<p>Both of my children applied to 13. My DS two years ago applied to a variety of schools. Some based on engineering and some for business. He also applied to a few for football and then a few as a financial safety knowing he would get merit. He got into 10 schools and decided in April that he no longer wanted to play football and that he really didn’t like engineering. He is an extremely happy sophomore. </p>
<p>My DD selected her schools differently. She has few merit safeties and focusing on top schools with great financial aid since I will have two kids in college at same time. The variety of financial aid varies a great deal based on financial calculator. She has a #1 school she really wants, however the majority of the others she likes as well. One school she loved throughout high school (visited three times) is now at the absolute bottom of her list. The other schools that are now in top three positions are there due to overnight visits and interactions with current students.</p>
<p>My recommendation is to keep list wide because your tastes will evolve. The ultimate goal should be finding a college fit that your parents can afford and a place you will intellectually thrive. </p>
<p>Remember that if you don’t apply, you will never know.</p>
<p>This answer is extremely easy. Just take the weighed average of the matriculation rate of all schools and inverse it. Such a calculation would be a slight overestimation because some people don’t matriculate to any school at all.</p>
<p>DD applied to 9, but that was because her guidance counselor didn’t give us any confidence, even for her match schools (she ended up with one WL, one spring admit, and in at the rest). There were 3 safeties on the list, and that could have been cut down, for sure.</p>
<p>DS applied to 8 schools, probably could have eliminated a couple, but we wanted to have back-ups. Since he got into an excellent school with great merit aid early on (Nov 1), we could have held off applying to the two safeties. But those didn’t require extra essays (one with free app), so no harm done.</p>
<p>I applied to 8. One admissions and financial safety, one admissions safety where I might get a lot of merit aid, one match, four reaches (but possibilities), and one never-in-a-million-years reach.</p>
<p>I’m going to echo what the other posters have said. The only hard and fast rule is that you must have at least one school that will definitely accept you, that you can definitely afford, and that you would be happy to go to. Beyond that, you can apply to as many or as few schools as you like. Yeah, it can be a lot of work, but you can usually reuse supplement essays.</p>
<p>I applied to 16 schools for financial reasons. My family and I just really needed to cast a wide net so we could compare financial aid packages. </p>
<p>My older sibling was accepted to her safety schools, but even with merit could not attend due to cost. </p>
<p>In retrospect, there is one school that I could have taken off the list. This is a big decision, and I am happy that I will have choices.</p>
<p>What I don’t understand is students choosing not to apply simply because there is a supplemental essay or two. This process is not about the 400 extra words you have to write, it’s about the next four years of your life.</p>
<p>My first choice was a top tier safety that gave me a full scholarship, so I got lucky. But some of my peers, who were bright but not as fortunate, applied to as many as 17 schools, many of which had 1-2 supplemental writing sample requirements.</p>
<p>My brother applied to 8 (mostly reaches), and got into 2 and was waitlisted at 1. I applied to 7 (a mix of safeties, matches, reaches) and I’m waiting to find out.</p>