<p>yea, I applied to 15 as well. but I would not consider it a bad thing. I live in california, so 5 were the same for the uc's. But the other 10 were different (luckily I only wrote 4 essays for all 15 with minor changes for each. Worked for me, I had a lot of choices. your call really.</p>
<p>Apply to as many as you can afford and want to go to. Also, take into account the work needed to apply. Some schools have multiple essays and require you to write on very specific topics. If you're applying to under 10 schools, then you should do the work and not worry. But more than that can be tedious without any noticable gain. My biggest regret was not applying to more schools, mostly because I was lazy. I applied to only a few and am happy where im going, but i'll never know where I might have gotten into.</p>
<p>Just remember, you can only go to ONE school. It doesn't matter how many schools you get into, only that you find the ONE school that is right for you and get in there. </p>
<p>To narrow your list, try this: imagine it is April, 2006. You have just found out that you have been accepted to all 20 of the schools on your list. Which ones would you drop automatically? Take those schools off the list.</p>
<p>However, if you honestly think you need to apply to 20-plus schools because you are afraid you won't get into any of them, you may be aiming too high. Sounds like that in your heart you may know this and that is why you're adding schools helter-skelter.</p>
<p>You should know that there have been studies that show that people who apply to more than 12--13 schools actually fair WORSE in admissions than those that apply to fewer schools. The reason? It is hard to prepare 20 excellent applications and demonstrate interest in 20 schools. And, schools want to know you want them. They can sense that they are just one of many and they don't like that! </p>
<p>So, how do you overcome the fear of not getting in any where? Find two rolling admissions schools that you would be happy to attend and where you have a good bet of getting accepted. Apply early (say before November 1) and you'll be in somewhere before Christmas. Then, if you need to and still want to, you can turn your sights on a few other schools knowing that you're already "Safe" in terms of admissions.</p>
<p>Finally, while it's fine to have several reach schools on your final list, it's smart to use a "bottom up" approach in preparing your list. Start by identifying several schools where you'd love to go and where getting in is a good bet. Then, move up to a few schools that will be tougher. Add the "lottery" schools that are probably not realistic for you only at the end.
If you take this approach, you may find it easier to narrow your list.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Let me tell you about my own personal experience. I applied to 20 schools mostly because I was afraid of not getting in anywhere and also because I had no idea what I wanted in college. I did many different essays and I spent hours making my apps perfect. On the day before apps were due I had 14 sent out but than I had a panic attack and did 6 more that day. Those were very impersonal and rushed but I ended up getting into most of them anyway. At the end I easily crossed off the ones i didnt like and I was left with several strong schools so I was very happy to have so many choices. If you are curious I was rejected at Harvard and UC Berkeley and waitlisted at UPENN(one of the ones i did the day before it was due). I was accepted to Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, Notre Dame, Cornell, UCLA, UCSD, Tufts, Boston College, Tulane, University of Michigan, and SUNY Binghamton. At the end I was very happy to have all these options and I easily cut it down to Yale and Stanford after I got in since I had so many months after sending them in to see where I wanted to go the most.</p>
<p>A lot of times you run the problem of being overwhelmed when you apply to so many schools. Let's say you apply to 12 reaches, and you get into 11 of them. It's easier to choose between 3-5 schools than 11.</p>
<p>Fewer is better. 8 is too many even if you are looking for merit and financial aid. Research, visit and cut.</p>
<p>Yeah 20 schools seems to be way too many. I, myself, am applying most likely to at a max of six schools. At this time in my sophomore year, my college list had over 30 schools in it. Over this past year, I've been cutting it down a lot after looking it over with many different factors involved.</p>
<p>But really, looking at the application fees, they can really end up killing you if you don't get the fee waiver. Two of the schools that I wish to apply to have a fee of over $50.</p>
<p>Just go with fewer schools, it'll be a lot easier.</p>
<p>Yeah, I originally had 44 colleges on my list, and I've slowly hacked it away, I'm currently down to about 15. Now, I'll visit, and hack off 5-7 more. Financial Aid is a huge concern for me, so I really need options, but I'm not even going above 10</p>
<p>8 is too low in this day and age, I cannot tell you how many people I have seen who said "I wish I applied to ___ college." I think 11 is about right since often college is a crapshoot.</p>
<p>20 seems steep. If you are truly interested in the this number, fine. But the reason people (such as yourself) feel obligated to apply to so many schools is because other students are applying to so many places on a whim (the cycle continues). My advice is to find the schools you are most interested in (heavily research them in the next year), and spend some quality time on those applications. Quality may be better than quantity, you know? That being said, don't do the "i'll just apply to the seven ivies" approach that many of my classmates fell into. If you apply to a modest number of realistic, reach, and safety schools, you'll be golden. Be honest about what constitues a reach and a safety. Side-note: I personally applied to 1 school ED, got rejected, and then proceeded to get into 7 of the next 9 I applied to... and I, too, was worried.</p>
<p>Heck I'm almost tempted to say ten is too many; everyone I know who applied to that many regretted it on some level. The problem is in addition to the time and money required, you might get into an insane number of the schools and have to decide between them in a month or so. You will essentially be going through what most people go through before applying to schools instead of tweaking it down between two or three that you think would be great for you and REALLY looking at them.
