<p>ALSO, here is advice from personal experience - make sure you've got FINANCIAL safeties as well! just because a school says that its average grant is $15,000 does not mean that that $15,000 will go to you. i got into several top schools but had to turn them down because of money to go to a big state school that was both a financial and admissions safety!</p>
<p>Your guidance counselor will frown upon more than 10 and they lose interest in helping you if you are just abusing or gaming the system. Also teacher recommendations. Most counselors and teachers will tell you that they want to know your TOP THREE choices and why...not necessarily the reaches either. EMBRACE your match and safety schools as they may be where you get accepted and with the MOST money. And think about where you will be happiest...what kind of people are around. The feeling of "this is ME!". Prestige is fine and dandy but it only goes so far and when the honeymoon wears off at Thanksgiving your freshmen year in college, and the grim reaper of finals, papers due, cold and gray weather, dorm drama, homesickness sets in...its always better to be at a place that is a better fit for you, or in some cases a little closer to home. Every student is an individual so there is not one answer to fit all people. Some kids go to Harvard and thrive and some kids go there and are miserable and leave after a year. But the same thing happens at Ohio State. Everyone is different.</p>
<p>Take an inventory of what you are looking for in a school...getting away or being near friends? big school or small school? big time sports or it doesnt matter? close to home or far far away? public or private? high anxiety or calm and cool? Then whittle down your list to a more manageable level. Schools are uncanny in their ability to sniff out kids who are just floating applications and those who are truly interested in attending. Collecting acceptance letters is gauche. And look for schools with kids you will fit in with...go to the campus and see who is walking around and talk with them. You will know it instinctively in short order if you fit in or not. We did....it was like an Epiphany. 4 years is a long time to be in one place, particularly in dorms or frats/sororities..small living spaces. So its much better to be sure you will be happy there, than attend some place that may be more prestigious but where you will be unhappy. </p>
<p>College admissions is a quirky and sometimes capricious business. Weird stuff happens...people with lower scores get in and people with seemingly wunderkind stats get surprises. It happens. Its wise to spread your risk over a broad spectrum....but dont apply to any school that you are certain you wont attend even if accepted.</p>
<p>1 Safety
2 Matches
3-5 Reaches</p>
<p>If a safety really is a safety, then there is no need to apply to more than one. Having 2 matches gives you a safety net in case you don't get into one of them for some obscure reason. Other than that, I think 8 total is a good maximum. Any more than that, and you're just ruining everyone's chances and inviting waitlist hell.</p>
<p>IMO, applying to 20+ schools is way too excessive. Other people who have posted here have given some good formulas for a college list. Personally, I think 10 should be the maximum. Of course, it's your choice, but applying to 20 or more seriously hurts others, and would probably eat up your senior year.</p>
<p>I'm applying to 20 schools. It's the right decision. Bring on the flames/insults.</p>
<p>I only applied to one match school because I would be content/happy going to two of the four safeties I applied to, so I also applied to four reaches. Point is that if you're very content with some schools you're pretty certain to get in, there's no point in applying to a bunch of matches you don't feel excited about. </p>
<p>Just because a school is a safety doesn't mean it's one you shouldn't seriously look at attending. My numbers profile (4.0 UCGPA/mid-2100) made me a safety for UCSB but I was ready to go there and didn't feel the need to apply to 'better' schools I didn't really know or care about.</p>
<p>Also, use EA/Early Notification/whatever your school calls it not only with the school you're really excited about, but the safety you want to have in your back pocket.</p>
<p>I know people who applied to 14-20 and gotten into 2-4. Applying to so many can make sense either if you have amazing numbers that give you a reasonable chance everywhere, including the Ivies, and you want to have that choice or if you have really weird numbers (valedictorian, but a 1700 SAT, or 2.9 and 2300) and you need to throw every dart at the board.</p>
<p>i applied to 3 safeties, two matches, and one reach</p>
