I’ve been working at colleges for the past 30 years, and recently put my own kids through college. I think the biggest mistake parents make is taking their kids’ preferences at face value.

Like suppose a mother in the Philadelphia suburbs asks her 16-year-old son about his college preferences. And the kid says he wants to study English at a small private college in the northeast that is near a large city. It’s going to be tempting for parents to start checking out which small private colleges near big cities in the northeast are noted for their English departments.

But I suggest the parents try to dig a little deeper, and try to identify WHY the kid has those preferences. If they do, they might find that the preference for a small college is based on an offhand remark the kid heard from a teacher in 8th grade, something about at bigger colleges “you are just a number.”

Further digging might reveal the preferences for the Northeast and being near a big city are based on a friend’s boring visit to relatives in a rural part of Ohio.

And the desire to major in English might be based on a few favorable comments from English teachers in high school.

My point is that few teens make decisions based on an exhaustive collecting of information, a thorough analysis of that information, and a logical decision based on that analysis.

Complicating matters further is that most high school students are unfamiliar with many of the variables involved in a college decision. Sure, they all want good food and they all know what kind of weather they prefer. But beyond those, they are usually just guessing about whether they want urban, suburban, or small town. They are often uninformed about different regions of the country. They might have zero awareness of some of the major subjects that are offered in college. And they might not be aware that even at big universities, many of the classes are small, especially in the less-popular subjects.

Once the original preferences are explored, it might turn out that the kid who originally wanted to study English at Tufts might be better suited to study philosophy at Indiana U. or journalism at the U of
Tennessee.

Anonymous wrote:Be very careful about age advice you get here

Age?

I agree that many kids don’t really know what they want, or change their minds mid way through the process! So this whole grand strategy that people talk about on here only works if your kid knows they want a Midwestern SLAC (and preferably what they want to major in). But kids change and grow from the end of their junior year til mid May of their senior year when they have to decide and then again til September when they leave! It’s kind of hard! Anyway, that’s why people have these big lists sometimes.

My kid applied to too many safeties. Agree you only need one to love. But I wish he’d thrown his hat in the ring for more reaches. He’s happy where he’s at now though, so whatever. But just came here to agree with the PP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

Applying to 20 schools is insane. Getting into 5 reach schools isn't as great as it sounds. Decision making can be very stressful and even paralyzing when there are too many similar choices. Your kid probably could have taken 2-3 reaches off their list and still had a choice between 2 or 3 reaches which would have been more than enough to make a great decision. It's a huge commitment to applying to 20 schools, and there is no prize for getting into 15 schools when you can only attend 1. If the list is 20, I'm sure with some thought and even if you only prioritized location, they could have easily identified 5 schools at least not to apply to and still had a great result. There's just no upside to getting into that many schools. Think of all the time your student wasted researching and writing apps and tailoring essays for 20 schools! That's time (days/weeks/months) in their life they will never get back! Just to get the same result.

Our kid's time and our money (application fee) matters too. People don't need to apply to 20 schools to get into a target or reach. Just think more carefully about the reaches/targets to include. Your school's naviance is very helpful to weed out that super unlikely reach.

i think the issue is sometimes you just don't know what the outcome will be. DD with high stats and strong EC got into 3/3 safeties (50-65% accept rate, rank 50-70), 3/3 targets (30% accept rate, rank 40-50), 5/7 low reach (10-15% accept rate, rank 20-40), and 0/9 high reach (<10% accept rate, rank top 20). of the high reach schools, she was rejected from 5 and wl at 4. of the low reach schools she didn't get into, 1 was reject, 1 was wl. she has great options but even the low reach schools could have been wl or rejections. she is asian at strong public school, STEM major, so demographics also probably played a role. agree that if kid is happy with target/safeties, that's great. DD would be happy at targets but definitely prefers the low reaches she got into but the results were pretty unpredictable.

our college counselor insists that more applications does not = better outcomes. I'm in agreement. 9 high reaches is too many high reaches. Maybe more time on reflecting best fit and on applications themselves would have resulted in a better than 0/9 run. Maybe not but applying to half the T20s doesnt sound like thoughtful process.

don't disagree but see poster above whose kid got into 1 reach and is happy with that outcome. if DD had gotten into 1/4 high reach off wl, she would be thrilled. doesn't mean she isn't psyched about where she committed but to her, there were reasons for each of the T20 schools she applied to (size, location, major, visit) so worth the risk and time for her.

