Exactly. If you could comfortably afford all your colleges at either full sticker or at least NPC estimate, you can likely apply to less colleges, maybe a lot less if you get into your top choice ED/REA/SCEA.
If you want to apply to colleges where merit money could make a big difference, then the added layer of uncertainty around merit awards rationally could lead to applying more places.
15-20 schools is common in our area (mostly high stats, unhooked applicants).
My oldest applied to, I believe, 7 schools, all EA. He was still very much deciding exactly what he wanted in a school during the application process.
Next guy applied to Williams ED, was accepted, and that was it.
I am hoping my daughter will stick to 8 or less.
S applied to 7 schools. He got into a school that he liked in October so that allowed us to eliminate schools he did not like as much as the one he got that very early acceptance at.
D applied to 3 – one ED and two EA. She got into her ED school and was (happily) done.
In today’s world ten applications does not sound totally unreasonable.
S15- 3 schools
D17- 22 schools
S23- 14 schools
They each had different levels of achievement, different majors, and different needs.
Side note, for California kids applying to UCs and CSUs, applying to one or two schools makes zero sense. Admissions has become very unpredictable. S23 applied to 7 UCs, 3 CSUs, and some out of state safeties and that’s the way kids need to do it.
S21 - applied 8 schools
2 safety
1 likely
2 match
3 reach
In hindsight (and even at the time I was so irritated and should have just told him forget it) he should have skipped applying to 2 of the 3 reaches bc he was not invested in the essay writing and it was reflected in his quality of responses.
Kid 1 applied to 7 schools and as a musician who needed to audition, this was really all he could manage as auditions were all in person.
Kid 2 initially applied to 3 schools…and matriculated at one of those. Kid wanted to add a reach, and we then asked for a parent pick nearer to home. Frankly both were a waste of time and money.
Son applied to 13 schools. He was NMSF but wasn’t sure at the time if he would become a finalist (he didn’t). He applied to one in-state flagship, two that provide merit/full-ride even to NMSF, two that provide merit/full-ride only to NMF, three matches, and five reaches. Got into 6 out of the 13 and will attend the only reach that accepted him.
A bit more generalized than individual anecdote - one of our local competitive independent high schools recently showed data for the average number of applicants per student. My memory may be off by a bit, but what I remember is two things: first, that the average was about 14, and second, that the average had been going up by >0.5 applicants/student per year for the last several years.
Makes intuitive sense, unfortunately, in that it demonstrates the negative cycle in which highly selective college admissions finds itself: since the number of spots is essentially static, the more people who apply, the lower the admissions rates per school, and the lower the rates go, the more people are nervous about their individual chances, and the more places they apply.
Thank goodness someone said it first. My kid will probably apply to 5 UCs alone. It is still a total crap shoot. Like, sure I’d love to have a lower number, but there is no rhyme or reason with our flagship admissions. Our friend has a D23, with a over 4.0 GPA, part-time job, and great extra curriculars. 4 years of top math, science, language. Got into exactly one mid-tiered UC.
My observations as a teacher and parent:
Students in competitive college prep private high school - those aiming for Ivies and T20 usually apply to 12+ schools; those aiming for state flagship schools (including OOS) usually apply to 10 or fewer; those aiming for small LAC usually apply to 5-8.
Students in competitive public high school - those aiming for Ivies and T20 usually apply to 15+ schools (they call it shotgunning); those aiming for state flagship schools usually apply to 5-8; those aiming for local public schools usually apply to 3-5; those aiming for community colleges apply to the local one.
Students in regular (not competitive) public high school - if anyone aims for Ivies and T20 (maybe 1 or 2 a year) they fill up all slots in common app (I think there are 20); those aiming for state flagship schools usually apply to 5-8; those aiming for local public schools usually apply to 3-5; those aiming for community colleges apply to the local one.
I’ve had several students (in my class in senior year) applying to only one college and got in (successful EDs and UT Austin auto-admits). This happens every year. Depending on the high school and district, some counselors may encourage the high achievers to apply to more colleges so that they can later claim “class of 20xx received $$$ amount in scholarship offers”.
At my elite boarding school, one of the questions on the senior poll asks for the average number of colleges applied to. This year, it was 12; I applied to 16.
D20 applied to 7: 6 LACs, 1 state flagship.
Well that would be a hardship for students who need to chance merit, one of mine applied to 20 colleges and was accepted at all, as expected, but some were more generous than others.
D, Bates Class of 2020, applied to 12. S, Binghamton Class of 2023, applied to 7. Both could have applied to fewer. My D should have only applied to 9 of those schools. Son should have applied to 5.
I work with college bound students and right now, I’d say 10-15 is very common.
I also watch a lot of college reveal videos on YouTube. Bear in mind that generally, those kids are not representative of the whole student population. It is very common for those students to apply to, easily, 25 schools. I’ve seen several who have applied to close to 40. A lot of students simply apply to all nine UCs because it’s one application. I can’t fathom how much money they spend on apps.
It’s totally ridiculous. We’ve been talking about stress here for years, and when kids apply to that many schools, yes, it’s going to be stressful.
By and large, of the group I mentioned, these kids are typically applying to the Top 20-30 in USNWR, and several safeties that they have zero interest in. Very few of the kids on YouTube seem to be applying in search of the best financial packages.
I think 10 is a reasonable number, if the list is well thought out.
10-12 for both kids since we were not on here at the time and educated about the process. Lol. My son wanted to apply to just 5. We pushed the number up. Looking back he ended up with those 5 as serious ones then whittled down to 2 then 1. We so made the process so much harder that it needed to be and one reason for being here and paying it forward. 
My son applied to 2 safeties (got in), 1 match (got in) and 12 reaches (initially got in to 1 and got in off the waitlist to a 2nd).
Which did he attend ? I know many, like both mine, chose the safety over the reach.
My older kid had really disappointing results with UCs and the top CSUs a few years ago. They applied to 7.
Even with a 4.0/4.6 and good ECs and essays, the CA public’s can still be random.
My younger kid will probably also apply to around 7-8, they would rather go to CC as a safety rather than leave CA or go to a uni not on their list.
The match…too good of a deal (financially).