How many colleges did you apply to?

Applying to College Admission Stories
81

My son applied to a total of four.

All In-State, private LACs /Universities

One reach, one good fit (that unfortunately has developed a reputation for sometimes being quirky about accepting/rejecting in-state applicants, due to their desire to appear more ‘global’), and two safeties (sure bets for acceptance, with large merit scholarships). Two of the schools are highly selective (accept less than 25% of applicants), while the two safeties were moderately selective (accept about 30% to 40% of applicants).

He originally had only one safety, but then changed his mind about major (which meant it was no longer a good fit)… plus after visiting campus, to be brutally honest none of us were especially fond of his original safety choice. He has declined their offers.

His replacement ‘safety’ is actually a quite well respected but smallish LAC, has been throwing lots of money & promises of research opportunities his way, and after a visit during their Scholars’ Weekend he is seriously considering choosing to go there even if also accepted at the larger universities on his short list. He was accepted, and has been offered their maximum merit scholarship as well as additional grant money.

It is reassuring to have a school that the student genuinely likes, and would feel good about attending, locked down as their safety.

Waiting for decision letters and financial aid packages from the two larger universities, which should arrive towards the end of this month. My son is not rushing into anything until he has all the information he needs to make a well thought out choice.

Based on our experience, I encourage students and parents to physically visit as many of the college campuses on your list as possible (we visited all four). And do be sure to talk with admissions staff, deans and professors… as well as current under-grad students. Colleges and Universities can turn out to be a lot different when experienced in person, as compared to the impression they give online and in slick promotional materials. Even if your son or daughter initially took the shotgun approach and applied to dozens of schools, try to help them narrow the field by visiting any they have not yet explored, between now and the deadline for deposits (c. May 1st). Doing that extra bit of research up front may potentially save your student from the hassle of transferring later.

82

My story went as follows:

-Applied to 4 Universities in the UK
-1 safety in the States
-13 LACs in the States.

Then I decided I also wanted to throw in applications to Canadian Universities and one more LAC.

-> up to 23.

Got accepted at one British Uni, rejected at two, did not hear back from the other.
Got accepted at 3 Canadian Universities, did not hear back from the other.
Got accepted at 1 LAC EA, and then deferred (then rejected) by one more and the accepted by two favourites.

-> decided to withdraw all British choices, the Canadian Uni that did not reply and Alabama.

-> down to 17 Options. The results so far have been
8 acceptances and 1 denial of those 17 choices. But I haven’t heard back from the “really-hard-to-get-into” colleges.

In Hindsight: Wasted A LOT of money. On the other hand: I was so scared, and so far the results have been surprisingly good. I do not expect this to continue with the remaining 8 decisions.

Good luck to all of you!

83

S applied to 8, all private LACs or small universities. One was a reach, where he got deferred and then wait listed, and one was a high match/low reach, where he was accepted. The rest were either matches or safeties. He’s been accepted to all of them (with significant merit money at each) and is waiting to hear from the last (where he only applied on a whim after a coach at an athletic event).

In retrospect, I think he could have pared down his safeties, but I know he didn’t expect to have this many choices when all the results were in (he also liked some of them as much as his reach/matches). He had two other high-match/low-reach schools that he might have applied to RD, but he was a little burnt out by the time their deadlines rolled around (and after the initial acceptances started coming in) and he didn’t like them as well as his EA schools anyway. I would have liked to see where that would have led, but I’m not sure it would have made a difference to him and they likely would have been more expensive to attend, due to the merit aid he received from the others.

While I was concerned that his final list of schools was a little too “light” (especially given his success), he loves his final two choices (one a match and one a safety with great potential). He also would have been happy going to any of the schools he applied to, which is the best measure of a list, IMO.

84

D applied to five. She applied EA to two and got in; ED to one and got deferred; then even though one of her two top choices was an EA accept, she decided to apply to two more. Since she got into a reach school EA, she didn’t need to apply to any safeties. Still waiting on the last two, which should be out this week. Very happy for my pocketbook that she didn’t choose to apply to more…

85

I decided to put all my eggs in one basket, being a non-trad student who is married and owns a home. Waiting for UNC Chapel Hill to offer me a miracle.