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather have my kid "waste" time researching and writing extra school essays than watching more nonsense on Netflix. Given the unpredictability of holistic college admissions, many schools that were previously safe/target are now reach schools. My kid actually got into a super unlikely reach. I'm so glad I didn't discourage my kid from going for it, even though school counselor (and we as parents) were a bit skeptical. Unexpected great outcomes can happen! I know kids deferred from their safe and target schools and admitted to their reach. When that happens, it doesn't make sense to limit safe/targets to 1-2, bc you have no idea what will happen... That is why putting more hooks in the water isn't a bad strategy...

Agree that's what we saw this cycle. The high stats kids who put a lot of "hooks in the water" were the ones surprised with an unexpectedly great outcome at a reach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

Applying to 20 schools is insane. Getting into 5 reach schools isn't as great as it sounds. Decision making can be very stressful and even paralyzing when there are too many similar choices. Your kid probably could have taken 2-3 reaches off their list and still had a choice between 2 or 3 reaches which would have been more than enough to make a great decision. It's a huge commitment to applying to 20 schools, and there is no prize for getting into 15 schools when you can only attend 1. If the list is 20, I'm sure with some thought and even if you only prioritized location, they could have easily identified 5 schools at least not to apply to and still had a great result. There's just no upside to getting into that many schools. Think of all the time your student wasted researching and writing apps and tailoring essays for 20 schools! That's time (days/weeks/months) in their life they will never get back! Just to get the same result.

Our kid's time and our money (application fee) matters too. People don't need to apply to 20 schools to get into a target or reach. Just think more carefully about the reaches/targets to include. Your school's naviance is very helpful to weed out that super unlikely reach.

i think the issue is sometimes you just don't know what the outcome will be. DD with high stats and strong EC got into 3/3 safeties (50-65% accept rate, rank 50-70), 3/3 targets (30% accept rate, rank 40-50), 5/7 low reach (10-15% accept rate, rank 20-40), and 0/9 high reach (<10% accept rate, rank top 20). of the high reach schools, she was rejected from 5 and wl at 4. of the low reach schools she didn't get into, 1 was reject, 1 was wl. she has great options but even the low reach schools could have been wl or rejections. she is asian at strong public school, STEM major, so demographics also probably played a role. agree that if kid is happy with target/safeties, that's great. DD would be happy at targets but definitely prefers the low reaches she got into but the results were pretty unpredictable.

our college counselor insists that more applications does not = better outcomes. I'm in agreement. 9 high reaches is too many high reaches. Maybe more time on reflecting best fit and on applications themselves would have resulted in a better than 0/9 run. Maybe not but applying to half the T20s doesnt sound like thoughtful process.

Agree, the key is tailoring and the quality of the output.
Each school needs to be thoroughly researched with a strategy or plan in place. It rarely just comes together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

applying to 20 is dumb. you just don't need that many safeties or targets or reaches. you need one safety. your favorite one. a safety is a SAFETY ie you know you're getting in. why would you need more than 1? a few targets and a few reaches. the end.

You do you. Is it "dumb"? Really???

My kid had 10 reaches, plus schools like U-Miami and Wake, which I guess puts it at 12.
1. Too many safeties, I agree....but in this environment, you never know: (vermont, elon, pitt, instate flagship (not in DMV), cu-boulder). Got $$ from all except the in-state flagship.
2. The targets were schools like Case, Wisconsin, Lehigh, Wake, U-Miami, Davidson (more like a reach)?
3. And then the rest were reaches (SLACs, OOS flagships, T20 private).....
A very strategically picked list of schools. Ended up with a LOT of options from the reach category.

