I applied to three. All state schools, as my parents didn't contribute anything to my college expenses so I figured I couldn't afford a private school.

Unfortunately K-Bug is in this boat, but her #1 school is private and pricey. I've been trying to encourage her to fill out a grand/scholarship application a week - there are so many out there - but so far she has done nothing.

Meara - was the offer from the SF job?

I just got the job offer!

Congratulations! Sob! meara's gonna leave us!

they offered on the low end of the salary range

Negotiate! More salary, more vacation, better moving package, etc.

as a 1991 graduate, we were advised to apply to THREE colleges, a long-shot, an average, and a back-up.

I don't even remember what they told us.

I ended up going to a school only an hour away, so I could come home to see my girlfriend.

Big mistake....

as a 1991 graduate, we were advised to apply to THREE colleges, a long-shot, an average, and a back-up.

I seem to remember this same advice in 1985. I applied to 3ish...don't really remember. I got in where I wanted and only lasted about 3 months. Ah well.

Yay for job offer, meara!!

Unfortunately K-Bug is in this boat, but her #1 school is private and pricey.

Suzi- I don't know how much different it is now, but I went to a private school that was very pricey but not particularly known, at the time, for being really top-knotch academically. It was really looking to improve the reputation for being a party school, and I ended up with an almost full tuition merit scholarship. I got a really great education with no college loans. The downside was that it was not a name university, so even with a 3.8, it doesn't have cachet outside of my area AND I did not like the school until I found the theatre crowd because it was a lot of partiers (Not that theatre people weren't partiers, but we were partiers who got drunk and sang Grease, not who got drunk and ran down the halls whacking people with lacrosse sticks.)

Yay for job offer!

With us, we knew that we were among zillions of kids from the NYC suburbs all applying to the same schools. I don't know of anyone my year who applied to fewer than five. Even with schools where we were solidly within the range for GPA and SAT scores and everything, we knew that there were way more people in that range applying than they could actually accept, and that it was largely a crapshoot. We were told to only apply to schools that we'd be willing to attend, and to have at least one safety (oddly, I didn't get into my safety school, but did get into one that I'd been unsure of), but beyond that, just to make sure that we spent enough time with each individual application.

Congrats meara! Best of luck for getting just what you want.

I love Emily Koltnow's book Congratulations, You've Been Fired for its excellent list of things to negotiate for going into (or out of) a job...and ways to frame the negotiation.

The three times I applied to schools, I applied to only one each time. Granted, two were relatively small schools (UOP and Loyola in MD) and the American U program was pretty specialized.

My undergrad school was about an hour away from my parents. Far enough away that they came to school exactly once, when I asked for help moving. It was perfect.

The basic advice we have been given is to ignore prices, for now - have her apply to schools with the programs she wants, fill out her FAFSA, and see what financial offers she gets.

This isn't how we planned for things to go, but life loves to throw curve balls.

ION - my coworker's car got towed due to outstanding parking tickets. She is pissed cause it was her ex who accumulated the tickets but releived it wasn't stolen. Gotta drive her around to get stuff paid and get the car back.