<p>I've seen some people around the school send about ten, but I have no idea how many is few and how many is too much. How much do applications typically cost? And how many do people send?
Thanks :-)</p>
<p>Asking on this forum won’t get you anything useful. There are bizarro folks here who are applying to 20 or more. </p>
<p>Talk to your guid counselor – it depends on what sorts of schools you see yourself targeting and what your Fin Aid requirements will be. Everyone’s situation is different. Don’t look for others’ templates. Craft your own list, with guid counselor help and research. Try Fiske Guide to colleges.</p>
<p>Most people would recommend 1-2 Reach 3-4 Match 1 Safety</p>
<p>My son sent 10. 3-4 reach. 3-4 target. (obviously one that could be a reach or target) 3 safety. I think it’s important to have safety schools (financial and grade wise) as well as target and reach schools. I don’t think I’d have my kids do less than 6 or more than 12 total. When I was applying, I knew where I wanted to go, applied and was accepted - one application total. Don’t even know if they had EA or ED back then but times have definitely changed.</p>
<p>I applied to 3 schools, might do one more for financial purposes. Another kid in my grade applied to 17. I think the average is somewhere between 7-10 for my class.</p>
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<p>And then there are kids who need substantial financial aid . . . so they just can’t take a chance on applying to fewer than 20 schools!</p>
<p>If you’ve got buckets of money and good stat’s, your list can be short - maybe even very short. But most people don’t have that luxury.</p>
<p>And, yes, application fees can add up . . . but many schools offer free applications if you apply online, apply by a specific date, or meet some other trivial requirement. And I don’t know of any school that won’t waive its application fee for a student who can’t afford it.</p>
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<li> My GC wasn’t so happy about it though. :)</li>
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<p>You don’t have to send out that many if you don’t want to. It’s entirely up to you, it depends on what schools you are interested in and your financial situation if you can.</p>
<p>I applied to 19 colleges, but six of them were all for the price of one, and four were free applications. So I only really paid for nine colleges.</p>
<p>It is a hassle, though, to do so many applications. My kids settled on 8 & 10 respectively, but both dropped a couple near the end of the process because of EA acceptances that overshadowed other schools on their list (academically AND financially). If you aren’t low income enough to get a fee waiver, it does add up! And it is a lot of essays to complete.</p>
<p>4-6 is average.</p>
<p>i was only going to apply to about 13 colleges but my mom added like 10 more. I would recommend you make a list of schools your interested in and then just cut it down from there. And don’t apply to a school you know you’re probably not gonna go to. I recommend no more than 10 schools. Realistically you want maybe two safeties, 3 targets and the rest reaches.</p>
<p>So I guess around 10 or so is a good amount, based on the replies.
I read some article that said that if you apply to one UC, then you are applying for all of them. Is that really true?</p>
<p>No, you have to specifically apply for each UC, but you can do it in one application (but additional fee for each).</p>
<p>Some people just apply to one school because their first choice is a safety for them, or their safety is an open admission community college.</p>
<p>so would 2 reach, 2 match, & 2 safety’s be sufficient for a lower income applicant?</p>
<p>yes that’s a fair amount</p>
<p>Most of the kids I know who are taking all AP or IB classes have applied to 15 - 20 schools. It seems like overkill to some, or even too little for others (I know some people who have applied to 25 or 30 colleges, for example!) but what is considered too much or too little or just right is up to you. I’d recommend setting your cap at 12, though.</p>
<p>First, find your safety school(s). These must be assured for admission and assured for affordability, as well as places you like.</p>
<p>Once you have your safeties, you can add any number of other schools to your application list, but only if they are schools that you may choose over your safety schools in at least some circumstances. If need-based aid is insufficient, then the reach/match assessment must be made on the basis of merit scholarships that are large enough to make the school affordable. If neither need-based aid nor merit scholarships could possibly make the school affordable, it is out of reach and not worth applying to.</p>
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Correct. </p>
<p>According to the CIRP/HERI report, 62.7% of freshmen applied to 4 or fewer colleges, and ~25% applied to only 1 or 2. A mere 4.8% applied to more than 10. </p>
<p>77% of students are accepted to their first choice, and 60% choose to attend. 85% of students wind up at their first or second choice.</p>
<p>Always remember that CC is FAR from the norm!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend going into the application process having a set number of schools to apply to. You may fall in love with a school that you will likely be accepted to and are very confident that you will attend - in which case you may only need three or four schools. On the other hand, you may not know what you’re interested in just yet, and want the extra few months to decide on size, majors, etc, in which case you may need 10-12 schools. If you plan on attending a community college, of course you’ll only apply to one school! </p>
<p>I applied to 9. Looking back, I think I could have saved myself some time and money by applying to around 6 or 7.</p>
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<p>Only if you are absolutely certain of (and satisfied with) the financial aid package you’d be getting from at least one of the two safeties.</p>
<p>The reality is that you could apply to 20 different schools, get admitted to all, and get 20 vastly different financial aid packages. Some schools might decide you need more money; other schools might decide you need less. Some school might give you all grants (free money) and no loans; other schools might burden you with loans as heavily as possible. And some schools might like you enough that they throw in perks - like paying for a semester abroad, a computer, or a summer program.</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, limiting yourself to a handful of schools eliminates many of the options you might otherwise have. Who knows what offers you might miss out on?</p>
<p>Also, applying for need-based aid could give you a very different outcome from applying for merit-based aid. Which do you want to try for . . . or might it be worth your while to try for both?</p>