<p>If you need good financial aid, then IT DOES MATTER how many schools you apply because only 10 schools can go through the financial aid process (through the government) at a time and so your first ten schools listed are really important. Some schools, fin aid is a first come/ first serve process, so you wouldn’t want to be a late comer expecting a lot of help from the colleges. The government took weeks to process some people’s financial data last year. People were stressing. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if someone is applying to 30 schools (Dr Google’s post above), she probably doesn’t need financial aid. Then it is a matter of just trying to get accepted into a school with strong standing. </p>
<p>I know people who’ve applied to 15 schools, because they don’t know how to assess if the college is a ‘range’ school or a ‘reach’ school. It seems that all of the Top 15 National schools, and Top 5 LACs could be considered ‘reach’ if you know people with near perfect SAT scores and strong GPAs not get accepted to those schools.</p>