Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest 12; 4 high reaches, 6 high target/low reaches, 2targets (I was extremely nervous that she had no true safeties). Accepted at 6, waitlisted at 2, rejected at 4.
Second 1 reach. Accepted in ED. Recruited athlete.
Expect youngest will apply to 10 or so unless he can get recruited to play his sport.

Op here. I feel like DS’s safeties are actually not true safety. I think he won’t be happy if he ends up at a true safety, which is why I thought it may be better to apply to a lot of schools that are low reaches/targets.

The challenge with very high-stats kids is that those "low reach/target" schools may actually be more of a reach than the student thinks. If they still have <25% acceptance rate they should be considered reaches regardless of stats. He should spend time working to find a real safety that has some things that he can be excited about. Specific programs in his major, study abroad options, student groups, etc.

One of my DD's safeties has a very high acceptance rate and most people probably haven't heard of it. But it has an experience in her major area that she is really, really excited to participate in.

+1000
ANd to be a safety acceptance rate must be greater than 50%.

All T20-30 schools (and t10-15 SLAC) are reaches for everyone. Your GPA/SAT scores just allow you to purchase the lottery ticket.

+100
Mine made the rookie mistake of building a reach heavy list. Accepted to 5, rejected by 5, waitlisted at 2. High stats great ECs etc. "targets" were actually reaches in this recent cycle bc volume of applications drove down acceptance rates. Schools where his stats were in the top 75% waitlisted/rejected him.
Accepted to a lottery ticket school in RD but was preparing to become excited by solid offers from good but not top top schools. And grateful. Brutal cycle. Our next one is drawing up a much more balanced list.

Glad your next one will have a more balanced list. glad your kid got into a "lottery ticket" during RD, but it would have been really brutal if that hadn't come in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest 12; 4 high reaches, 6 high target/low reaches, 2targets (I was extremely nervous that she had no true safeties). Accepted at 6, waitlisted at 2, rejected at 4.
Second 1 reach. Accepted in ED. Recruited athlete.
Expect youngest will apply to 10 or so unless he can get recruited to play his sport.

Op here. I feel like DS’s safeties are actually not true safety. I think he won’t be happy if he ends up at a true safety, which is why I thought it may be better to apply to a lot of schools that are low reaches/targets.

The challenge with very high-stats kids is that those "low reach/target" schools may actually be more of a reach than the student thinks. If they still have <25% acceptance rate they should be considered reaches regardless of stats. He should spend time working to find a real safety that has some things that he can be excited about. Specific programs in his major, study abroad options, student groups, etc.

One of my DD's safeties has a very high acceptance rate and most people probably haven't heard of it. But it has an experience in her major area that she is really, really excited to participate in.

+1000
ANd to be a safety acceptance rate must be greater than 50%.

All T20-30 schools (and t10-15 SLAC) are reaches for everyone. Your GPA/SAT scores just allow you to purchase the lottery ticket.

+100
Mine made the rookie mistake of building a reach heavy list. Accepted to 5, rejected by 5, waitlisted at 2. High stats great ECs etc. "targets" were actually reaches in this recent cycle bc volume of applications drove down acceptance rates. Schools where his stats were in the top 75% waitlisted/rejected him.
Accepted to a lottery ticket school in RD but was preparing to become excited by solid offers from good but not top top schools. And grateful. Brutal cycle. Our next one is drawing up a much more balanced list.

Anonymous wrote:Mine applied to 14. Did not have great results w/ early reaches, so really worked on RD apps and on earning more accolades. Had one early safety acceptance going into RD. Applied to 2 more safeties, 2 targets, 1 "hard target," and 5 reaches (T10/Ivies/T5 LAC). High # of reaches because very happy with the safeties. Got into 3 reaches (2 of 3 "dream schools"), both targets, and waitlisted at hard target. Oddly, rejected at one safety.

It was a fretful March, and DD spent most of that time getting more excited about safeties, then surprise! I think what helped was to look for the good in all the choices, and have several "dream" options. In the end, she had so many awesome choices, and had gotten so invested in all the good points of each school, deciding was almost as stressful as waiting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest 12; 4 high reaches, 6 high target/low reaches, 2targets (I was extremely nervous that she had no true safeties). Accepted at 6, waitlisted at 2, rejected at 4.
Second 1 reach. Accepted in ED. Recruited athlete.
Expect youngest will apply to 10 or so unless he can get recruited to play his sport.

Op here. I feel like DS’s safeties are actually not true safety. I think he won’t be happy if he ends up at a true safety, which is why I thought it may be better to apply to a lot of schools that are low reaches/targets.

The challenge with very high-stats kids is that those "low reach/target" schools may actually be more of a reach than the student thinks. If they still have <25% acceptance rate they should be considered reaches regardless of stats. He should spend time working to find a real safety that has some things that he can be excited about. Specific programs in his major, study abroad options, student groups, etc.

One of my DD's safeties has a very high acceptance rate and most people probably haven't heard of it. But it has an experience in her major area that she is really, really excited to participate in.

+1000
ANd to be a safety acceptance rate must be greater than 50%.

All T20-30 schools (and t10-15 SLAC) are reaches for everyone. Your GPA/SAT scores just allow you to purchase the lottery ticket.

+100
Mine made the rookie mistake of building a reach heavy list. Accepted to 5, rejected by 5, waitlisted at 2. High stats great ECs etc. "targets" were actually reaches in this recent cycle bc volume of applications drove down acceptance rates. Schools where his stats were in the top 75% waitlisted/rejected him.
Accepted to a lottery ticket school in RD but was preparing to become excited by solid offers from good but not top top schools. And grateful. Brutal cycle. Our next one is drawing up a much more balanced list.

Anonymous wrote:There are probably 10 schools my kid really wants to go to but they are schools that are on everyone’s list.

How many reach, target and safeties did your kid apply to?

The common app seems to make it much easier to apply to colleges. He could just apply to 50 colleges. I think Georgetown may be the only school my kid wants to go to that isn’t in the common app.