<p>I'm not sure how many I'll be applying to yet, but definatly more than 10. I'd love to go to every one of the schools on my list right now (25 at the moment- will have to narrow it down considerably, though), and if I apply to many schools I'm hoping I'll have a better chance to 1) get in somewhere and 2) get in somewhere where I'll get a good enough financial aid package.</p>
<p>Right now my list for grad school applications is 12-14. But I probably won't apply to all of them. I'd like to get it down to 10 solid choices, and hopefully from that I'll wind up with three good offers.</p>
<p>5 reaches atm
4 matchs
2 safeties
So, 11...I'll probably narrow it down some more so that I have 4-3 reaches...</p>
<p>Why do you guys apply so many places? Don't you do research? Visit? There is just no reason! You don't get bonus points or anything for applying to places.</p>
<p>I hope that your parents shake some common sense into you all by the time any of you actually submit applications.</p>
<p>me...............</p>
<p>Why do you guys apply so many places? Don't you do research? Visit? There is just no reason! You don't get bonus points or anything for applying to places.</p>
<p>I think it's fairly common to apply to a large number of grad schools (based upon what I've read, and the advice I've received from my advisor and professors), because decisions are a lot more arbitrary than they are for undergrad, and you want to be able to compare packages. I don't feel that applying to 9-10 is unreasonable. For undergrad, however, I applied to 6 schools (I was going to apply to 5, but I found another safety that had no application fee and I figured why not), and I can't imagine applying to any more than that. Maybe some of these other students that are applying to a ton of schools are counting using the same ap to apply to all of the SUNY schools, or all of the UC schools?</p>
<p>applying to more than 15 schools is just ridiculous. do some research and you could easily get that to 10. 6-8 would be the most managable. i'm applying to 10 but that's because my school pays for my apps.
right now my list is northwestern, penn, duke, washu, vanderbilt, princeton, cornell, boston college, UT-honors, and SMU.</p>
<p>I've done research on every one of the 13-14 schools I'm interested in, and I've visited (or will visit) most. I WOULD love going to any of these schools. I've found that the ones I like but like less are the safety schools, so I can't really get rid of them. I won't apply to them if I get into one of my EA schools, which would lower my number to more like 10, but I'll probably end up writing up all the essays anyway because I don't want to be stuck doing them at the last minute.</p>
<p>not only is it kind of ridiculous to apply to 30 schools or w/e, it's also kind of harmful to apply to schools you don't REALLY intend to go to, since it hurts the chances of others with less stellar stats who WOULD actually want to go there. i mean everyone needs a safety or two but come on...</p>
<p>What if you intend to go to those schools but you're afraid you'll be rejected? Anyone who's seen my stats profile will know what i mean.</p>
<p>Sometimes people have weird circumstances, and in my case I hope some of the colleges appreciates my ECs. I realize that most won't, but hey, in my mind i'm thinkin' "if I apply to more places, there's a higher chance one of the adcoms will find something 'special' about my app and take me on"</p>
<p>All of the 16 places I am applying to I will fully appreciate attending. None of the places are "just for fun". And the safety schools (i have 3 of them) if they give me full ride, then good chance I end up there.</p>
<p>I will say though that people applying to just random ivys and top 25 colleges on the USA list need to do research though, because it is a detriment to others who genuinely want to apply.</p>
<p>But for each his own.</p>
<p>It seems to me that it might be reasonable to apply to a large number of schools if you are moderately, but not highly, competitive at a group of reach schools. So, you might have a couple of safe schools, a few match schools, and then a large group of schools at which you have a real, but small chance of being admitted. Say you had a 5% chance of being admitted to any one of the Ivies. It wouldn't be absurd to apply to all of them under those circumstances (assuming you'd be willing to go to any of them). You might get into only one--but you don't know which one.</p>
<p>Also, I question whether you are taking the place of another student when you apply to a large number of schools. After all, you can only go to one of them. At the others where you are accepted, when you decline to go, somebody else goes, either from regular admissions or from the waiting list.</p>
<p>Here's a thought experiment. Imagine that there are eight top students in a high school. Each of them wants to go to an Ivy League school, and they don't really care which one. Would it make sense for them to draw school names from a hat, and have each of them apply to only one Ivy? Or would it be better for each of them to apply to all eight? Under the first scenario, there is a real risk that none of them would get in at all.</p>
<p>[[sorry if I double-post.. it didn't seem to make it through the first try]]</p>
