Anonymous wrote:TO how many colleges will your senior apply?
You're welcome.

😂, you remind me of my son

Hoping to do one ED and be done. If not there are maybe 9 others DC would apply to.

Kid '21- 17 (was shooting for many T20)
Kid '22- 10 (several targets and happy with a few safety school options)

TO how many colleges will your senior apply?
You're welcome.

Anonymous wrote:My kid applied to 6. His school recommended 6-8. That said, he didn't apply to any highly selective schools. He got in everywhere, with merit aid at most.

This is good to hear as it is basically what we are planning to do. My perception is that you really only need to apply to more schools if a lot of them are reaches and/or highly selective.

We have been advised to apply to 6-8 with a mix of safeties, matches, and reaches. We’ve really only identified 3-4 DD is really that interested in so we plan to do those EA and hopefully wrap things up early and skip the others.

1 reach
3 match
2 safeties

Be careful because when they get into a bunch of schools, they second guess where they should go sometimes. Unless you need scholarship money, I think aiming for 2-4 acceptances is ideal.

Anonymous wrote:15 is too many.

Just don't overshoot. Look at last year's Naviance data. Make sure you find schools at each level that your kid can live with.

10 max should be fine. I wish we had only done 7, to be honest.

Not anymore.

DD applied to 12 last year. She wasn't able to do college visits and her grades were a little shaky. In hindsight, I should have made her narrow it down to 7-8 with more safeties, and we should have researched financial aid more before she applied so we didn't waste time and money with schools we couldn't afford. With application fees, transcript fees, CSS fees, etc. it was more expensive than I realized. She ended up going to her top choice after being wait listed initially.

Anonymous wrote:Under normal circumstances, people suggested 10 -12 colleges in average. However, due to pandemic and test optional, many suggested to apply a bit more (15 colleges). What do you think?

I agree with this advice especially if they are high achievers who want to apply to a bunch of highly elite schools who are strong in their preferred majors but have extremely low admit rates.

However, I agree with other sound advice here to maintain a good balance of “safeties” (no guarantees anymore though) and “matches” (especially low reach matches). Many students last year who applied to 5-7 schools had either no, or only one not great choice. Of course, they could then do community college for two years and apply to four year colleges mid way as many in California do (many eventually end in great post grad programs). For students who would prefer four year college from the get go, I think that it is important to think really carefully about including safeties where students could be happy and pursue their goals.

It helps to get some early responses, e.g. from safety schools. DD applied to 10 last year, and while she was rejected from many, she had acceptances and aid from 2 good safety schools early on.

Anonymous wrote:15 is too many.

Just don't overshoot. Look at last year's Naviance data. Make sure you find schools at each level that your kid can live with.

10 max should be fine. I wish we had only done 7, to be honest.

Thank you. Mine is only applying to 5 or so and I was getting concerned after conversation with other parents!

My kid applied to 6. His school recommended 6-8. That said, he didn't apply to any highly selective schools. He got in everywhere, with merit aid at most.

My kid applied to 6. His school recommended 6-8. That said, he didn't apply to any highly selective schools. He got in everywhere, with merit aid at most.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year there were quite a few folks who applied to 20+ schools.

In our little Fairfax neighborhood, we had a kid who applied to 25 schools (2 doctor family, so full pay). That kid is now at JMU, so go figure.

My kid only applied to 7 schools. In hindsight, he should have applied to maybe 2-3 more schools because of the potential risk for not getting into a preferred choice, but he is now at his first choice school so it didn't matter in the end.

BTW, really recommend applying to a rolling admission school in September/October. It really takes the edge off the process.

25? Too many essays. That's a waste of time.

Not every school requires supplemental essays.