2006: How Many Colleges Did You Apply To?

<p>iv4me:
Congratulations. Do you think you will go to Berkeley? If given the option, would you rather go to Berkeley or UCLA?</p>

<p>My D applied to 13, including what seemed like a range from safety to reach:
U of Oregon (admitted, still waiting to hear about honors)
Willamette
Puget Sound (admitted)
Scripps
Whitman
Denison
Occidental
Kenyon
Oberlin
Brandeis
plus 3 UCs: UCD, UCSB, UCSC.</p>

<p>She wants to go to LAC, but applied to UCs just in case.
Every school she hasn't heard from feels like a reach at this point.</p>

<p>momoney77: Thanks a lot! I was really surprised that I actually liked Berkeley. I'm considering it very seriously now, mainly because it's so close to home. I think I'd go to Berkeley over UCLA because of its incredibly strong engineering school. However, I'll still consider whatever schools I get into, but I'd definitely be happy at UCB.</p>

<p>I don't have a child in this year's cycle.
My daughter who applied two years ago, including to very selective colleges, applied to 8 and her list was balanced. She is now a soph at Brown.</p>

<p>My daughter who applied last year as an early graduate, applied to 8 schools. However, she was applying to BFA programs for musical theater which one must audition to get in and each of the programs had acceptance rates between 3-9% so in essence are considered reaches. She is now a freshman at NYU/Tisch. </p>

<p>In my day long ago (LOL), I applied to five colleges with a balanced list in terms of odds. I went to Tufts. I applied to just two graduate schools but I needed to stay in Boston. I went to Harvard. Today, everyone applies to more. </p>

<p>I personally believe a well balanced list should be about 30% reaches, 30% matches and 20% safeties. For many students, 8 colleges (3 reach, 3 match, 2 safety) would work well. For some that might be ten. I can't imagine too many students needing to apply to more than ten unless a special circumstance warranted doing so and each case is different, of course. </p>

<p>Susan</p>

<p>soozievt, i think that many kids now, like myself, are applying to more than 10 schools because of the fact that schools are getting more and more competitve. nowadays, its very possible for someone to get rejected from 3 reaches. However, if you apply to 7 or 8 reaches, you have a much better chance of getting into one.</p>

<p>12--did most on the common applic. But UF and FSU had to do a separate applic. I got into all schools (Ithaca, Bard, FSU, Rollins, SUNY Binghamton,Stonybrook,New Paltz, Hampshire, Green Mountain, UNiv of Jacksonville) I was deffered from UF, waiting to hear from them at end of March; and I am still waiting to hear from Univ. of Miami.
I received many merit scholarships (at Rollins, Hampshire, Green MOUnt.FSU,Univ of Jacksonville), and am a finalist for the Make a Difference Scholarship at Green MOuntain College in VT. this is a full ride for 4 years based on community invovlement. Does any know much about Green Mountain. I visited it last summer and liked it, but it is really small and is an environmental LAC. not much in communications, which I am interested in. I got accepted to Ithaca's Park School of Communications, but they have offered me NO money. I applied for the Park Scholar Program, but have not heard from them, and I am not expecting any major miracles there. Ithaca is my first choice, any suggestions on how to eak some merit aid from them. Will not get anything from FAFSA-too middle class, but not rich enough to afford Ithaca on my own, and dont want to take out loans. Any advice.</p>

<p>I'm just wondering, do colleges see the huge amoutn of college apps you send in, and if they do, do they look down upon you as a candidate for it?</p>

<p>No, as far as i know they do not know wher you have applied.Some appls ask where else youhave appled but you dont have to fill it out. And, according to one friend in the know, he says it is a buyer's market out there cause colleges want students, so if a college knows you have applied to many, that means you have many choices; therefore, the college may want to get you to pick them over other colleges and offer you better or equal financial deals--i dont know if this is true for the ivies, but i believe it is for the private LAC. this is just my take on it.</p>

<p>most was common app or UC common app</p>

<p>i applied to 11..for free...cuz im poor =p</p>

<p>20...yea
BC
BU
Yale
Harvard
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
George Washington
Hopkins
NYU
Princeton
RPI
Columbia
Brown
Upenn
University of Rochester (accepted)
Penn State (accepted)
SUNY Stony Brook (accepted)
SUNY Geneseo (accepted)
Stanford (rejected)</p>

<p>Common App for 12 or 13 of them...Penn State, Stony, and Geneseo didnt fill on an app just sent ACTs and grades</p>

<p>Ya know, I always thought this place was seriously messed up and this only confirms my suspicions. Over 10 colleges.......you are insane! Honestly, you guys are supposed to be smart, right. Ever here of just choosing the ones that you want to go to, plus one or two safeties? Its a waste of money and time, especially when you know very little about the individual college or 19 "safeties" that you are applying to. If you know nothing about the college, chill out,, save yourself the extra 500 dollars, and do what you know would make you happy. I think the smart people here know that they would not be happy at all of their 19 choices....</p>

<p>Man, talk about inefficiency. 15 schools?! Spreading apps so thin like that will make for 15 crappy applications when you could have had 4-6 good/excellent ones.</p>

<p>Of course, thats just my common sense opinion. And once again, I applied to six schools.</p>

<p>ur statement is partially true and partially wrong.
For me, I applied to 11 schools but it was like applying to five schools. Harvard, yale, rice, swarthmore, case western, bu, wustl used common app. Harvard, yale, case western supplement really required nothing unless i wanted to submit a supplemental essay. BU a short why essay, swarthmore why essay, rice short why essay. They weren't particularly burdensome. Like it's the equivalent of applying to six schools with different apps. So more doesn't necessarily mean lower quality.</p>

<p>11 schools</p>

<p>I applied to one college that I wrote more than 12 pages of essays for. I was very happy I didn't apply to more. I knew what I wanted.</p>

<p>mj23, you must be rich to apply to like 7 safeties!</p>

<p>I applied to 11, only 2 safeties</p>

<p>Harvard, UPenn, Duke, Columbia (reaches)
UMich, UNC, Tufts, Washu, Rice (matches)
UConn, UMiami (safeties)</p>

<p>I figured I'd get rejected from all my reaches and get into the rest so I'd have like 7 schools to choose from and hopefully at least 2 nice financial aid packages.</p>

<p>** Over 37% of people in this poll applied to over 10 schools.... this year is insane**</p>

<p>imiracle, i am like you. I also applied to 11 schools. But 8 of them used the common app, so it was like i only applied to 4 schools...</p>

<p>Holy cow... I'm pretty high among my friends with eight (most of them applied to three or, tops, five to six). One safety; I don't really understand applying to more. o.O You're going to get in; that's why it's a safety, no?</p>

<p>Even for schools that use the Common App, all of mine (and that was six of the eight) had supplements, too. It's a timesaver, but not that much of one.</p>

<p>It's incredible the number of people who applied to ten and more! Then again, this -is- a college forum, and most of the people here are pretty obsessed already. Eight was torture enough... I can't even imagine twenty. Good god.</p>

<p>I'm curious if the slight eight-college-peak curve we have going here would have continued if there had been individual numbers past 10.</p>