I applied for my reach school and got in. I didn’t have any safety schools. I was an arrogant little sonofabitch.
Oh wait, I just remembered that I applied to UC Santa Cruz as a backup. I forgot about that. If memory serves, you apply for the UCs with a single application, so I just tacked that on while applying to UCLA and Berkeley.
Offered a full scholarship to Alabama (went to HS there, and I think it was from an academic competition), but I never even applied there.
Applied to 3 schools:
Safety - Georgia Tech
Middle - Washington U in St Louis
Reach - MIT
Got into all 3. MIT offered far too little financial aid, so I went to WUSTL. Worked out ok–met my wife there in 1982 and we just celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary. Sent our daughter there this morning to begin her freshman year.
Rick-My HS crush did her Ph.D there. (biochem, c. 2003)
Top private schools are now over $50k for tuition, fees, room and board. However, some of them waive all family contribution if household income is low enough. YMMV.
Books are very expensive no matter where you go. One advantage now is the federal law requiring we post ISBN numbers so students can shop for texts online and get competitive prices.
When I was teaching at a CC, up until recently, many of my students transferred to private schools with more aid than the state schools give. Not always, but they really do want talented students fom all backgrounds.
At Stanford, for instance, if the family income is less than $100,000, the university will waive the tuition (but not the room, board, books and fees). If the family income is less than $60,000, the university will waive all of it.
Where I went to high school, and with my parents, you didn’t apply like that (high school graduation, 1984). The University of Minnesota had to take everyone, and I went to the University of Iowa because it had the program I was interested it. I applied no where else because my parents couldn’t afford private school tuition and frankly were not informed about how aid works, and I needed to be within a day drive - airfare was not in the budget. Draw a circle around Minneapolis-St. Paul within an eight hour drive, look for public schools - you don’t get too many choices.
My high school sent only about 10% of the graduating class to college - our counselors were worthless for that sort of thing.
I also suspect it had to do with the application process in the dark ages - an individual application for each school, with an individual application fee for each school. Now I understand that a lot of schools can be applied for through a single application.
Yes, Michigan is ridiculously expensive for out-of-state students. It wasn’t cheap for in-state students either… at the time I attended, waaaaay back in 2001, it was about $20k a semester inc. room & board.
Fortunately I received lots of grants and scholarships. I had wanted to attend University of Michigan ever since I was 9 years old. It wasn’t really a reach, since I had been preparing for it for years, but I treated it that way at the time because it was my dream. I was so nervous I wouldn’t get in.
(A dream, by the way, fulfilled in every sense. I absolutely LOVED it.)
My safety was Michigan State University, where my Mom went.
That speaks to a failure on the part of the elite schools, both private and public ones. They do a poor job of recruiting and enrolling lower-income students and those from more rural areas. See this article about the situation.
And I know I’ve said it before (even within this thread) but it bears repeating. Few people pay the sticker price for college, much as no one actually pays those ridiculous hotel-room rack rates that are posted on the back of the door. So to anyone considering applying to college, apply regardless of the stated price for the school. Fill out the application and the FAFSA and see how much aid you qualify for. You may be surprised. (And of course apply for whatever scholarships you can find.)
I applied to Illinois and Purdue, thought I would get into both and did. Purdue didn’t offer as large as a scholarship as I hoped and I went to Illinois. I didn’t really think too much about college in high school so I didn’t really have a reach school. My parents had me look at Chicago, but I didn’t apply. Good thing my state school is fairly well regarded.
I probably could have gotten into a “better” school than I did, but I had a full ride at a state university and so I never questioned going anywhere else. I remember applying to two random other universities/colleges because my high school counselor forced me to (no idea which ones they are now and what the results were), but I never had any intention of going anywhere other than WCU.
Safety: University of Wisconsin- Stout “When in doubt, go to Stout!”
Reach: Rutgers
Attended: UW- Stevens Point
I was accepted to all of the above, only because of my ACT and SAT scores.
Reach: Oberlin, Swarthmore (rejected at both, so they really were ‘reaches’)
Middle: Trinity (Hartford), Swarthmore (accepted at Trinity which is where I went, waitlisted at Swarthmore)
Safety: University of Virginia (accepted)
Reach: Gudger College
Safety: Springfield University
Actually, I was able to get music or academic scholarships for everywhere I applied; several Ivies, MIT, and Vanderbilt.
Sadly, my intelligence did not extend to actually taking advantage of any of them.
I moved to Atlanta to help start my mom’s newest travel agency. For a year, then I’d go to Vandy with my GF.
Spent many years traveling and seeing the world, but never went back.
My eldest did much the same as I did, getting scholarships to many schools, and having to make a choice. Vanderbilt was not as gracious to him, but that’s OK, 'cause Mom didn’t want him 4 hours away, anyway!
He chose The University of Georgia for a variety of reasons, and has started his second year this month.
Now if only I could get my daughter to study so she doesn’t end up at South Harmon Institute of Technology…
I applied early decision to the U of Chicago. If I hadn’t gotten in there, my safety would probably have been Mizzou.
I only applied to two schools: UCLA was my safety, I was sure to get in. Caltech was my reach. I got into Caltech, so that’s where I went.
California boy here!
Reach: CalTech
Match: UC Berkeley, UCLA
Safety: Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO
Accepted to all except MIT (duh!), so I became a Golden Bear*! GO BEARS!
My parents were VERY middle class and suburban, which was part of the issue - middle class enough that I got an honorary national merit scholarship 
- no money (your parents make too much money), but you are a national merit scholar. And our financial aid offers were all loans, which my parents did not find acceptable - and I was a 16 year old minor and couldn’t accept. But they had $x for school, loans were forbidden, and it had to be within eight hours of home.
But three daughters went through four years of college each - all of us at public schools (Madison, U of M, and Minnesota State - Winona), and not one of us left with a penny of debt from it.
hiss
Brother said he could get me into Johns Hopkins as a legacy and was sure that, with his guidance, I could get into Harvard, but I couldn’t afford to apply at a stretch school, much less pay the tuition. Got accepted at Michigan but couldn’t afford the tuition before I established residency. Safety school was Northern Illinois University, which I graduated from with no debt. Sometimes wonder how my life would be different if I had lasted a year at Harvard before they threw me out. Probably not much, since Bill Gates didn’t start until the next Fall. 