DS applied to 8 schools, despite his counselor's suggestion that he limit to 5 or 6. He applied to one SCEA (deferred, rejected later) one EA (in early, his safety) and 5 of the other six schools he applied to RD. In hindsight DS says he wishes he'd found a school to love and just applied ED and done. I think all of those applications and months of waiting, then having to look at several schools again before May, was very stressful for him and us. On the other hand, he's landed at a great school that he loves so I guess it all worked out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Common App is posted Aug 1. While some kids I'm sure get their essays done in August I'm afraid that neither of mine did, despite much nagging on my part. PP is lucky to have had a perfect child. I did get them both to complete the fill in the blank part of the common app in August. But my DCs were both finishing supplemental essays on December 31.

My DS got two Common App essays done within a week of summer letting out (and then went off to decide which one to use), but he was extremely determined to not go to UMD.

This year?? The prompts changed so much this year, and they dropped the open one, so it would have been very difficult to do them until the app was released Aug 1.

To the PP asking about similarities -there were a few that could be tweaked to fit more than one school, but more that were very college specific. Schools like Wake Forest, Chicago and to a lesser extent UVA have some very unique questions.

Anonymous wrote:Common App is posted Aug 1. While some kids I'm sure get their essays done in August I'm afraid that neither of mine did, despite much nagging on my part. PP is lucky to have had a perfect child. I did get them both to complete the fill in the blank part of the common app in August. But my DCs were both finishing supplemental essays on December 31.

My DS got two Common App essays done within a week of summer letting out (and then went off to decide which one to use), but he was extremely determined to not go to UMD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Rising seniors typically work on their essays during the summer BEFORE school starts so they don't have that distraction during senior year.

This sounds smart but when do the colleges post essay topics? If late August, then they start school with that distraction.

Common App is posted Aug 1. While some kids I'm sure get their essays done in August I'm afraid that neither of mine did, despite much nagging on my part. PP is lucky to have had a perfect child. I did get them both to complete the fill in the blank part of the common app in August. But my DCs were both finishing supplemental essays on December 31.

PP, did you notice similarities in the essays in the colleges that your kids applied to? Supplemental essays?

I mean similarities in the topics for the essays from different colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Rising seniors typically work on their essays during the summer BEFORE school starts so they don't have that distraction during senior year.

This sounds smart but when do the colleges post essay topics? If late August, then they start school with that distraction.

Common App is posted Aug 1. While some kids I'm sure get their essays done in August I'm afraid that neither of mine did, despite much nagging on my part. PP is lucky to have had a perfect child. I did get them both to complete the fill in the blank part of the common app in August. But my DCs were both finishing supplemental essays on December 31.

PP, did you notice similarities in the essays in the colleges that your kids applied to? Supplemental essays?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Rising seniors typically work on their essays during the summer BEFORE school starts so they don't have that distraction during senior year.

This sounds smart but when do the colleges post essay topics? If late August, then they start school with that distraction.

Common App is posted Aug 1. While some kids I'm sure get their essays done in August I'm afraid that neither of mine did, despite much nagging on my part. PP is lucky to have had a perfect child. I did get them both to complete the fill in the blank part of the common app in August. But my DCs were both finishing supplemental essays on December 31.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Rising seniors typically work on their essays during the summer BEFORE school starts so they don't have that distraction during senior year.

This sounds smart but when do the colleges post essay topics? If late August, then they start school with that distraction.

You should be able to narrow it down to three: stretch, safety and challenge.

One. Early admission. Yay. All done by dec. 15th.

DC did 3 applications.

Two applications at safeties, which were easy and didn't require much in the way of essay-crafting. Definitely apply early to 1-2 safeties. When things get really stressful in December, it's great to have known since October that 1-2 schools love you, even if these are your safeties.

And then 1 ED at a top-choice top-USNWR school (like a PP, I actually told DC to use that ED bump at an easier school, but DC wouldn't hear of it). Heard the 1st week of December and withdrew the acceptances at the safeties. Love ED because if it works out, it really reduces the stress of waiting until March. If ED doesn't work out it can be discouraging (which is why I tried to discourage DC from this particular school), so that's another reason it's good to have the safety acceptances in hand.

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Timing is an issue. You hear from most ED/EAs on 12/15 and the deadline for many selective schools is 12/31. So given all the supplemental essays it's best not to wait until 12/15 especially since if you get denied or deferred you may not be in your best frame of mind for writing essays. My DC applied to 11 and had 5-6 submitted before the ED/EA notification date. Was deferred ED and admitted to one school EA. The EA admit allowed DC to drop a couple of planned applications, but still ended up having to do several more over Christmas break.

UVA does EA but doesn't notify until January so you still basically have to do all your applications even if you are accepted EA.

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Rising seniors typically work on their essays during the summer BEFORE school starts so they don't have that distraction during senior year.

Pardon my ignorance, as I have children that are years away from college...

However, just out of curiosity... can't one just apply to ED or EA first, see if they get in...if they don't then apply to other colleges? Wouldn't that take the stress off of applying to so many colleges if they get into their first choice?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DS originally planned on doing 11. The thinking was that since he was applying to many Ivies it made sense to throw in more safeties since you can never count on admission to any particular Ivy or top college when admission rates are in single digits. He ultimately pared his list down to 8 after getting admitted early action to one of his choices. We are awaiting additional results of admission so we'll see if his strategy was a good one.

Wow, his classmates must hate him. How selfish.

Why is this selfish? It was non-binding early action, no early decision. The school he was admitted to allows students to not commit until May 1. No one is breaking any rules here.

Right, he's not breaking any rules here. But he's potentially taking acceptances away from other kids at his school, under the assumption that colleges accept a limited number of kids from each school. He'd do everybody else a favor by figuring out which remaining schools he'd prefer to the one he got into, and withdrawing from all the others. It's not a contest to see how many Ivies you can get into, if it comes at the expense of someone else who hasn't gotten into any yet. (And my kid is at a "top Ivy" or whatever you want to call it, so my post isn't motivated by jealousy.)

Right, like you are going to care about other kids when your kid's future is on the line.

PP's sentiment is probably shared by most, which is why it is up to the schools to reign in excessive applications by limiting letters of recommendation. The parent and school interests are not aligned: parents want the best possible outcome for their DC and a willing to do whatever it takes; the school wants the best possible outcome for the entire class - which my impinge at the margins on any one student's range of options. For example, little Jonny might (but probably won't) derive SOME benefit from applying to 20 schools, but doing so may hurt little Jimmy's prospects. A strong school counselor can sort this out, but we've all heard about the NCS girls applying to 20 schools - there is not a counselor alive who can reign in the mean girls!

No merit scholarship but DD got into a school that I offered to give her the application money rather than "donate" it to the college. (Because I was sure she wouldn't be accepted, why waste the application fee. Yeah, I still feel bad about that one.) Apply anywhere you want!