Personally I applied to five, and I thought that was a great number: two I felt fairly confident about, two which were reaches, and one I applied to since my brother was going there. Worked out pretty well too, and I wasn't stressing out like the kids who applied to too many either.</p>
<p>People seem to be applying to more and more schools. It has many benefits: apply to many stretches, and statistically you have more of a shot at some super-prestigious school. Also, every school will calculate different EFC's, or come up with a different combination of merit awards. If you got into many you could pick and choose and minimize your debt. </p>
<p>The problem is, everyone has started doing this. If everyone slaps on the ivies and mini-ivies to their list, acceptance rate falls. This is part of what's happening to so many first-tier schools. Look at the acceptance rates of so many schools just 5 years ago and rates have dropped up to 20%. </p>
<p>And it's a self-fuelled "vicious circle." The smaller the acceptance rate goes, the less secure people feel about applying to only a few colleges. So they proliferate. Faced with the "crap-shoot" of top-20 admissions, why not "shoot" the "craps" 20 times? :P </p>
<p>So we just end up with over-stressed adcoms and over-stressed students, filling in as many apps as possible. In the end, after everything's been adjusted in some sort of sociological homeostasis (using yield, acceptance rates, rankings etc), we'll have the exact same people getting into the exact same places. It'll just be more stressful for both sides.</p>
<p>Seems like lots of people are applying to way too many schools b/c they aren't doing their homework BEFORE apps are due.....the strength of programs you are interested in, distance from home, merit aid offered - all those things you will factor into your decision in April will not have changed since the prior November, when you are in your apps process.</p>
<p>Make more of an effort up front - over the summer and early fall - to checks the things out that you feel are important...and make an HONEST (read: critical) assessment of where your qualifications will get you admitted...as in what do you bring to that school in terms of GPA, test scores, financial need, diversity (lots of people don't factor in geograhpic diversity - if you live in the same state as a big-name school, that probably lessens your chances).</p>
<p>After really checking out the schools and that self-evaluation (not pats on the back from family and GCs - only YOU know how hard you did or did not work to get your grades, and whether you are willing or not to extend yourself even more to stay even in college) - you should be able to narrow your list to about 10-12 - and feel comfortable with it. Applying to 20+ schools smacks of desperation because of no prep work or just looking for the ego massage of saying you got into HPYS, etc.</p>
<p>20+ is crazy, but not applying to enough is a huge risk.</p>
<p>Out of high school I originally applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Michigan (had gotten in already), Brown, Duke. Then with a week left I added Columbia and Northwestern. Guess what? I got rejected/ waitlisted everywhere except Columbia and Northwestern, and I ended up at Columbia before transferring to Dartmouth after a year (chose it over Harvard, Duke, Brown as a transfer), a school I would almost certainly have gone to over Columbia from the start, but mistakenly didn't look into. </p>
<p>My valedictorian applied to Amherst, Princeton, Haverford, and a couple safeties. He got rejected at his top two and ended up at Haverford, a school he didn't really love at all. I am certain he would have gotten into multiple ivies (and liked them more than Haverford) had he applied to more schools. </p>
<p>I cannot tell you how many stories I know like this. There are multiple boards talking about people regretting not applying to enough school. In my opinion, unless you are applying to schools with low selectivity or have a good backup plan (like applying rolling to Michigan or Early Action), applying to 5 schools is ridiculous.</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree. I had counted on getting into one of my top two schools and didn't really care about my list beyond those. Surprise, I got waitlisted. Now I'm quickly trying to learn everything I can about the ones I DID get into so that I can make an informed decision. Put lots of thought into all schools you apply to, regardless of how many that is.</p>
<p>I was SO focused on Brown (and pretty confident I would get in), so when I got waitlisted I realized 1) how lucky I was to have added Columbia and Northwestern and 2) that maybe I should have reshaped my list a little and added Dartmouth, Penn, Amherst, etc.</p>
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Seems like lots of people are applying to way too many schools b/c they aren't doing their homework BEFORE apps are due.....the strength of programs you are interested in, distance from home, merit aid offered
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<p>These are exactly the reason that my daughter's school only allows them to apply to 8 colleges . After doing some extenisve research, she was pretty focused on what she wanted in her college experience. Based on what she wanted, and most important if she only got admitted to one school would she be happy there and gladly attend, she could not even come up with 8 schools, so she applied to 7 and was accepted to all 7.</p>
<p>10 tops. I say find 2 safeties you really like that are affordable (state schools), 2 matches you really like, and use the other 5 for reaches you really like.</p>
<p>Sybbie, I totally disagree. Schools select YOU, so you can love 7 schools to the end, it doesnt mean you're going to get in. I would do 5 reaches, a couple safe reaches, a couple matches, and a safety.</p>
<p>Also consider the stress that 20 applications will have on people writing recommendation letters for you and on your hs mailing transcripts.</p>