Also, the RD reach applications were 100% stronger from doing so many early EA apps. Just a little tip.

Applying to 12 schools like your kid did is not dumb. PP is saying that applying to 20 schools like another commenter share, is dumb. I tend to agree.

I think 10-12 colleges can be a reasonable number if you want to be cautious. But 20 is bonkers.

I'm the PP that she was responding to. Kid applied to 12 REACHES, but 20 overall. Yes, agree too many safeties and targets (perhaps).
But not too many reaches. Had my kid eliminated some of the Reaches, wouldn't be attending the T10 admitted to. Would have been WL at a lot of the other top choices and going to an OOS flagship most likely.

If cost is not an issue AND your kid has the stamina and will to do the tailoring necessary, then go for it!
It worked out REALLY well for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

Applying to 20 schools is insane. Getting into 5 reach schools isn't as great as it sounds. Decision making can be very stressful and even paralyzing when there are too many similar choices. Your kid probably could have taken 2-3 reaches off their list and still had a choice between 2 or 3 reaches which would have been more than enough to make a great decision. It's a huge commitment to applying to 20 schools, and there is no prize for getting into 15 schools when you can only attend 1. If the list is 20, I'm sure with some thought and even if you only prioritized location, they could have easily identified 5 schools at least not to apply to and still had a great result. There's just no upside to getting into that many schools. Think of all the time your student wasted researching and writing apps and tailoring essays for 20 schools! That's time (days/weeks/months) in their life they will never get back! Just to get the same result.

Our kid's time and our money (application fee) matters too. People don't need to apply to 20 schools to get into a target or reach. Just think more carefully about the reaches/targets to include. Your school's naviance is very helpful to weed out that super unlikely reach.

i think the issue is sometimes you just don't know what the outcome will be. DD with high stats and strong EC got into 3/3 safeties (50-65% accept rate, rank 50-70), 3/3 targets (30% accept rate, rank 40-50), 5/7 low reach (10-15% accept rate, rank 20-40), and 0/9 high reach (<10% accept rate, rank top 20). of the high reach schools, she was rejected from 5 and wl at 4. of the low reach schools she didn't get into, 1 was reject, 1 was wl. she has great options but even the low reach schools could have been wl or rejections. she is asian at strong public school, STEM major, so demographics also probably played a role. agree that if kid is happy with target/safeties, that's great. DD would be happy at targets but definitely prefers the low reaches she got into but the results were pretty unpredictable.

our college counselor insists that more applications does not = better outcomes. I'm in agreement. 9 high reaches is too many high reaches. Maybe more time on reflecting best fit and on applications themselves would have resulted in a better than 0/9 run. Maybe not but applying to half the T20s doesnt sound like thoughtful process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

applying to 20 is dumb. you just don't need that many safeties or targets or reaches. you need one safety. your favorite one. a safety is a SAFETY ie you know you're getting in. why would you need more than 1? a few targets and a few reaches. the end.

There're growing contrarian views in the IEC world on applying to more reaches (fewer safety and targets) for high stats or compelling and competitive kids. Because of the sheer numbers, holistic review, and other factors, it's likely a good idea to at least apply to 15, with 1-2 safeties, 2-4 targets, and the rest reaches for truly objectively strong applicants.

Read up on this - things have changed.

eh, the best outcomes still coming out of privates that limit apps to 12 or sometimes even 8/9.

true. but if your private doesn't limit, then you're at 15+. That was us.
Got into 3 T20 and WL at 1.

