CC Poll: How Many Colleges Did You Apply To?

<p>I can't imagine applying to so many colleges. I'm applying to 4 -- One is a definite safety, two I feel comfortable with -- Elon and UNC-CH, and one reach -- Brown. I really want to go to Carolina, and my parents are really pushing me to stay in-state, so I see little reason to spend hundreds of dollars on application fees to colleges that I would either get in to and be unable to attend, or get rejected from.</p>

<p>i've already applied to one, and have about 7 or 8 left to go.</p>

<p>i applied to 22 lol</p>

<p>sgkiddo,
hahaha I'm living in Singapore, too. A bit kiasu, lol! :P</p>

<p>I applied to seven.</p>

<p>I am applying for 9, and I am the only one in my school who's applying over 8 colleges...</p>

<p>12 colleges...sweet</p>

<p>People should realize that spending a few hundred or even a thousand on application fees is nothing compared to the amount of rewards you could reap for applying to such. I'll be applying to around 20+, due to both some special circumstances and because I don't want to find myself suddenly in the grim and dreadful position of having the short straw and being rejected in cases where I'm borderline.</p>

<p>The money you could save by financial aid offers, or future job oppurtunities thanks to the university, along with a rewarding and fun college experience, weight infinetly more than using a well spent $2000 on college application fees.</p>

<p>And if you're too lazy to fill out all those applications, then you suck anyway</p>

<p>I kind of agree with you, there are definitely rewards to be reaped in terms of financial aid and scholarships for applying to many colleges. Yet I think 20 is excessive. Just the sheer amount of these choices makes it difficult for someone to research all of them thoroughly and find out what they really love about each specific campus.</p>

<p>Plus, you'll be spending this entire semester filling out tedious forms. I don't think you can automatically assume that if people are not applying to 20 schools, then they must be lazy; there are just better things to do, like volunteering, hobbies, etc.</p>

<p>I applied to safety so I applied to eight total!</p>

<p>@ stiffcelery,</p>

<p>true, I was just exagerrating a bit. But my point still is that those people who apply to 1-3 colleges just...aren't taking advantage of their full potential, no matter what their application strength is.</p>

<p>I confess! I'm applying to 11. please don't crucify me for it!
There are so many good colleges to apply to! and you never know what you'll get at each of them, so more applying=less regrets. Besides, most of them use the ocmmon app so it's a lot less of a pain, and I'm reusing my essays a lot.
I think 5-10 is reasonable, so I'm breaking my own rules.
1 college!?!? Wow, talk about putting all your eggs in 1 basket. Can I assume those people were ED/EA?</p>

<p>6: Stanford, UCB, UCLA, NYU (Stern), UCSD, UCD</p>

<p>@ RootBeerCaesar,</p>

<p>Yes, I definitely agree. I would feel as if I'm shortchanging myself and missing out on a lot of good offers if I applied to less than 5 schools. Plus, there's no disadvantage to applying (other than the fee); if you get in, all the better, you know?</p>

<p>@ JohnC,</p>

<p>There's a kid I go to school with who applied to only one school in September. He got in, but he was on edge for weeks before his acceptance letter came in the mail. It was a state school, and he was fairly sure of getting in, but still, I would've been stressed. There's always that possibility of rejection... If I were adamant on staying in state, I would've only applied to one school as well, saves application fees. But if I were completely fixated on a private school, I still wouldn't apply to just that school; too much uncertainty!</p>

<p>hmm. so far i've applied to 3, i might add a fourth if my ED doesn't work out... but every time i try to add a college i think "well, i wouldn't want to go there over State U, which i like better and is much cheaper anyway..."</p>

<p>My D applied to 9</p>

<p>An even dozen.</p>

<p>i really wish this evergrowing trend of applying to 10-15 schools would stop. students/parents complain that college admissions are getting tighter, but this cycle is only continuing. i've had plenty of college admissions deans say that the new generations of applicants are making it harder because they're applying to 15 schools. </p>

<p>admittedly, i thought i was going to be one of those applicants, thinking "hey, why not increase my odds." i ended up applying to about four after i closely researched all my possible choices and narrowed it down to schools that i knew i'd actually want to go to. i didn't have the time or money to devote 100% to each supplementary essay. </p>

<p>i know a girl who literally applied to 16 schools and only got accepted to a couple of safeties. (Hofstra and SUNY birgimham) schools like Cornell, NYU, and Wesleyan rejected her. she rushed her applications because her parents wanted her to apply to all these schools. while the common application is popular, competitive schools do ask for at least one supplementary [shorter] essay to weed out the applicants who maxed out their credit card when clicking the "send" button.</p>

<p>I applied to 5. I found the 1 school I really loved (ND), 2 schools I could really see myself enjoying (JHU and NU), and 2 safety schools (OSU and Marq.).</p>

<p>For one thing, these are all schools which don't require SAT II's. I figure that I am extremely competitive for all the schools and a no questions asked applicant to Ohio State and Marquette. I didn't apply to any real "reach" schools because, in all honesty, I'd rather go to Notre Dame than any HYPSMetc. school. I didn't visit any of them, but I had no real incentive to when ND just felt so right.</p>

<p>im planning to apply to 16, including harvard, princeton, yale, williams, amherst etc as well as a number of safeties, of course.</p>

<p>im an international student, so my chances are extremely low.
im cant bear the risk of applying to just a few schools. besides, im willing to work to pay for my university application fees (im from a poor family) and devote time on my application essays.</p>