Anonymous wrote:13. Baker's dozen.

Funny, kid is at 12 but may add one more, but I’m worried 13 is bad luck!

For posters saying kids chasing financial aid, how soon after get an early action do you have to tell school? Do you need to be found early action at all schools to be able to tell schools in time? Do you have to tell schools before regular decisión offers made?

My kid applied to 13. They lost steam after that. In the end, accepted at 8, denied at 2, WL at 3.

Obviously can only go to one, so maybe didn’t need to apply to as many, but you never know who is saying yes!

12 is right on the nose.

Anonymous wrote:I keep seeing people go above 12 but that seems like quite a bit.

Nervously preparing for Fall incl ED/EA choices .

It depends.

What major?

How strong is your application?

Do you have strong preferences?

Tldr, 12 is about right for most kids.

12 is exactly right

My student had about 30 on their list but that included UCs and a UCAS application (5 schools, 1 application and fee).

Accepted by McGill 3 days after application was complete, having that changed the safety discussion. At that point was only going to apply to 1 safety RD she really liked that could have provided significant merit.

Focused on EA, schools where there was a benefit to early filed RD apps (e.g., Vandy, Rice) and ED, got in ED.

I think there were 9 separate applications filed that covered 17 schools. There were more reaches planned had ED not worked out.

Had to pull a lot of apps.

Schools like UCAS and UCs are due before ED comes out so ED does not reduce the workload there.

It was exhausting to be a supporter of that process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 reaches, 3 targets, 3 safeties, assuming there aren’t extreme circumstances. Anything more seems overkill.

If your safeties are actually safeties, you only need one. Two if you are a nervous person. I think it makes no sense to have the same number of safeties as targets and reaches. I make sure my kids' safety is truly a safety (they are above stats, the school does not yield protect, school has very high admissions rate) and that student would actually attend. Then 4 targets and 5 reaches or something like that.

True, the reason I said three of each was for the merit aspect. This year, dd was rejected from one reach in Ed, deferred to rd then waitlisted (still on them) for two, and accepted and all 6 targets and safeties. Merit aid offers were drastically different and ended up at the safety with the lowest out of pocket. It was nice to have several different offers to compare and helped her get away from the dmv striver mentality and make her first adult rational responsible decision.

Anonymous wrote:3 reaches, 3 targets, 3 safeties, assuming there aren’t extreme circumstances. Anything more seems overkill.

If your safeties are actually safeties, you only need one. Two if you are a nervous person. I think it makes no sense to have the same number of safeties as targets and reaches. I make sure my kids' safety is truly a safety (they are above stats, the school does not yield protect, school has very high admissions rate) and that student would actually attend. Then 4 targets and 5 reaches or something like that.

DC applied to 12 (11 acceptances, incl an Ivy, and 1 WL)

12-13 is goldilocks

12-14 is about how many were on my kids list. That's a good number. More than that and how can you have good apps. Make sure list is balanced.