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How many colleges is your senior applying to?


freesia
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We are having a hard time narrowing down--particularly as we need scholarship money and I feel like we need to apply widely to see where he gets the best deal.  Right now, there are 11 colleges.  A couple, the higher shots, probably won't come through with the money, but we feel like "nothing ventured, nothing gained".  And then there are a couple which I feel he is just applying to in case the finances don't work out and then the local school that is a sure thing financially . . . .

 

Is that crazy?

 

(Even though dh and I successfully navigated this process ourselves, and I managed my brothers' application process (and one got into Yale), I still am afraid that I will mess this whole thing up. . ..  Honestly, I'm a bundle of nerves right now--not what my sensitive ds needs, really).

 

 

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I think dd has about 12 on her list right now.  She is planning to audition into a program, which typically means needing to cast a wider net.  

 

She should be fine getting into all of them academically, but whether she gets the nod on the audition portion can be random chance based on something as mundane as, "Oh, you're amazing, but we already have other people who look and sound like you, and are looking for a different 'type' this year."

 

And after THAT we'll still have to look at scholarship offers.

 

So, yeah, nerve wracking.

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Thanks, guys, it helps to know that we are not the only ones.  One of ds's older friends went to Community College, one applied to 2 schools, another just one. (And back in the day I applied to 2--with 2 more "in the wings" if I didn't get into my favorite Early Acceptance). I was feeling a bit over the top. 

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Currently, ds2's list stands at 1. I will push for a few more. Money is an issue (when is it not?), so I am trying to meet his desires with our financial requirements.

 

He has 2 more that might be "okay." And the state schools will be fine (2 more), but not quite what I wish for him.

 

Hopefully, he apply to at least 5 schools and fine one that will work.

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My oldest did 10 but some were just clicking a box on the common app and having test scores sent. He certainly didn't do extra essays for ten schools. If going for selective schools and looking for money, a wide net makes sense and applying to ten schools or so is becoming more common.

 

I do think for most students, completing ten applications that included essays would be a tall order to complete them all well. But if some of that number are simpler applications or safeties it becomes a lot more manageable.

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My oldest did 10 but some were just clicking a box on the common app and having test scores sent. He certainly didn't do extra essays for ten schools. If going for selective schools and looking for money, a wide net makes sense and applying to ten schools or so is becoming more common.

 

I do think for most students, completing ten applications that included essays would be a tall order to complete them all well. But if some of that number are simpler applications or safeties it becomes a lot more manageable.

 

That's the situation here.  A number of them are on the Common App and aren't that much more work (maybe adapting a statement of belief or something). He did his Common App essay through a workshop. The only ones that have  a lot more work happen to be the higher academic ones which will probably not come through financially but *may*.  (Our financial situation is a bit odd--we look like we have more money than we have access to b/c we live in a parsonage, which is credited as salary (and is a nice house on 2 acres) but we can't access that money for college iykwim)

 

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I want my seniors to apply to at least 9 colleges. Like many others, we need the most financial/merit aid we can get for a decent school. Unfortunately they only have a few picked out, despite spending the last year or 2 looking at college info, and being bombarded with college mail.

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I want my seniors to apply to at least 9 colleges. Like many others, we need the most financial/merit aid we can get for a decent school. Unfortunately they only have a few picked out, despite spending the last year or 2 looking at college info, and being bombarded with college mail.

 

That's frustrating.

 

It's so good to know that we are not off track with this.

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Ugh. Only one. Just last evening I was telling him he needs to apply to a back-up school, just in case. He balked at the idea. 😒 It's trying my nerves.

Edited by Kinsa
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My DD1 applied to 13. Some where easy click the button and a number were highly selective with extra essays. She is leaving in two weeks to attend the last minute add.

 

I will be monitoring the type and number of essays for DD2. That became the sticking point the last time around.

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My DD1 applied to 13. Some where easy click the button and a number were highly selective with extra essays. She is leaving in two weeks to attend the last minute add.

 

I will be monitoring the type and number of essays for DD2. That became the sticking point the last time around.

 

We just had a "last minute add". Well, I know we aren't anywhere near last minute, but this is a college we hadn't been discussing or visiting and we just tacked it on.  It's what threw me into this small tizzy.  I actually think it would be an awesome college for ds. I'm just not sure it will be affordable, or that he'll put the time into the application--it's one of the ones that requires a bit more--to make it worth it.  Maybe I should spend more time having him look at it and develop more of an interest.

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My daughter is planning on 18. Way too many but she really can't narrow it down. She is about 1/2 done and has finished all but 2 that I care about. Once she does those 2 I don't care if she finishes the rest.

