Were you happy with the number? Do you think you should have applied to more? I’m more just asking out of curiosity than for advice.
Eight 
One public in-state.
One private in-state.
Two Ivies.
Four private out-of-states.
I’m applying to 5.
Two Ivies.
1 private out-of-state.
3 public in-state.
If I apply to more, I know I’ll be stressed out and generally the less schools you apply to, the better your essays will be because you’re not worrying about the countless other essays you have to do on top of your senior courseload.
Sixteen…LOL. I applied to too many safety schools because I was nervous. In retrospect, I would’ve switched out a couple safeties for Yale and Princeton.
I’m applying to six:
One Ivy (Cornell engineering ED)
Four private out of state (MIT, CMU, Olin, Rensselaer)
One public in-state (UConn)
My D2 applied to eight:
<ul>
<li>One top research university (reach)</li>
<li>One STEM college (reach)</li>
<li>Two top LACs (one reach, one high match)</li>
<li>Four LACs that would be likely to give her merit aid (all matches or safeties)</li>
</ul>
This was a pretty good number and selection for her. She was accepted at all, even her reaches, and is attending the STEM school. Don’t forget that you not only have to do the college application, but if you are applying for financial aid there are also a lot of hoops to jump through for that. I found it super time consuming, as each college seemed to have their own processes, what they wanted (which tax forms, which forms to fill out for them), and their own timelines.
I’m applying to twenty-one… Yikes…
My daughter applied to 8 colleges:
4 private universities (3 reaches, 1 match)
2 liberal arts colleges (2 matches)
2 public universities with honors colleges (2 safeties)
1 public university was rolling admissions (found out in October)
3 early action (1 public univ, 1 L.A. college, 1 private university)
4 regular decision
She was accepted to 6 colleges, waitlisted on 2 reaches. It gave her confidence that she had 4 acceptances before January 15. Doing a combination of early action and regular decision spread out the application process so she wasn’t so frantic. She completed all her SAT and SAT subject tests by the end of junior year and made decisions on where to apply by end of the summer.
The lemonisinplay, all that means is that (1) you didn’t do enough research to determine fit and reasonable chances of acceptance, and probably (2) that your insecurity is pushing you to just throw schools onto your list. Rethink – you not only have to pay application fees, but also pay to send your test scores and possibly the CSS profile as well to all of those schools. Plus do all the application AND FA application work. Probably diluting your efforts so very few of your applications have the quality and attention you would hope to give them.
intparent brings up a good point about applying to a lot of schools, especially if you need financial aid. The FAFSA isn’t bad, but completing the CSS Profile (19 pages) and IDOC tax verification for private colleges will be enough to drive you and a parent insane between November-February. Trying to meet all the application/financial aid deadlines during senior year will be very challenging.
Well, here’s the thing.
a) I’m honestly okay with applying to so many, because I have a reasonable chance at the highly selective colleges (which is to say, just as good as anybody else with high grades/test scores and decent extracurriculars) and I’ve got several safeties and automatic admits on my list;
b) I like almost every college I’m applying to, and I know I’d fit in at practically any of them; and
c) my parents have assured me that they can pay for all of it. My family makes too much to receive any financial aid, and I’m doing all this with their consent, with the understanding that they’ll have to pay for all the SAT and ACT score reports, app fees, and ultimately tuition for whichever college I end up at. And yes, we’re applying for fin aid anyway, and they know that they’ll have to submit the CSS and file their taxes early this year. We’ve had the discussion and got this all worked out.
And @intparent, I’ve done my research and I know what I want in a college. I know what I want to major and minor in, which med schools I want to go to, and what career I have in mind. I know what extracurriculars and student groups I’ll be involved in in college, and I know what kind of academic system works best for me. And the best thing is? I made my list so that the majority of the schools I’m applying to offer all of that. You see, I’m not simply “throwing schools onto my list.” Nor am I applying for the sake of applying, just to see if I get in, because that’s dumb and a waste of time.
I have this pretty much figured out. And I’m making steady progress on my apps. (Done with Common App and ApplyTexas, save for a few essays.)
And at the end of all this, if I don’t get into any of the top schools on my list, oh well. C’est la vie. I’ll still have my in-state safety, which is a school that I LOVE.
about twelve… mostly out of anxiety
there’s only ONE i’m really obsessed with… probably bad considering the acceptance rate is quite competitive
They say that, but I bet they don’t know what it will actually mean. The CSS and FAFSA are the easy part. But many colleges have additional forms beyond those. And they all want some variation on your tax returns, but every single college seems to want something different and on a different date and sent in a different format. Some want IDOC (sounds electronic, right, due to the “I” in front – HA! It is a wretched, manual, picky-about-format manual process). Some want tax forms mailed to them. Some only accept faxed forms (and of course it can be many, many pages to fax…). Yet another wanted them scanned and sent. Some want business returns, some don’t. One wanted trust tax returns. If parents are divorced, multiply most of it by 2. It was a huge job to do this for eight schools last year. Your parents don’t know what they are saying when they say they will do this for 21 schools. They will be ready to kill you by February…
I ended up applying to 3 schools, and I knew they were all schools that I would get into and receive top-notch scholarships for:
1 private in-state, 1 private out-of-state, 1 public out-of-state.
I visited a lot of schools and did a ton of research online. I visited my state school, for example, but despite the fact that both of my parents went there, neither I nor they were impressed by their apparent lack of emphasis on undergraduates or their lack of merit aid. There was a general vibe of snootiness that surprised me, like they felt they could get top students just because of their name without offering any incentive. Meanwhile, the state school in the neighboring state was throwing money at me, offering me great research opportunities, and actively recruiting me by setting up meeting with the dean of the college, etc.
Money was a big factor in my decision, first of all in limiting the number of schools I applied to, and also in only choosing schools with good merit aid. Apparently my parents saved too much money in their lives, because I knew that even though we had a lowish middle class income, we had an unrealistically high EFC (>60% of income), especially considering that my mom was the primary breadwinner and had terminal cancer.
But I digress - if I were doing it again, I probably would have applied to a few more schools. I kind of wish someone had pushed me to apply for some schools that weren’t sure bets, but I still ended up extremely happy with the school I chose.
I applied to 15 last year. As I begin to research schools to transfer to, I will probably apply to 5.
Not to pick on you, termah420, but a classic example that applying to a lot of schools does not guarantee that you will end up at a school that is a good fit.
12 schools total
1 in-state public
1 out-of-state public EA
1 early decision (Dartmouth, fingers crossed)
9 regular decision out-of-state private
Oh, this is fun…I applied to:
6 LAC’s (Got into 5)
1 Public In-State Uni
1 Public Out of State Uni
1 Private In-State Uni
1 Ivy (Waitlisted!)
Anyway, I’m glad my college days are over. There seems to be A LOT MORE stress out there now. And hey, it’s a source of pride for me now to say, I got wait listed by Yale, but chose Hampshire – although, I think family pressure (Dad is a Columbia PHD & Mom is a University Of Chicago PHD) factored in to applying to Yale. I considered being wait listed a TOTAL fluke – and was SUPER SURPRISED when it happened!
I teach in a high school and have a daughter who is a junior. Both my school and hers suggested 7-12, which includes 2 safeties, 2 reaches, and 3-8 good options where you REALLY would consider attending. Right now we have 8 we have visited and truly consider. We will add two more before next year.
only three . … . all out of state