<p>"Here's a thought experiment. Imagine that there are eight top students in a high school. Each of them wants to go to an Ivy League school, and they don't really care which one. Would it make sense for them to draw school names from a hat, and have each of them apply to only one Ivy? Or would it be better for each of them to apply to all eight? Under the first scenario, there is a real risk that none of them would get in at all."</p>
<p>I agree with you on that situation. But what if the situation were a little different. Let's pretend that there are eight top students in a high school. Each of them wants to go to an Ivy League school, and seven don't care which one but Daniel has been dreaming of attending Yale since he could talk. Should the other seven apply to all of the Ivies including Yale? Or, since the rest don't care which school, should none of them apply to Yale so that Daniel has a better shot of reaching his dream?</p>
<p>Most of the posters here claim that they really DO want to attend all of the schools on their lists, but my argument is that if you would attend any of the schools, why not narrow it down (even if it means picking schools out of a hat) so that someone else in the world has a better chance at attending their dream school (which might just be on your list). The problem lays (is that the right lay/lie?) with the applicants who are a crap shoot for every school they apply to. Maybe, after applying to 15+ schools, you only get into one. That is the reason for choosing a safety school; so that you WILL go to college. Other minor problems with my argument are those that need financial aid (myself included). It doesn't seem financially sound to apply to 15+ schools at 50+ an app, but I understand the need to "shop around" for the best deal. If this is your situation, then choose schools that have a lower price tag, which will probably narrow down your list. If you can't seem to trash certain schools that means you would rather go to them than the ones you did discard. That means you could have narrowed down your list in the first place.</p>
<p>The thing I don't understand is why have more than two safeties. My policy is one in-state, and one out-of-state. Honestly, applying to more is just a waste of money. A safety school is one that you will only get rejected from if there was a long series of unnatural events including unidentified spacecrafts. If your safety school doesn't meet that description, it is not a safety school, it is just a pretty good chance. </p>
<p>That was just my two-cents. Feel free to rebuttal.</p>
<p>my max is going to b 12, and thats only if I don't get in anywhere EA/ED. if i get in somewhere early, I probably won't apply to a few of my safeties (if i get in ED, i wont apply anywhere else!)</p>
<p>I am applying to 11.
TCNJ
UVA
NYU Sterns
Georgetown
Northwestern
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
UPENN
Boston College
Tufts</p>
<p>Anything more than 12 is just excessive. There's no reason you can even narrow it down further (unless you're in need of finaid or something).</p>
<p>I applied to four-- EDI, 1 rolling and 2 regular. You obviously dont need to apply everywhere you visit. I visited 3 schools that I didnt apply to. </p>
<p>Narrow it down to 3-3-3 reach, match, safety. You should have plenty of options.</p>
<p>I will most likely be majoring in business/economics with a minor or double major in education. I will be transferring in quite a few credits from Ohio Northern University and James A. Rhodes State College (local colleges where I have done some post-secondary work). I hope that I can graduate on time and include some extra coursework so that I stay on track with my "freshman class" even if I am ahead from the get go.</p>
<p>As for now, my list is pretty conservative - but here is what I am looking at:</p>
<p>Marquette
Wooster
Ohio Wesleyan
Bowling Green State
John Carroll
St. Louis</p>
<p>I may also include a few more - probably a selective LAC like Davidson or Bowdoin. I really want some good merit money - so hopefully a good fit pulls through with something remarkable.</p>
<p>Wow, everybody's applying to a whole bunch.</p>
<p>i'm applying to 7, counting UC schools as 1 though: Northwestern (ED), Brown, Duke, UCs (Cal, LA, SD), Oxy, JHU, and Cornell.</p>
<p>Gonna be honest... if applications all published tomorrow, I'd be downloading 16 (okay 5 of those are Common Apps)... I'm working on cutting my list down but I honestly have one rule for looking for colleges: would I go here over Arizona State University? And the answer, quite often, is YES PLEASE. Maybe I just find things I like about every school, maybe I'm crazy... maybe when I'm writing a bazillion essays this fall and paying about that much in application fees, I'll have a change of heart.</p>
<p>MissBarbara, you'll find that you probably will have a change of heart when you actually start filling out the applications. I remember sometimes just sitting there and staring at the questions...I would wonder, "I don't even feel like filling these out, so why should I even be going there?" I found that for the schools I genuinely wanted to go to, I would be much more eager to answer the question. Your list will pare down naturally through the app process.</p>