 

I will say she is having a lot of fun with the entire process. Not stressed out at all. As long as this remains the case she can keep applying for all I care.

Edited by Plateau Mama
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Seven, including two extremely selective, two very selective, and three that are safety schools for general admission and match schools for their honors programs. Because of the honors and scholarship applications, there are 11+ applications for the seven schools (on her side, at least, I only have to send transcripts seven times, etc).

 

Four schools are Common App, so one reusable essay there.

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Ds applied to 11 - 3 safeties (two would have been sufficient), 2 matches, and 6 reaches. The safeties were Big State U's (so not Common App). Their basic applications were easy, but applications for Honors Colleges, special programs, fellowships, and scholarships required extra essays/interviews. All the reaches had significant supplements. Between the two matches, one was an easy add-on, but the other required extra stuff because of desired special programs. It was a busy fall.

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My daughter is planning on 18. Way too many but she really can't narrow it down. She is about 1/2 done and has finished all but 2 that I care about. Once she does those 2 I don't care if she finishes the rest.

 

I will say she is having a lot of fun with the entire process. Not stressed out at all. As long as this remains the case she can keep applying for all I care.

Fun with the process?  I guess that was me back in the day.

 

Ds is having a good attitude about it--but having fun? Nope.

 

I am happy for you, though. :-)

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Ds applied to 11 - 3 safeties (two would have been sufficient), 2 matches, and 6 reaches. The safeties were Big State U's (so not Common App). Their basic applications were easy, but applications for Honors Colleges, special programs, fellowships, and scholarships required extra essays/interviews. All the reaches had significant supplements. Between the two matches, one was an easy add-on, but the other required extra stuff because of desired special programs. It was a busy fall.

 

I remember your son's process and decision.  And now he's almost graduated, right? crazy

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I have two applying to schools for next year, oldest will finish community college, so he will start applying to 4 year schools, and then I have my senior.

 

So far oldest is set on ONE.  ONE!  UGH.  But I do think he will get in, so I am not too concerned, but I did suggest he apply to a couple of others.

 

My senior is applying to two so far, but now says he wants to start at Community College.  I have no problem with that really, but he seems to be the "path of least resistance" kid.  He has great grades and I am sure he will do fine whatever he ends up doing.  He has a plan, even if he starts at CC.

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One, with the lucky recipient of her app to be decided by October. My'16 daughter also only applied to one. I was kind of bummed at the time, but she was right--it was the school for her. She is applying this fall to about 8 Ph.D programs, though, so I get to enjoy some of the anticipation for those decisions without having to do any of the work. Pretty sweet deal for me!

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Only 1 or 2.  The second university he is interested in has major hoops for homeschoolers to jump through...and this is a state university! 

 

The added requirements (besides ACT/SAT scores and official transcripts) include: 

 

1.  A specific and comprehensive outline of the academic curriculum

2.  A syllabi (for each course)

3.  A portfolio and/or learning log (for each course)

4.  Official college transcripts (if applicable...this one is not bad)

5.  State whether each class has come from an accredited program

6.  Give documentation that homeschooler's program meets high school grad. requirements of your home town.

 

Honestly, I am not excited about doing the above, but if I don't do it, then ds will only have 1 college application...Sigh...

Edited by Omma
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Only 1 or 2.  The second university he is interested in has major hoops for homeschoolers to jump through...and this is a state university! 

 

The added requirements (besides ACT/SAT scores and official transcripts) include: 

 

1.  A specific and comprehensive outline of the academic curriculum

2.  A syllabi (for each course)

3.  A portfolio and/or learning log (for each course)

4.  Official college transcripts (if applicable...this one is not bad)

5.  State whether each class has come from an accredited program

6.  Give documentation that homeschooler's program meets high school grad. requirements of your home town.

 

Honestly, I am not excited about doing the above, but if I don't do it, then ds will only have 1 college application...Sigh...

 

Oh.my.goodness

 

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Only 1 or 2. The second university he is interested in has major hoops for homeschoolers to jump through...and this is a state university!

 

The added requirements (besides ACT/SAT scores and official transcripts) include:

 

1. A specific and comprehensive outline of the academic curriculum

2. A syllabi (for each course)

3. A portfolio and/or learning log (for each course)

4. Official college transcripts (if applicable...this one is not bad)

5. State whether each class has come from an accredited program

6. Give documentation that homeschooler's program meets high school grad. requirements of your home town.

 

Honestly, I am not excited about doing the above, but if I don't do it, then ds will only have 1 college application...Sigh...

That's cray-cray. So sorry you have to do all of that!!

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Eight.

 

Six in state and two out.

