<p>APPLYING TO 29 SCHOOLS!
Sweet Jesus! How much did that cost?</p>
<ol>
<li>I am applying to 12 schools</li>
<li>I had no one look over about 5 of my essays. I read them each about 10 times out loud. I am very self-concious writer</li>
<li>only about three sort of dream schools</li>
<li>i turned them all in within a day or two of the deadline, unless they had no supplement. this was mostly because of the money factor.</li>
</ol>
<p>I applied to 10 schools.</p>
<p>For my main two essays, I had 2+ people look over them, 1+ peer and one adult. For all my others, I didn't bother. I just read them over and edited each of them loads of times over the course of a few months, and hopefully they didn't suck.</p>
<p>I had 3 reach schools, 2 match schools, and 5 safeties. I really just need to weigh in the financial aid. Money=get to go out of state. No money=doom for me. I already turned down 2 (SDSU and U Wisconsin-Madison) right away, because after heavily weighing my choices, these two no longer fit my "criteria" (too detailed to list :P). This way I possibly "allowed" another applicant who was less qualified a chance to get admitted, not that this is a particular concern of mine. Of the remaining 8 schools, I know I'd love to attend any one of them (except the 1 my parent is forcing me to apply to in-state), including 1 hail mary, 2 "ideal" dream schools, and 1 really really good safety. I chose a variety of locations, sizes, and styles of schools because i'm not 100% where I want to go yet. As it is, I've only visited 1 out of the 10 schools (the 1 being the local university 10 minutes from my house). </p>
<p>For safeties, I sent apps in way ahead of time. For the rest, I sent all the rest of the info during the last few days before the scholarship deadline, if there was one.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Did you have a few ppl look over ALL of your essays?
--Yes</p></li>
<li><p>Do you recommend applying to a bunch of reach (dream) schools? assuming one has enough safe/match schools and has the $$
--Sure. when you get up into the top tier schools, it's a crapshoot. might as well not put all of your eggs in one basket.</p></li>
<li><p>Usually, how many days before the deadline did you send it in?
--Like 0-2, lol.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I applied to 12.
4 high reaches (3 of which I am unbelievably passionate about and I would love to go to any of them)
2 borderline reaches (really like both of them)
4 matches (one I really like, other three are ok)
1 match/safety (really like)
1 super-safety (don't really like)</p>
<p>Honestly, colleges have the expected yield factored into their admissions decisions, so if I'm accepted somewhere and don't go, it doesn't mean the kid who was rejected who really wanted to go would have gotten in had I not applied.</p>
<p>Having about 1 sure safety, 3 matches, 3 matches/reaches, and 3 reaches is a pretty good amount, imo. </p>
<p>Ask people you are close with who are willing to critique your essay but also stay truthful is the most important part.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also as a side note. I have visited 2 of the 11 colleges to which I am applying. Most of my information on schools comes from sites like CC, Princeton Review, college websites etc. How can you say I don't have the right to apply and get in to these colleges because I like, or even express a mild interest in, what I can read or see about them? I'm sorry if I haven't had a poster of my favorite school posted on my wall since freshman year. If I want options, I will go out of my way, and maybe step on some toes (which I genuinely believe I am NOT doing), to make sure I have options.
[/quote]
I agree.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Ask people you are close with who are willing to critique your essay but also stay truthful is the most important part.
[/quote]
haha..not that easy for me.</p>
<p>anyways, 16 down, 2 to go! ;)</p>
<p>i don't even know how many colleges i'm applying to</p>
<p>it's somewhere between 20-22.
i'm probably going to visit the top few schools that I get into (yes, top few, more or less based on US news) then base my decision on which one i like best.</p>
<p>i don't see much of an issue with my approach at all. i applied to a lot of reaches to maximize my chances of getting in. if i do get in, for the next four years, i will be surrounded by smarter people, which will in tern influence me (in a good way i hope), and my future connections will be (in general) more successful. </p>
<p>Before someone attacks me I will try and reinforce my approach. First of all, no one can deny that going to a better school is a good thing. </p>
<p>Do not deny that the average kid at harvard is smarter, yes SMARTER, than the average kid at johns hopkins. Do not deny that the average kid at jhu is, in turn, SMARTER than the average kid at boston college.</p>
<p>the key word here is average, but in any case, my point is, better college ---> better future. "not necessarily", you say. Of course not necessarily; nothing is definite, and of course it is the individual and what she is capable of that matters the most, but even if what college you went to makes a 1% difference, it is worth it. Indeed, the average harvard graduate is more sucessful than the average jhu blah blah blah. </p>
<p>there's my reasoning for shooting for a good school. not necessarily a prestigious one, but the one where my peers will be smartest.</p>
<p>next, onto fit. i live in massachusetts. i have pretty much lived here my whole life, but i am open minded. i've moved 13 times in my life, and never have i foudn a place where i felt miserable and that id rather be somewhere else. A person like me, i am convinced, would be happy wherever she ends up. </p>
<p>that said, let us not take personal fit out of the picture. obviously, it is important to like the school you attend. but honestly, with so many top colleges, do you expect someone to visit every single one and decide whether they like it before they apply? does it not make more sense to apply to them first, let them tell YOU what your options are, and THEN spend $500 per school flying over and checking out the schools that have accepted you? if they don't like the school, they wont go. it's that simple.</p>
<p>this is my mindset. i want to go to a good school. since i'm an optimistic, open minded person, i think i would be happy anywhere (if not, i'm too young to know). therefore, i'm going to the best school i get into.</p>
<p>now, onto the 'fairness' of applying to so many schools. it's a competitive world, and i'm looking after my own hide. now, i'm not saying i don't care about others, but let's face it, the past 200 years of american history has been built on competitive capitalism, and it has brought us pretty far. think of this as a business. if there are a lot of competitors in the market, the price goes down, which may drive some people out of the market. boohoo for them. the remaining competitors then try and do all kinds of things, including improving their product, to remain competitive. what do you get in the end? a better product at a lower price for your customer. </p>
<p>for all those who went bankrupt, pick up the pieces and soldier on elsewhere. for those who lost a spot because i applied to 20 schools, you didn't get in because you didn't deserve it. if you worked harder, if you trained harder, if you were smarter, you would have gotten in. you alone are responsible for your rejection, not i, who was more qualified.</p>
<p>as a side note, i probably won't even get into any of my reaches. i'm not being narcissistic here, just honest.
