have a kid in college or a recent grad, (not looking back to when you were in college) to how many schools did they apply and how many acceptances did they receive?
Bonus if you indicate how many reaches v target v safeties.

Last year's admission cycle:

Applied to 13
3 reaches (in at 1)
5 targets (in at all)
5 likelies (in at all - 3 with very generous merit offers)

One and done. High reach. Applied ED and got lucky.

8 reaches all in the T10-15 (4 accept, 4 reject)
1 safety (accept)

He wouldve been happy with the safety so didn't see the need to apply to more.

My 2022 HS

9 Total Applications

3 Reaches
3 Targets
3 Safeties (true safeties/likelies, no real chance of not getting into 2 of them)

Kid got into all safeties (merit at 2, other is a State school OOS so no merit),
all 3 targets (merit at all 3)
ED1 at Reach was Deferred then Rejected
WL at another Reach
Accepted EA at last reach with Attend first year abroad then return to main campus

So it went as you would expect: into all Targets and safeties with good merit at most