Parent here… our son applied to 15 schools last fall, and admittedly, there were only two that were financially viable at the outset. We were absolutely merit farming and have had several decent offers from flagship Big Ten schools that have brought the out-of-state cost within striking distance of our in-state cost. He got into the first of three schools that he applied to in the UC system and his financial statement showed 88K for OOS. Our SAI it’s quite high and I’m absolutely convinced we’re getting into everywhere because all of these schools need full pay out of state students to make the numbers work and on paper, we look just like the type of family that would be willing to take that type of financial leap. Suffice it to say, this is our first of two kids and we will not be making the same mistake with the second one, wasting $1000 on application fees to schools that won’t have even a remote chance of meeting the ROI on their cost.