Originally sent as an AltView newsletter on May 15, 2026.
With most board exams now behind students, and many results already out, I hope the children get a little breathing room before the next set of decisions begins.
The latest Common App report has some interesting stats. Common App is what most students use for US applications.
Through March 1, 2026, applicants to 911 returning Common App member institutions were up 2 percent from the same point last year. Application volume was up 5 percent. The average applicant had applied to 6.59 member colleges, compared with 6.41 at the same point last season.
The change does not look dramatic at first glance. Still, it points to something families feel already: when admissions feels crowded and hard to predict, the normal reaction is to add more names.
I understand why that feels safer. One more reach. One more target. One more public university. One more private college in case aid works out.
To be fair, sometimes a broader list is genuinely necessary. International applicants often do need to manage uncertainty across country choice, major competitiveness, affordability, and visa realities.
But a longer list can also become a way to postpone the harder question: does each college on this list deserve to be there?
We wrote about that question here:
More applications do not make a better college list
For students entering Class 12, May and June are a useful time to slow the list down before application season speeds everything up.
Application fees are the visible cost. But the larger cost is attention. Every extra college can mean another supplement, more essays, another deadline, another financial aid check, another school-specific research task, another chance for the student to produce rushed writing.
If the student is also managing Grade 12, board exams, testing decisions, and family anxiety, that extra application is not free.
I often see lists get worse as they get longer. The first few applications may still have care in them. By the twelfth or fifteenth, the student is recycling lines, writing vague "why us" essays, and trying to sound specific without having had enough time to understand the college properly. I have seen students burn out.
So this is when I would check whether the so-called safeties are actually affordable, whether the targets make sense for the intended major, whether the reaches are there for fit or only for name value, and whether the student can write specific supplements for every college on the list without sounding rushed.
For Class 9 and 10 families, the lesson is a little different.
You probably do not need a college list yet. The more useful work is to avoid the early version of the same mistake: accumulating activities and courses because each one sounds useful on its own.
The better early work is quieter. What subjects does the student return to without much pushing? What kind of work do they avoid? Where do they show patience? Where are they only performing because an adult designed the activity?
Those questions make later planning much less random.
If your child is in Class 9 or 10 and you are trying to get a clearer read before adding more to the calendar, AltView MAPS may be a useful starting point.
And if your child is already close to Class 12 and the college list still feels loose, this is a good time to pressure-test it.
I also share occasional shorter notes in our WhatsApp group. Low volume, mostly one-way.
AltView Admissions Notes on WhatsApp
If this newsletter feels useful, please share it with at least one other parent who may be thinking through college lists or early planning. That is still the simplest way for these notes to reach the right families. And if someone forwarded this to you, you can subscribe here for future updates.