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In the UK everyone can apply to a maximum of 6 schools through the universal online application program.</p>
<p>Do you think they should do that here?
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<p>The UK is so much smaller than the US, and some American students go 3,000 miles+ to go to their American colleges. It's just fine.</p>
<p>One thing I do like about the UK system is that one can only apply to Cambridge or Oxford. I think that's neat - maybe the Ivy League should do something like that - you can only apply to 3 Ivy's.</p>
<p>My S started with 12, did 3 EA (2 had free online applications), and then ended up narrowing down the rest to only 5 others. He's since pretty much dismissed one, even tho he applied, so the total looks like this:</p>
<p>My parents want me to apply to 15, but I think that is too much. I hope I only end up doing around 10. Doesnt the UK also have free higher education?</p>
<p>something else to consider is if you need to apply for financial aid and scholarships...if so, that adds quite a bit of work. Especially the fin aid stuff falls more to the parents, so be sure they have the time to help you with that part.
my d applied to 16, but 7 were UC's (same app) and 4 were CSU's (same app) and I'm glad we didn't have more. It was on the edge of being too much, but we needed a wide net due to financial considerations.
So far her only regret was not applying to at least one super reach. She has 3 reaches, but they are more high reaches, not super reaches. She also felt she had too many safeties (3 of the CSU's), but we didn't know enough about them to narrow them down!
We did get some fee waivers, so that helped with app fees.</p>
<p>I applied to 12, but 4 were common app, 3 were UCs, 3 were "some what safties" that took 15 minutes to complete, and the last 2 were painstaking to complete. But all in all the application process was "OK".</p>
<p>In the Official center of American Education in my homecountry I was told that there was a guy who applied to 98 schools. I would believe it, if a source wasn't that credible.</p>
<p>I always thought the 2 safety, 2 match, 2 reach system worked pretty well (it worked fantastic for me), but it becomes a problem if you don't know where you want to go.</p>
<p>Of course my guidance counsellor was insane, in retrospect I wouldn't have been surprised if I didn't get in anywhere considering the 6 schools I applied to.</p>
<p>10-15 colleges is plenty enough. Save your money for medical school applications, when you WILL need 20+ applications because of the insane admit rates.</p>
<p>The UK system (called UCAS) is pretty neat as you pay a one-time application fee to apply to a maximum number of six schools. However, unlike universities in the US, British universities give out conditional offers. Thus, you have to meet their requirements in your final exams for your offer to stand good. My counselor, who is British, whined so much when he filled out like countless of forms for American universities.</p>
<p>I can tell you right now... you're not going to be wiriting essays for more than 15 colleges, unless a lot of your choices are colleges that don't require essays or use the common app without additional essay supplements. I applied to 9 colleges, almost all of which were common app, and I still had to write around 12 essays (which really sucked). So unless you would enjoy spending an ungodly amount of time writing essays I would recommend narrowing down your list considerably.</p>
<p>once you're over 10, it's too many. don't add a school just because the brouchure looks good or b/c they send free stuff. it's like the army in some aspects....</p>
<p>Some of my friends applied to upwards of 15 colleges. I still to this day have a hard time trying to decide how they thought it would be a good idea blow almost a thousand dollars on application fees alone.</p>
<p>They're well off, too, so it's not because they're shopping for financial aid. None of them even filled out the FAFSA.</p>
<p>If you're weak academically (too weak) you might as well apply to few notsogoodcolleges you will surely go into. I think more than 10 is waaaaaaaay too much. You're either in or out, and if you're not going to get in, don't try to buy you're way in by applying to as many as you can. Plus, i don't think colleges like people applying to many colleges.</p>