 

Three safeties, three mids, two reaches. He is most likely to land at one of the safeties and thankfully he is fine with that. The mids are probably not affordable due to a mediocre amount of merit aid, but they are more expensive so maybe a little need based aid. The reaches could be if he also gets the high end of the merit aid instead of the middle or low end, however, given what I know of these schools I am not holding out hope for the big merit aid because our demographic and zip code are likely not what they are interested in wooing.

 

Love thy safety! That is the motto around here.

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Dd has 17 schools currently on her list. She started with 60 last year, so we're making progress :lol: So far she's got 5 she wants to apply to, unfortunately 4 are at least low reaches. Quite a few of her potential safeties are free applications, so she may submit apps to all of those.

Edited by whitestavern
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Fun with the process? I guess that was me back in the day.

 

Ds is having a good attitude about it--but having fun? Nope.

 

I am happy for you, though. :-)

She is having fun with the process. A few days ago I told her she was having way too much fun and she said why not? Of course I guess when you have stats like hers there is no reason not to have fun.

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Dd has 17 schools currently on her list. She started with 60 last year, so we're making progress :lol: So far she's got 5 she wants to apply to, unfortunately 4 are at least low reaches. Quite a few of her potential safeties are free applications, so she may submit apps to all of those.

That is how DD was. We got it down to 35. I was happy when she only listed 18.

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That is how DD was. We got it down to 35. I was happy when she only listed 18.

 

Wow, these kinds of numbers (with the 60 I heard before) sound completely hilarious to me...and yet, who knows what will happen when my dd gets ready to graduate!!!

 

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My daughter's list is standing at 4 in-state state schools  and 3 privates, none in the very highly selective category. She's in the top 10% or so for test scores at all of them, so I don't have concerns that she'll likely get in, the big question is merit aid. She says she would be happy to be at any of them, but I have my doubts about one of the privates, so we'll have to see how things shake out. In her case the saftey/match/reach comes in terms of cost. Her ultimate safety is to live at home and continue at the community college where she is in dual enrollment then transfer to the local state university (which is one of the four on her list).

 

Unfortunately, only one uses the Common App, which makes it much less common. :) She's going to do the individual school app for that one as well. Luckily she's already sent both her ACT scores to two of them, back when she tested (the other free slots sent them to schools she's since crossed off the list). She's at least started on two of the applications.

 

 

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My daughter's list is standing at 4 in-state state schools and 3 privates, none in the very highly selective category. She's in the top 10% or so for test scores at all of them, so I don't have concerns that she'll likely get in, the big question is merit aid. She says she would be happy to be at any of them, but I have my doubts about one of the privates, so we'll have to see how things shake out. In her case the saftey/match/reach comes in terms of cost. Her ultimate safety is to live at home and continue at the community college where she is in dual enrollment then transfer to the local state university (which is one of the four on her list).

 

Unfortunately, only one uses the Common App, which makes it much less common. :) She's going to do the individual school app for that one as well. Luckily she's already sent both her ACT scores to two of them, back when she tested (the other free slots sent them to schools she's since crossed off the list). She's at least started on two of the applications.

This is our plan too. I'm not really worried about him getting into a school that would work well for him- it's the money.
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The added requirements (besides ACT/SAT scores and official transcripts) include: 

 

1. ....

 

Wow. I complain about the state U (my alma mater) not being homeschool friendly, but yours takes the cake. All the one here requires is extra rules on science labs (hoops!) and a statement about how the kid met the classroom/spoken requirement for the foreign language component. That's insane. What school IS that?

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That is how DD was. We got it down to 35. I was happy when she only listed 18.

My DD has always had a hard time making decisions. Give her a choice between two Ice cream flavors and she will go back and forth until soneone offers to give her 1/2&1/2.

 

The hard part is she will get into most of the 18 so she will have to decide. Some schools she knows she can't afford but just wants to see if she can get in.

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My DD has always had a hard time making decisions. Give her a choice between two Ice cream flavors and she will go back and forth until soneone offers to give her 1/2&1/2.

 

The hard part is she will get into most of the 18 so she will have to decide. Some schools she knows she can't afford but just wants to see if she can get in.

My kids would completely run out of stream before that many apps were completed. Apps are a time suck.

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Only 1 or 2.  The second university he is interested in has major hoops for homeschoolers to jump through...and this is a state university! 

 

The added requirements (besides ACT/SAT scores and official transcripts) include: 

 

1.  A specific and comprehensive outline of the academic curriculum

2.  A syllabi (for each course)

3.  A portfolio and/or learning log (for each course)

4.  Official college transcripts (if applicable...this one is not bad)

5.  State whether each class has come from an accredited program

6.  Give documentation that homeschooler's program meets high school grad. requirements of your home town.

 

Honestly, I am not excited about doing the above, but if I don't do it, then ds will only have 1 college application...Sigh...

