I agree with @Lindagaf . Please do not listen to the advice of @hhjjlala . He is not being helpful by encouraging the lottery style approach to college admissions. Please continue with your plan, but cut down the number of schools. If you have a well considered list, you do not need that many schools.
@hhjjlala Wrong, it isn’t a lottery. There is no random picking of students to make up a class. It is a very deliberate process of adcoms, who are choosing students based on a number of criteria. To give OP completely erroneous information is disrepctful.
Four months of being a senior in high school, when students have studying, homework, ECs, apps to complete, essays to write, family obligations, etc… will fly by. Many students underestimate how much time it takes to write essays.
What’s my authority? I have a kid who just did this, and is now at college. She applied to 12 colleges, too many; five reaches, two of which were tippy top colleges. I saw how much work goes into each application, first hand. She got into nine colleges, and that was down to research and good essays, among many other factors. I reckon my authority is probably a little more informed than yours.
Telling OP to only apply to one safety is pretty presumptuous and irresponsible. Maybe OP wants merit aid? Maybe OP needs two or more safeties because of factors you don’t know about. Maybe OP wants the relief that comes wtih getting that first acceptance and having several options. I certainly hope you have some choices too, but you cannot predict admissions. My kid was waitlisted at a match school. She was then accepted, but it demonstrates why it is a good idea to have a balanced list. You may or may not get into your match schools. Matches do not mean you will definitely get in. So in fact, unless you apply to colleges with auto admit policies, I would always recommend having two safeties. My D got into her safeties but scattergrams showed that students with stats above her were denied. So while I “have no expertise whatsoever”, I am pretty sure I have a little more than hhjjlala.
You have received a lot of good advice already. Here is what I tell my friends (fellow parents) who are trying to figure out this process.
- Start with finances. Ask your parents about their budget - run the numbers to determine if the EFC fits what they are willing to pay. If not, see if there are merit scholarships for which would be competitive that don’t depend on your parents’ financials. No sense applying to places that aren’t affordable.
MD is your home state so definitely apply to UMCP as a safety. You have a lot of OOS public schools on your list. They are going to cost more and the amount of aid available will be less for OOS students. That might be a good category to whittle down.
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Compare your stats with admission statistics for your target schools. Use Naviance or your data set of choice
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Work from the bottom up. Start with 2-3 safeties that you would be happy to attend and that your parents can afford. Then build from there. If you have the time and money to apply to lots of reaches, go ahead, but work from most probable to least probable.
Unless you are casting a wide net for merit aid, 8-10 schools is probably a good maximum number. At D’s school they recommend 2-3 safeties, 2-3 matches, 2-3 reaches as a general rule.
- Statistically, applying to lots of reaches does NOT improve your chances. If you get denied at school A with a 6% admit rate, it will not boost your chances at school B, also with a 6% admit rate. Every year, there is at least one thread written by a student that applied to 15-20 ultra reach schools, got denied at all of them.
Good luck!
Agree with Lindagaf. Apply to at least a few match schools in addition to 2-3 safeties and as many reaches as you like given time constraints.
OP, I think this thread has proven that opinions differ, and that no one call tell you how many is right or enough. You’ve got to go with your own instincts here or else you may have regrets. If you feel a number is too few to give you adequate chances or two many to do a good job on the applications, then you are probably right.
Read all these opinions and accept their influence but make up your own mind and be sure of it.
@Lindagaf is right. OP, have you run the net price calculator on each school website with your parents? The out of state publics may not be affordable. Look at that before you spend the admission fee on them.
Another thing about 14 schools if you are applying for financial aid is that the FA application process is not uniform. There are some common components, like FAFSA and maybe the CSS profile. But then there are different due dates, different tax forms sometimes required, different ways to send the forms (some want IDOC – which sounds modern but is actually an antiquated pain in the you know what, fax – but some won’t take faxes and it can also be a lot of pages, snail mail, scanned email attachment), and sometimes additional forms to fill out for a college. The brunt of this work may fall on your parents, and they won’t be too happy. Especially if there is any complexity to their finances – non-custodial parent, small business, etc.
For most students, a well crafted list of 8 or so schools will do. A couple of safeties you like and know you can afford (I like a couple, then you have choices for sure in the spring), 3-4 matches, and 2-3 reaches. Don’t apply anyplace that is unaffordable.
14 schools is a lot, but it is not unreasonable. Don’t base the number of schools you apply to by comparing yourself to what the kids at the lunch table are doing. Do what is right for you. I agree with other posters who say 1 safety is not enough, though it seems that perhaps you have too many safeties on your list. Perhaps add a couple more matches. You should also apply to a few of these schools EA. So say for instance you get into Notre Dame early, then you can be done! But at the same time if you apply to for instance BC, Villanova and Indiana EA and get in, then you can eliminate Elon, Penn St etc, from RD therefore cutting down your list.