<p>So, in my case there are 17 (I can whittle it down to 14 pretty easily)colleges that I am interested in applying to (including a UC, which isn't a difficult application). I can honestly think of many good reasons why I would want to go to each one. There are a few matches that I know I would not prefer over some of my reaches, but I'm mostly applying to top LACs (where there is a serious random elemnt to admissions) and have a complicated financial situation, so I feel like I need to hedge all my bets.</p>
<p>My family considers application fees to be noise on top of the cost of any of these colleges, I've already started my applications, so I'm not too concerned about losing quality due to lack of time, and all of the schools I'm applying to (except the UC) take the common app.</p>
<p>In this situation I can't see any reason not to apply to all 14, even after reading this thread, except for the prisoner's dilemma arguement. Given that I have a complicated situation and a genuine interest in all the colleges I'm applying to, is 14 really too many?</p>
<p>^ Think about it this way, PhoenixStar. You can only attend ONE school in the fall. Having your options is nice, but at the end of the day, you can only go to ONE school. Is it worth it to easily spend thousands of dollars applying to 14 colleges for one school? </p>
<p>More so, I honestly don't think that you can have an invested interest in all 17 colleges (what's your list anyway?). Of course, you're free to do as you wish, but I think that in the end, your time, money, and effort doesn't match the idea that you can only go into one school.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Having your options is nice, but at the end of the day, you can only go to ONE school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That is true, but at the same time, the odds of acceptance to many selective schools are very low. There is simply no assurance that a student will be admitted to ANY of the schools they really want. </p>
<p>Nobody applies to 20 safeties or 20 matches. Typically, the students that apply to 10+ colleges are among the most qualified: they have the highest GPAs, the best SAT scores, but they generally lack a strong hook that will guarantee their admission to one of the more selective schools. It is well known that selective colleges can easily enroll 3 or 4 times as many qualified applicants than they have slots available. Many students get turned away for no other reason than the fact the class has been filled. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with a highly competitive student wanted to enroll in a very selective college where he/she will sourrounded by other similar students. Even if you have done your homework and feel you have the necessary stats for admission, you may still only have less than a 20% shot at admission. </p>
<p>Our D picked 16 colleges on the basis of their established strength in her intended field of of study, and ranked them accordingly. Based on her stats her list consisted of 1 safety, 4 matches, 6 reaches and 5 super-reaches. The reach schools had stronger programs and offered more options on graduation, so her preference was clearly to attend one of the more selective schools. She would have been happy at any of her reach schools and differences in atmosphere were incidental to her choice of study. </p>
<p>She was accepted to her safety and all matches but only to 2 reaches and one super-reach. She could have cut back on her safety and matches but not on the reach schools as the results were completely unpredictable. Had she culled the list further she could well have ended up rejected at all her preferred schools.</p>
<p>You won't know how many schools are enough until you see the results, and that includes the FA results.</p>
<p>My S applied to 12 schools and was accepted at 6, waitlisted at 2, denied at 4. At least two of the w/d schools were actually less selective than a couple of the 6 where he was accepted, and another was about equally selective. His list included mostly Ivies and elite LACs, any one of which he would have been fine with going to if that was the only school he got in to. In the end, he only seriously considered 2 of the 6, and didn't bother with the waitlists, because he was accepted at schools he preferred. (I made him add 2 schools at the last minute because I was afraid he would be rejected everywhere but his safety. In hindsight it wasn't necessary, but hindsight is 20/20.)</p>
<p>He had only one safety, but guess what? The FA from that school was <em>by far</em> the worst, even with merit money plus need-based aid. We would have been up the proverbial creek if that was his only choice. The FA at the other five places he was accepted ranged from excellent-as-advertised to sometimes-unexpectedly low.</p>
<p>So in the end I was left thinking that he applied to about the right number of places. Factors: highly selective list, need for FA. He was dealing with a list of schools that mostly accepted between 7 or 8 percent and 22 percent. When your "matches" are in that bracket, you just never know.</p>
