The Common App is holding its annual member summit. They tweeted that despite public perception the average number of applications submitted per student is 4.7.
I imagine that the mode (most common number) is probably 1.
I am not surprised at the number given because the Common Application has about 750-800 schools, but there are over 3000 4 year colleges/universities in the US. Depending on what you are looking for, you may not find many of your schools attached to the Common App. My daughter ended up having 4 schools on the Common App, 1 on the Coalition App, 2 specific schools on the Black College App (although you end up sending your info to all 50+ schools), and the other 5 schools being applied to directly.
Definitely lower than I would have guessed! My daughter also had to use the Coalition App for a school but there rest were thankfully on the Common app. Have to say that my daughter was not a fan of navigating the Coalition App.
The Common App was the application my daughter like the best as well.