<p>As of now, there is no limitation on the number of colleges you can apply to. Some apply to 5. Some 10. A few, more than 15. </p>
<p>Do you think there should be a limitation on the number of colleges one can apply to? If so, how can it be achieved?</p>
<p>Yes, there should definitely be a limit imposed – I’m thinking along the lines of 10. People should actually apply to schools they’d genuinely be interested in attending and have researched extensively.</p>
<p>To some extent, it’s a good idea, but I think it could also lead to more applications than people would submit otherwise.
I applied to 5 schools in England because that was the limit. If there had been no limit, I probably would have applied to 2, perhaps 3.</p>
<p>I don’t think so. I, personally, applied to a few Ivies and other top schools (Duke, Stanford, WUSTL, etc). If I had been limited, I wouldn’t have been able to cast such a wide net in order ot have some good choices to choose from. That said, I know people who applied to 30 schools, which is ridiculous. If there were a limit, I think 15 would be most appropriate.</p>
<p>I really don’t think it’s right to put a limit on the number of schools a student can apply to. I only applied to 7 colleges, and in my opinion some students do apply to too many colleges, but that doesn’t mean we should limit them. Unfortunately, many students apply to mostly reach schools and only one or two safeties, and are shocked when they are only accepted to few (or none) of them. If they limit the number to 5 or 10, people may only choose to apply to reach schools and may not get accepted to any of those. If they can pay all the fees to apply to several, then I really don’t see a problem with them doing so.</p>
<p>High school counselor departments can impose a limit.</p>
<p>I think that this could most readily be done through the FAFSA, and limit it at 10</p>
<p>^ Woah!? High school counselors can impose a limit?</p>
<p>It’s no one else’s business how many schools an applicant applies to.</p>
<p>^ Exactly.</p>
<p>@thrill: However, it affects the admission system of all colleges. </p>
<p>Let’s take an example of Duke (a college currently showing signs of break-down in their admission system due to large volumes of app.) They cannot possibly handle more apps than their system can manage, and this case will exacerbate if everyone can throw in their apps. To the POV of an applicant, it’s none of his/her business, but to the college, it’s a huge burden. </p>
<p>Besides, I honestly think the unlimited app is creating a ‘acceptance rate bubble.’</p>
<p>Financial aid is a HUGE factor in deciding how many schools to apply to. I applied to 12 private liberal arts colleges this fall, and each school had a different estimate regarding how much my family could afford. One school said we should be paying 15k a year while another said 42k a year (all of these estimates are based on need); in reality, our need is somewhere in between, but the fact that colleges use the same financial data and arrive at such radically different estimates is ludicrous. </p>
<p>For those who are in the middle class, if you are applying to private schools, casting a wide net is a necessity. My family is not poor enough for a full ride and not wealthy enough to pay full freight, and being in this hazy middle ground means nothing is sure in terms of financial aid.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think 10 is a good number to cap apps at. 10 schools is a large enough amount where a large range of financial aid packages are available, and if you’re just applying to schools so you can research the ones you’re accepted to, you’re going about things in a haphazard way.</p>
<p>high school counselors CAN impose a limit</p>
<p>but in general they won’t because they don’t want to put their students at a disadvantage</p>
<p>In the middle of the last century, peer colleges used to share information with each other about who they had accepted so that financial aid packages were truly equivalent. However a parent, who didn’t like that practice because he thought that if colleges competed for students his kid would get better aid, took the colleges to court and they lost. Now the amount of aid a student receives is up in the air. Dream school may come through, or perhaps only Not-my-dream school is the only one that comes through. maxdel is absolutely correct: if you aren’t poor, and you aren’t rich, but you have the grades and test scores to put you in the competition for decent merit aid, it is indeed to your advantage to cast a wide net.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I think this is a scenario where a decent number of unprepared students are making it difficult for the prepared.</p>
<p>My son has quite a few friends that did no college visits, did very little research, and aplied to 15 schools. Once they found out if they are admitted, now they are spending April trying to figure out how to make a decision on which school to go to. One girl got accepted to 8 schools and has no idea which one to pick. A lot of his other friends got accepted to anywhere from 5-10 schools, and most of them don’t know what they are doing yet. </p>
<p>My son applied to about 10 schools, with 4-5 of those being safety schools to give him some options (athletically and geographically), with 1-2 target schools and the remaining were reach schools. The difference I see is that I made it a requirement for my son that he had to visit the school in advance of applying and could not pick schools out of the dark. He did research and knew what to expect from each school and actually even very accurately predicted his acceptances/denials/waitlists. Additionally, he knew going into his notifications the order of preference for his schools. So once he got accepted to a school, anything beneath it in his order he immediately notified those schools that he was denying the spot at the college. He is not dragging out schools knowing or not knowing if he is attending. </p>
<p>I can also tell you that several of his colleges he applied to simply because they had a free application process. He would not have applied otherwise, and these were the only schools he did not visit because he applied without even letting his parents know in advance. So it would help if colleges all charged a fee to apply.</p>
<p>The colleges that have a free application process do so because that meets <em>their</em> needs - they are appropriately unconcerned about how much other colleges charge for their process.</p>
<p>I am not sure why a college like Colgate, as an example, would need to provide a free application process to meet their needs. Do they think that is the only way qualified kids looking at a high caliber school will apply to Colgate? Not being critical, just trying to understand the logic.</p>
<p>To rjpfl5- not everyone has the time during the fall, or the money to go visit the schools before they apply… Like if I spent the money on a plane ticket to go visit Texas a&m…and then didn’t get in it would have been a waste of money… And no I couldn’t visit during my junior year so that left it for me applying to schools without visiting and then visiting once I was accepted…</p>
<p>OK people really need to stop freaking out about this. NO THERE SHOULD NOT BE A LIMIT. oh nooo there are too many apps and its hurting my chances of getting in. FALSE.
There is a reason there is a waitlist, and as people should see this year, unis will be going through the waitlist more than usual.</p>
<p>If I apply to 30 schools, it doesn’t mean that if I get in to all 30 that I can actually go to all 30. I will be going to ONE. The one that I like the most that accepted me. Therefore every other school I chose to decline will cross me off their list. </p>
<p>So if every kid applied to like 30 schools, its not killing chances because in the end each kid will be going to one. What this means is that while % of acceptees is going down, it really doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Sorry if thats confusing cuz its hard to explain in writing. But NO there shouldn’t be a limit, everyone just needs to chill</p>