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather have my kid "waste" time researching and writing extra school essays than watching more nonsense on Netflix. Given the unpredictability of holistic college admissions, many schools that were previously safe/target are now reach schools. My kid actually got into a super unlikely reach. I'm so glad I didn't discourage my kid from going for it, even though school counselor (and we as parents) were a bit skeptical. Unexpected great outcomes can happen! I know kids deferred from their safe and target schools and admitted to their reach. When that happens, it doesn't make sense to limit safe/targets to 1-2, bc you have no idea what will happen... That is why putting more hooks in the water isn't a bad strategy...

this is not how kids applying to selective colleges are spending their junior year summer. Netflix, lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

applying to 20 is dumb. you just don't need that many safeties or targets or reaches. you need one safety. your favorite one. a safety is a SAFETY ie you know you're getting in. why would you need more than 1? a few targets and a few reaches. the end.

You do you. Is it "dumb"? Really???

My kid had 10 reaches, plus schools like U-Miami and Wake, which I guess puts it at 12.
1. Too many safeties, I agree....but in this environment, you never know: (vermont, elon, pitt, instate flagship (not in DMV), cu-boulder). Got $$ from all except the in-state flagship.
2. The targets were schools like Case, Wisconsin, Lehigh, Wake, U-Miami, Davidson (more like a reach)?
3. And then the rest were reaches (SLACs, OOS flagships, T20 private).....
A very strategically picked list of schools. Ended up with a LOT of options from the reach category.

Also, the RD reach applications were 100% stronger from doing so many early EA apps. Just a little tip.

I think applying to SLACs and OOS flagships is the reason for applying to 20 schools. If you want to go to a SLAC then apply to only SLACs. If you want to got to an OOS flagship then apply to OOS flagships. A kid really only wants one or the other.

There are a lot of kids who really don't know what they want, and are rightfully afraid to want a reach. My '25 was one of those. We pursued the too many applications route, and it worked out better for us. If you have the money (or waiver) for application fees. Why does it matter?

Same here.
To each their own!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

Applying to 20 schools is insane. Getting into 5 reach schools isn't as great as it sounds. Decision making can be very stressful and even paralyzing when there are too many similar choices. Your kid probably could have taken 2-3 reaches off their list and still had a choice between 2 or 3 reaches which would have been more than enough to make a great decision. It's a huge commitment to applying to 20 schools, and there is no prize for getting into 15 schools when you can only attend 1. If the list is 20, I'm sure with some thought and even if you only prioritized location, they could have easily identified 5 schools at least not to apply to and still had a great result. There's just no upside to getting into that many schools. Think of all the time your student wasted researching and writing apps and tailoring essays for 20 schools! That's time (days/weeks/months) in their life they will never get back! Just to get the same result.

Our kid's time and our money (application fee) matters too. People don't need to apply to 20 schools to get into a target or reach. Just think more carefully about the reaches/targets to include. Your school's naviance is very helpful to weed out that super unlikely reach.

i think the issue is sometimes you just don't know what the outcome will be. DD with high stats and strong EC got into 3/3 safeties (50-65% accept rate, rank 50-70), 3/3 targets (30% accept rate, rank 40-50), 5/7 low reach (10-15% accept rate, rank 20-40), and 0/9 high reach (<10% accept rate, rank top 20). of the high reach schools, she was rejected from 5 and wl at 4. of the low reach schools she didn't get into, 1 was reject, 1 was wl. she has great options but even the low reach schools could have been wl or rejections. she is asian at strong public school, STEM major, so demographics also probably played a role. agree that if kid is happy with target/safeties, that's great. DD would be happy at targets but definitely prefers the low reaches she got into but the results were pretty unpredictable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

applying to 20 is dumb. you just don't need that many safeties or targets or reaches. you need one safety. your favorite one. a safety is a SAFETY ie you know you're getting in. why would you need more than 1? a few targets and a few reaches. the end.

You do you. Is it "dumb"? Really???