<p>We did not ask for a fee waiver, even though we would have qualified for it. No point in advertising your need in advance.</p>
<p>There really is no number that is too many. For some kids, one app is too many LOL. It's just that it gets tough to track and care when you have so many. Mistakes always happen but when you increase the number of colleges beyond the usual batch, you are really asking for trouble in terms of errors, mix ups and problems.</p>
<p>Previous posters have already given excellent advice, but when I applied to colleges last year, I feared taking too much out of my parents' pocketbook, even though they continually insisted that the cost of college apps presented no problem in light of the increased chance of scholarships. I eventually decided not to apply to Columbia and a couple of 7 year programs because of cost, and really regret those decisions now, so don't be afraid to extend your pocketbook,</p>
<p>If you can afford it, apply to as many schools as you want. For me I had very specific guidelines in what i was looking for in a college. Apply to as many schools as you want because why not. Whats the problem with hearing back from 20 schools. One of my friends applied to like 18 schools, 14 of which were reaches. Ended up getting waitlisted at only one of them Wash U and eventually getting off the waitlist at Wash U. Moral of the story, if he had decided not to apply to Wash U and only the other 17, he would be going to Syracuse, not a bad school but doesn't compare to Wash U.</p>
<p>Also i applied to UNC just for the hell of it thinking no way I'm getting in(was told by school you really don't have a shot). Got in somehow and am going there next fall. So moral of the story is apply to as many schools as you want to. Its worth the extra 500 bucks in the long run.</p>
<p>^ So True. I'm applying to about 10 reaches, 3 safeties and 4 matches.</p>
<p>"Whats the problem with hearing back from 20 schools."</p>
<p>Prob-When you actually have to decide on 1, and you become someone that complains that they don't know where to go. </p>
<p>I'm not super rich, but 20 schools?! Holy crap, that's such a waste of money, especially if you pretty much know where you're going to go. Rich or not, everyone's still going to go to 1 college, so you might as well narrow it down now.</p>
<p>My daughter realized that 15 was too many for her. She ended up applying to 12 schools. Got into 9. Had she applied to all 15 the result would probably be the same, maybe worse.
For DD the problems were (1) having to take care of many other things affecting admission chances simultaneously with applications; (2) making each individual application as competitive as possible.
For my daughter "other things" in the fall included 6 AP classes at a very competitive school, working on science competitions, re-taking SAT, taking another subject SAT, plus multiple ECs.
So there were times when DD had to choose. To prepare for SAT and devote zero minutes to college apps for a week or to forget about SAT (her 11th grade score was 2100+) and work on college applications? To prepare for first semester finals and again devote no time to college apps for a week or to risk getting Bs at school and work on applications? On many occasions her choice was not in favor of working on college apps and for a good reason. So by Christmas, a week before the deadline at all her schools, DD had finished 3 out of 4 long essays; and 10 or so short essays out of probably 15. DD chose to submit 12 polished applications to her top choice schools rather than rush all 14 or 15 originally planned applications.<br>
Someone may see it as an example of poor planning. I felt that way reading CC in November-December (my DD was so behind with her apps!) But then there were A LOT of kids here, who managed all their apps on time but were later concerned about low first semester grades or SAT scores.
So for those planning to apply to 15+ schools:
Do apps in summer !</p>
<p>usually don't go over a dozen to stay sane.
the downfall with applying to too many is that you get bogged down and don't spend enough time on each of them. don't be fooled. even if they all use the common app, they still have very annoying supplements</p>
<p>Anywhere around 6 - 12 is safe. In my opinion, it really depends on the person and situation.
If you are confident applying to 3, go ahead.
If you are comfortable applying to 15, go ahead.
However, your priority is always the quality of the applications/essays... if you can prepare 3 or 15 STRONG applications/essays, your good.</p>
<p>Just remember that your odds of getting into "competitive" schools depends on the a good/solid application, not the number of applications that you send out to other schools.</p>