With respect to Carleton and Occidental, have you decided that engineering may not be for you?
My daughter’s applying to 17 including some of the same ones as OP. (She has been accepted to one safety so far.) It is a big expense and I’m not looking forward to keeping track of all the financial aid deadlines,as Intparent says. Earlier in the process I thought 8 to 10 was a good number but honestly I have come around to the idea that it makes sense to increase her chances of getting into at least one selective college by applying to a lot of them. We’ll see if her strategy and OP’s pan out in three months or so.
@merc81 no Carleton and Occidental both offer 3/2 programs with engineering universities that I thought could be a viable option, and I think I would enjoy going to a smaller school much better. I seem to thrive in smaller classes at my high school and I think that in college I would enjoy smaller classes as well. And occidental offers cross registration with caltech.
Perfect.
With respect to your greater question, I’d ordinarily say that a thoughtful list of several match schools (with at least one match having admissions aspects of a safety) should be the ideal goal for most college applicants. However, in cases such as yours, where achievement is so high, your match schools will inevitably have characteristics of reach schools. Your fairly high number, then, may simply be a function of your uncertainty regarding your acceptances.
Wishing you a good outcome. Let us know.
Thanks! I sent most of my applications yesterday so now it’s just the waiting game
I’d cap it at 15, with no more than 5 reaches.