what school is right for you?

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by alum

College applications are a whole different ballgame.

Tabulating Senusret's list and adding at least 1 school from NY, he applied to 10 or more colleges/universities. This is definitely a generational phenomenon. When I applied to colleges in the early 80s, the college counselors were recommending 5 applications. 2 reaches, 2 matches and 1 safety. A couple of decades + later, my D was applying to schools and HER CC said the average hs student applied to 8 for a breakdown of 3 reaches, 3 matches, and 2 safeties.

I went to a high school in which the majority of us were low-income. I was living in Section 8 housing at the time I was applying to colleges.

Knowing that our school's most talented were mainly low-income, our college counselor instituted a program called the 10x10 Challenge. If you had a 3.0 and a 1000 on your SAT scores, she would ask that you fill out the common application and she would send the application to ten schools of her choosing that either did not require an application fee or had fee waivers. Many of us basically applied to schools we had never heard of, but our counselor knew that they would be matches or safeties for us.

She made me do the 10x10 TWICE, and I chose my own schools (also about ten).

Any HBCUs I was admitted to were from the 10x10, Morehouse, Fisk, and some other place I have since forgotten. Also that boy's school in Minnesota (St. John's?). Denison, Albright, Washington College.... I got into every 10x10 school I applied to, and it was nice to have options.

(And most of the schools offered at least 40k in merit aid BEFORE financial aid.)