Oh my gosh - I can't imagine trying to do this on the fly in one fell swoop.  I've assembled course descriptions with curriculum that could be formatted as a syllabus as we go.  Word to the wise people as you create a transcript. 

 

I only have a junior just starting the process.  He is leaning toward a music program right now (he also does theater) and when you're auditioning for a decent performance program everyone is qualified and it's all super competitive and almost nothing is a safety.  Money makes a difference too.  Sigh.  So I won't be surprised if we are higher than 10. Essays will be like pulling teeth so looking forward to that.  LOL. 

 

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Only 1 or 2. The second university he is interested in has major hoops for homeschoolers to jump through...and this is a state university!

 

The added requirements (besides ACT/SAT scores and official transcripts) include:

 

1. A specific and comprehensive outline of the academic curriculum

2. A syllabi (for each course)

3. A portfolio and/or learning log (for each course)

4. Official college transcripts (if applicable...this one is not bad)

5. State whether each class has come from an accredited program

6. Give documentation that homeschooler's program meets high school grad. requirements of your home town.

 

Honestly, I am not excited about doing the above, but if I don't do it, then ds will only have 1 college application...Sigh...

I'd be very curious to know What school this is. This is well beyond what I submitted for either of my two graduates. It seems designed to reduce the number of homeschooled applicants rather than get info to evaluate their readiness for college work.

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I'd be very curious to know What school this is. This is well beyond what I submitted for either of my two graduates. It seems designed to reduce the number of homeschooled applicants rather than get info to evaluate their readiness for college work.

 

My bet is UMass, b/c Mass is the only place I can think of where the town has to approve your program.  They are also famously anti-homeschooler.

 

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The hard part is she will get into most of the 18 so she will have to decide. Some schools she knows she can't afford but just wants to see if she can get in.

May I ask the rationale for doing this? My ds only applied to schools that he thought he would be interested in attending.

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First daughter applied to 8. This was the college app round where I stayed hands-off, thinking it would all work out just fine if she dealt with it independently. It did turn out "just fine", but we could definitely done better financially had I been educated on the modern college realities and paid attention. Even with the GI Bill, this was not easy financially.

 

Second daughter applied to 19. An extreme number, but there were reasonable factors at play. We live geographically distant from most schools and free time is at a premium (not to mention travel money), so pre-app visits were not logistically realistic, and it did not make sense to apply to schools where she might not be accepted. She was very uncertain about the type of school she wanted as far as size and location, so narrowing it down by those factors was not helpful.

 

She had the stats to put her in the running for major competitive merit scholarships, but those are never guaranteed. The few schools where we would qualify for sufficient aid had very low acceptance rates as well. Many of her apps fell into those categories.

 

In the end, she chose her EA school, a suburban East Coast private university.  But it was a tough decision. She came extremely close (deciding just before the deadline) to choosing the huge urban Southern state school that offered her a full ride, and there was a small private rural Christian school that stayed in the running until close to the end.

 

She was selected for some scholarships, and turned down flat for others (that oddly, you would have thought were less competitive). Applying widely was probably the best thing for her situation.

 

I doubt that will be the approach we take with my youngest child though. Her stats are likely to be different, and she will probably have a better idea about what she wants.

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Our daughter (her/my last year homeschooling!=( knows where she wants to go because it allows her to continue her home/farm-based small business, and they have an honors program that fits her to a T. She will apply to 3-4 other schools both in and out of state for financial comparison reasons.

 

She is preparing for the late August SAT, but she hasn't begun the application or scholarship essays yet. Fall semester, senior year is always crazy!

 

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My bet is UMass, b/c Mass is the only place I can think of where the town has to approve your program.  They are also famously anti-homeschooler.

 

 

Looks like the requirements cited go even beyond what UMass requires (which I think is pretty absurd).

 

My most recent grad had 6 subject test scores, was a National Merit Scholarship winner, a National AP Scholar, and had a whole lot of college course work (including calculus, statistics and college chemistry); but he would have either not quite met the 27 college credit requirement or just barely have done 27.  

 

UMass is requiring more from homeschoolers than Notre Dame, Georgetown, Stanford, and a host of other schools required.  

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My kids each applied to 2 colleges, but that doesn't mean 11 is crazy. Mine knew what they wanted and where they wanted to go. They had guaranteed admissions based on their stats at the state Universities they applied to and their stats compared favorably enough that there was no doubt of admissions anywhere. Kids applying to highly selective schools would be unwise to apply to only 2!

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