My kid had 10 reaches, plus schools like U-Miami and Wake, which I guess puts it at 12.
1. Too many safeties, I agree....but in this environment, you never know: (vermont, elon, pitt, instate flagship (not in DMV), cu-boulder). Got $$ from all except the in-state flagship.
2. The targets were schools like Case, Wisconsin, Lehigh, Wake, U-Miami, Davidson (more like a reach)?
3. And then the rest were reaches (SLACs, OOS flagships, T20 private).....
A very strategically picked list of schools. Ended up with a LOT of options from the reach category.

Also, the RD reach applications were 100% stronger from doing so many early EA apps. Just a little tip.

I think applying to SLACs and OOS flagships is the reason for applying to 20 schools. If you want to go to a SLAC then apply to only SLACs. If you want to got to an OOS flagship then apply to OOS flagships. A kid really only wants one or the other.

There are a lot of kids who really don't know what they want, and are rightfully afraid to want a reach. My '25 was one of those. We pursued the too many applications route, and it worked out better for us. If you have the money (or waiver) for application fees. Why does it matter?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

applying to 20 is dumb. you just don't need that many safeties or targets or reaches. you need one safety. your favorite one. a safety is a SAFETY ie you know you're getting in. why would you need more than 1? a few targets and a few reaches. the end.

You do you. Is it "dumb"? Really???

My kid had 10 reaches, plus schools like U-Miami and Wake, which I guess puts it at 12.
1. Too many safeties, I agree....but in this environment, you never know: (vermont, elon, pitt, instate flagship (not in DMV), cu-boulder). Got $$ from all except the in-state flagship.
2. The targets were schools like Case, Wisconsin, Lehigh, Wake, U-Miami, Davidson (more like a reach)?
3. And then the rest were reaches (SLACs, OOS flagships, T20 private).....
A very strategically picked list of schools. Ended up with a LOT of options from the reach category.

Also, the RD reach applications were 100% stronger from doing so many early EA apps. Just a little tip.

I think applying to SLACs and OOS flagships is the reason for applying to 20 schools. If you want to go to a SLAC then apply to only SLACs. If you want to got to an OOS flagship then apply to OOS flagships. A kid really only wants one or the other.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

1. this would have been horrible advice for my kid. got into 5 reach schools, a few of which prob would have been dropped by your rules. I'd say start essays REALLY early. Like June/July. The finished product for the supplementals look very different from early drafts (e.g., much better/stronger).

2. agree with 2. If your HS hasn't send someone to that college in last 3-4 years, might be really uphill battle.

3. Yes, find schools where 25% of the class isn't applying.

My kid applied to 20 schools. Got into 15. Probably applied to too many safeties and targets, but agree with your last point in theory. However, 3 of kids reaches were the colleges where a LOT of people in class applied. Kid just had a very tailored application and likely stronger understanding of the school showed in the school-specific essays.

applying to 20 is dumb. you just don't need that many safeties or targets or reaches. you need one safety. your favorite one. a safety is a SAFETY ie you know you're getting in. why would you need more than 1? a few targets and a few reaches. the end.

You do you. Is it "dumb"? Really???

My kid had 10 reaches, plus schools like U-Miami and Wake, which I guess puts it at 12.
1. Too many safeties, I agree....but in this environment, you never know: (vermont, elon, pitt, instate flagship (not in DMV), cu-boulder). Got $$ from all except the in-state flagship.
2. The targets were schools like Case, Wisconsin, Lehigh, Wake, U-Miami, Davidson (more like a reach)?
3. And then the rest were reaches (SLACs, OOS flagships, T20 private).....
A very strategically picked list of schools. Ended up with a LOT of options from the reach category.

Also, the RD reach applications were 100% stronger from doing so many early EA apps. Just a little tip.

Applying to 12 schools like your kid did is not dumb. PP is saying that applying to 20 schools like another commenter share, is dumb. I tend to agree.

I think 10-12 colleges can be a reasonable number if you want to be cautious. But 20 is bonkers.