Common App limits application to 20 schools. How can we apply to more than 20 – not going overboard, but maybe another 5-7 schools.
thanks
You can’t via the common app. If any of the schools use the coalition app, you could use that. But 20 is already high.
IMO, 20 is already overboard. That’s why it’s the max.
The Coalition app or school-specific apps are the other ways to apply.
You are also going to have to update FAFSA with schools in groups of 10. List 10 schools, submit, wait for it to process, delete those 10, add 10 more, submit, wait for it to process, delete 10 schools, add 10 more…
This is how mistakes are made. We see posts every year by students who find out in April that the school never received their FAFSA.
While the FAFSA is free, if any of the schools require Profile, that’s not free. Many applications are not free. Providing all the HS transcripts might have a cost (my daughters’ were $2 each, plus the postage to mail)
You might find groups of schools that take one application to apply to all like many of the HBCU. They’d still each need the FAFSA codes to be listed separately.
The “20 is already too many” mantra usually comes with an asterix on this portal.
The exceptions are musicians and similar audition/portfolio-review-dependant candidates. I would add another category, a high-performing student with a set of talents so unusual that they can appeal to some tippy-toppy AOs, while leave others stone-cold. This happens to be our D21’s case. At this point at least, she applies to 22, through the mix of Common, Coalition, and college-specific applications.
Why do you want to apply to more than 20 universities? As others have said, there might be some good reasons. However, for the large majority of high school students it should be possible to trim it down.
One friend of a daughter had a good reason to apply to a lot of schools, applied to 25, and ended up with somewhere around about 15 or 18 acceptances. That is a lot of acceptances to try to decide between. They ended up very happy where they went, but could have trimmed it down earlier in the process and saved themselves a lot of work. Meanwhile we were trying to decide from among 3 acceptances, which was tough enough.
My daughter is also applying to 20+ schools. She is applying to combined bs/md programs that are highly competitive. Does anyone have any ideas on how to deal with the letters of rec as each program is highly specific.
As somebody who has been asked to write them, writing a good LoR is actual work. Asking any teacher to write more than a few program-specific LoRs is really bad form- and I would be amazed if any teacher agreed to do 10+, nevermind 20+! and, if I was the one asking I would be worried about the quality of the last few letters- burn out is human.
For 20 program-specific LoRs, @2 per program, at (say) 5 per recommender you need to id 8 teachers to write LoRs.
For any HS student, but especially those looking to apply to 20+ places (not counting multiples, like the UCs), it takes a LOT of motivation to get that multiple strong apps over the line- and for most HS students, parents end up supplying at least some of the short term push. The tricky part is managing the balance between how much of the push is us helping flagging enthusiasm by encouragement (as you would cheer on a marathoner) and how much is us pushing our own parental agenda.
With the Collegekids we have found that a day of reckoning arrives: they are just done with writing essays.
20 is overboard, IMO, but you can apply to colleges via their own applications I believe. And also apply to schools not on the Common App.
I also feel that there are some students who might apply to that many schools because they are looking for the best FA. But for the most part, if a student is apply to 19 reaches and 1 safety, that’s too many apps.
20 is a bit much. I’m sure you can have your reasons but I feel as if it can be trimmed down to 10 at the very least. Just divide your options into yolo,longshots, mid, easy, and guarantted and pick your ideal (or 2) option for each category and you should be good. Some unis offer their own specific collge app so you can try branching out to unis not on the common app
Yep. My daughter focused on her favs and some safeties and by the time she finished those she decided to let most of those left on her list go. I think at some point she decided she’d been accepted to a school she’d probably choose over others she hadn’t applied to yet, so why bother. Plus, she was so tired of the essay writing process. At the last minute she regretted not applying to one school so she cranked out that application over a weekend and of course that’s where she ended up.
I would recommend prioritizing your list so if you get burned out or start running out of time out you can stop, but make sure you have a couple of safeties that you’d be willing to go to near the top of your list.
I applied to 20+ schools and if I could go back in time, I absolutely would not do that. Personally, I think 15 max is the sweet spot, but if you really must go over that, be sure you know why you’re applying to those schools. It takes more work than you might expect to write good supplements for all of those schools and app fees add up real quick!
@starlight02 did you use any other app other an common app to apply to more than 20 schools?
I think it depends on the type of school you’re applying to. My nephew had a 1.7gpa freshman year, 2.8 sophomore year and 3.8 senior year. He is applying to 20+ schools but they are primarily schools that don’t have school specific essays and many don’t have application fees either. He’s going to use both the Common app and the Coalition app. Teacher recommendations will be submitted via Naviance so there is no extra work for his teachers. He’s looking for financial aid. The FAFSA will be his biggest challenge but it is definitely doable.
My son is also applying to BSMD programs so he is working two applicant path: traditional and then program specific. We are already planning a very nice thank you present for the teacher and counselor.
He will have about 24 applications when done. He started early so hopefully the slow trickle of request is less annoying than a deluge.
@Godisgracious20 I applied to 21 schools so I used the Common App for 20 of them and the other one was MIT, which has its own application. I didn’t use any other app.
@starlight02 Thanks!