<p>Hey everybody...</p>
<p>What did you do to narrow down your list? I currently have 11 schools on my list and I am aiming for 6-8 schools so do you have any helpful hints on how to narrow it down?</p>
<p>wow, my problem is having schools on my list i currently have no permanent ones and its a little frustrating, bu anyways, have you reseached their financial aid? also, not that you should base your desicion on this but checking out princetonreview.com and doing a college search and reading the "students say" section is helpful. determine what you want in terms of location and extracurricular activities, and check their offerings. The idea is that if you like them all for their academics and locations you should check out about their campus life and financial aid (if its necessary) Hope this helps and good luck!</p>
<p>I first went by major; my intended major is linguistics, so that made the college search considerably easier. Then I went by: privates & in-state publics (as out-of-state ones would be more difficult, too expensive, and I wouldn't get good financial aid). I eliminated many of the privates by distance (I don't want to travel 3000 miles for a school when an equally good one is nearer). And I ruled out colleges with religious affiliations. I researched what was left, really liked what I had, and have a nice college list now. (Only 5 schools, but that's all I need.)</p>
<p>I think 11 is actually a good number. 6-8 isn't enough if you're aiming for top schools. At the time, one of my biggest regrets in life (no joke) was not applying to enough schools as a freshman. Luckily I was able to transfer, but even sitting with some amazing options (Columbia) I realized I should have applied to schools that were better "fits" socially (Amherst, Dartmouth, etc) that I ruled out for stupid reasons.</p>
<p>Thanks for the opinions.</p>
<p>Any more ideas?</p>
<p>And the highest ranked schools I'm thinking about are UCSB, Syracuse, and UMiami.</p>
<p>If you're able to visit and go to a class or two, that would be helpful.</p>
<p>Would you say that 18 is too much?</p>
<p>I applied to 11 universities in the US myself. In retrospect, I should have applied to fewer because some of those schools were definitely not of interest to me, even when I was applying. However, it so happens that 4 of my top 5 choices (Chicago, Cornell, Michigan and Penn) back in 1991, when I was applying to college, all had acceptance well over 35%. The 5th school was Brown, which even then had an acceptance rate below 25%. It is amazing how Cornell and Penn's acceptance rates have dropped from close to 40% to now under 25%. Columbia also had an acceptance rate close to 40% back in my days and now accepts like 10%.</p>
<p>However, if for one reason or another, one insists on attending a mega-selective university (sub 25% accamptance rate, mean SAT score well over 1400 etc...), then, as Slipper points out, one must apply to as many universities as possible.</p>
<p>Dennis, 18 is way too many in the US if you ask me. </p>
<p>As Bethievt points out, visiting as many campuses as possible before applying makes good sense. I crossed out several schools from my list and added a couple after visiting a bunch of campuses the summer before I applied.</p>
<p>Go through the schools you have and figure out which ones you <em>really</em> like meaning figure out why you are applying to the schools you are. Which ones are your parents pressuring to apply to, which ones have the attractive reputations, and which ones are your reach schools? I think, ideally, you'll have like a 2-3 reach, 2-3 match, and 2-3 safety schools.</p>
<p>I would suggest to visit as many schools as you can, and to not pick a school based on reputation or popularity. Pick schools knowing that it could be your home for the next 4-5 years, and that you'll thrive and love it.</p>
<p>After you go on the websites and look at guide books (all the guide books you can get your hands on), you could either apply to them all (you only really need one or two safety schools, since you KNOW that you will get into them), or you could narrow it down.</p>
<p>Have you read as many posts on college confidential on the colleges you're deciding among as you can? Have you found out as much info as you possibly can? Have you visited the colleges, talked to students there, asked admissions people questions?</p>
<p>You might have skipped over certain aspects. For example, I was considering Amherst, but when I found out that it wouldn't do as much for my choice of major, I deleted it from my list. Also, have you considered location?</p>
<p>By finding out as much as you possibly can, I can't see how you can't delete any. If you really can't delete any colleges, I guess that means that you really love all the colleges. In that case, you should consider applying to all of them and see what happens!</p>
<p>Good luck and happy trails!</p>
<p>One way to narrow down a college list is to cut down on your number of safeties. In reality, you only need 1 or 2.</p>
<p>make sure you have at least 2 safeties and 3 matches. and don't be like the rising senior i met who told me that cornell was his safety.</p>
<p>you shouldn't have that many reaches to begin with; don't apply to an elite school simply because it's an elite school; narrow your reaches down to ones that you REALLY want to go to. </p>
<p>18 is way too many; you can't devote enough time to each app.</p>