what a long post. i should sleep.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I asked students I knew from universities, such as Princeton, Yale, and Univ. of Chicago.</p></li>
<li><p>I applied to 16 schools. I recommend applying to a bunch of dream schools as long as one has the $$$.</p></li>
<li><p>I am bad with deadlines. I sent them the day of the deadline.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'm applying to 12-13, and I have 1 #1, 7 #2's, and 3-4 Safeties, and I love every last school. My safeties include my childhood favorite, a top 5 public school, a nearly free school I would like, and maybe a school in a city I love.</p>
<p>My #1 and #2's are nearly equal in my mind, and despite their radically different characteristics, appeal tome very very much.</p>
<p>I have only had my 1 main essay reviewed by others, as I am highly self conscious about bragging, which is too often required. I do heavily review them myself though.</p>
<p>On deadlines - I have generally done well, but am late on 1 school(however leniency was granted, woot!, it was a late add though, and I explained that).</p>
<p>I don't recommend this to others, however I suck at making decisions like these. And I care very very much about my college choice, so I way over-analyze.</p>
<p>I think applying to multiple schools usually guarantees multiple acceptances, which is an advantage.</p>
<p>However, it does make your parents complain more, especially my parents.</p>
<p>^i think it depends on what you mean by "multiple schools." if you mean all ivies and nothing else, that guarantees nothing lol.</p>
<p>Well, yes, I meant ivies and safeties.</p>
<p>My list was about 1/2 safeties and 1/2 reaches.</p>
<p>I like your post, y7bbb6.</p>
<p>
[quote]
However, it does make your parents complain more, especially my parents.
[/quote]
My parents encouraged the 70 dollar 'donations' :) to 3 schools I didn't want to apply to because I thought my chances were really low. I guess we'll see if it was worth it, in april.</p>
<p>I applied to nine schools (close enough.) </p>
<ol>
<li><p>No. After a while, I didn't really care. I know my essays are decent, and even my parents who would be the best of help, wouldn't really be that helpful. </p></li>
<li><p>I applied to a RANGE of schools to get into as opposed to one safety and a bunch of reaches. Here's my range. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>U Arizona (80% acceptance)
U Washington (68%)
UMich (47%)
Brandeis (34%)
Tufts (27%)
Cornell (25%)
UC Berkeley OOS (24%)
Dartmouth (16%)
Yale (9%)</p>
<p>See the range? It makes it easier on me because it lets me to know that even though I may not be accepted to my "dream" schools Yale and Dartmouth, I can still be OK at other schools. I like all of the schools I applied to with the exception of my absolute safety- U of A. </p>
<ol>
<li>Some I sent in a couple of days, some a couple of months, some a few hours before the deadline. It really depends.</li>
</ol>
<p>A couple of points:
First, you are not "taking somebody else's spot" even if you apply to 50 schools and get accepted to all of them. You can only go to one of them. At most, what you have done at the others is pushed one person to the head of the waiting list. But schools accept more students than they can enroll, because they know that students apply to multiple schools. As long as the schools have a good understanding of how this works, you're not hurting anybody.
Second, I think it's a myth that most people will find one or two schools they are passionate about (that they are likely to get into). A lot of these schools are not really all that different from each other. I mean, honestly, a person who would be happy at Yale is probably going to be reasonably happy and do well at Harvard, Princeton, and dozens of other places. Sure, everybody will have favorites, but there are probably numerous places that most students would like.
Finally, the question of how many schools to apply to is a strategic one. A realistic student will see that it is extremely difficult for anyone to get into the most selective schools, and that to apply to only one or two is probably not the best strategy.</p>
<p>Agreed.
As long as your stats are appropriate (in the range) for a school, I really think that if you apply to 4 schools with 25% admit rates, you most likely get into at least one of them.</p>
<ol>
<li>Did you have a few ppl look over ALL of your essays?</li>
</ol>
<p>For most of my schools, I wrote 3 main essays, that I reformatted accordingly to each school's prompt, but the Common App was a big convenience for me. But yes, people did look over those 3 essays</p>
<ol>
<li>Do you recommend applying to a bunch of reach (dream) schools? assuming one has enough safe/match schools and has the $$</li>
</ol>
<p>This is what I did. As long as you're realistic about your chances, then fire away. Just remember it is always important never to sacrifice quality of each application for more apps.</p>
<p>I got into Michigan and Chicago already, so my regular decision list contains many schools from the top15. All the ivies except dmouth, stanford, mit, duke, and NU, and I dont have to worry about having a safety.</p>
<ol>
<li>Usually, how many days before the deadline did you send it in?</li>
</ol>
<p>I had about 8-10 schools to do all due around Jan 1st. I started about 2 weeks before and told myself I would do 1 app a day, and it worked out pretty well. Some days I would do two, others maybe none. I finished with a lot of time to spare, maybe around Christmas.</p>