86

my list was about 18 schools at the beginning. some of them were really dumb choices that i hadn’t really thought through.

i had four instate schools (two of which i didn’t even finish applying to), one OOS state school, and a ton of privates. i ended up withdrawing from 4 or 5 schools. pointless, but i just wanted to clear the air, i guess. my “final” list ended up being 2 state schools, 1 out of state state school, and nine privates.

87

27, I am extremely happy with the amount that I applied to. Yes that is a lot to some people, but for me, as someone with multiple academic interests, it worked out. I am 21/27 _accepted. I applied to three ivies, 2 rejections, one waitlist. Apply to as many as possible if you do not know exactly where you want to go.

88

DS applied out of state. Interesting that all of the EA applications resulted in Acceptances ( 4 private 1 public)
Regular decisions came back 1 public acceptance, 2 private waitlist, 3 public denied, 2 private denied. No rhyme or reason when you look at the stats.

89

^^ The toughest part for many is accepting it is not all about high stats, as tons of people have those. It is the qualitative stuff, which usually leads to a denial. After the initial stats hurdle is crossed, each school is looking for something different.

90

I started out with 11 on my CA, 3 through UCAS, 1 in NZ, 1 in Japan but ended up only applying to 6 in the US, applied to NZ and Japan, none in the UK.
Accepted to 4/6 of my US schools with prime scholarships (the rejections were both pretty big reaches so no heartbreak there) and both internationals :slight_smile:

91

My daughter applied to 14, 8 yes, 3 no, 3, waitlisted.

92

I applied to 18, was accepted to 9, waitlisted at 4, and rejected at 5. I got into all of my top choices BTW.

93

Erm… 8?

4 early; 2 reaches (one was ED), 1 match and 1 safety; was rejected at one reach, deferred at the other reach, and accepted into the match and safety. That helped me make my next list for regular decisions in which I applied to all reaches 4, and I was accepted into 1 of them and wait listed at 2.

94

Three but two were incomplete. We were cheap and waited to hear from the Early Action that was DS first choice. When we heard DS was admitted, the two other safeties were never finalized so in fact only one. We did have three other applications ready to go if he had been deferred or rejected though. Looking around here we were far too relaxed about this… Ugh, DD in 3 years will try to have more back ups, as she may not be so lucky.

95

Sixteen. Too many. Did NOT need so many safety schools, but insecurity and anxiety and being a first-generation American student, my parents had no clue. Got into my dream school anyway, so I wrote far too many essays and stressed myself out. I’d say don’t do more than ten or you’ll blow up.

96

Six. 50% acceptance rate into 1/3 Ivys. In retrospect I shouldn’t have applied to two of the ivys because my parents told me after decisions that they didn’t think those two were a good fit, but they didn’t want to deter me.

97

I applied to 6 - 2 ivys, 2 out-of-state privates, 2 out-of-state publics

98

14 schools (2 safeties/4 matches/8 reaches):

1 public in-state:
UT-Austin

1 public out-of-state:
UC Berkeley

1 private in-state:
Rice

6 Ivies:
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Cornell
Columbia
UPenn

5 other private research universities:
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
MIT
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon

If I could do it all over again, 7 schools (1 safety/3 matches/3 reaches):

1 public in-state (safety):
UT-Austin

4 Big Four CS/CE schools:
UC Berkeley
MIT
Stanford
Carnegie Mellon

1 Ivy with a solid CS/CE program:
Cornell

1 STEM private research university with a solid CS/CE program:
Caltech

99

I applied to 11 schools -

SAFETIES (2)
University of Pittsburgh (accepted)
Northeastern University (accepted)

MATCHES (2)
University of Virginia (accepted)
Boston College (accepted)

REACHES (7)
Johns Hopkins (rejected)
Princeton University (rejected)
Yale University (rejected)
Harvard University (rejected)
University of Pennsylvania (rejected)
Cornell University (accepted)
Northwestern University (accepted)

I’ll be attending Northwestern this fall!

100

I applied to 10. HOWEVER half of the schools on that list sent me a free application (literally), and I took advantage of College Board’s SAT policy that allows for free score reports.

Also, I enjoy writing supplement essays, what can I say?

In hindsight though, I probably could have applied to less, but hey I’m not going to turn down a free application. In addition, I’d say look into whether your schools require the CSS for FA. A bunch of mine didn’t (coincidentally the same ones as the free applications) Applying to many schools gives you alot of options but also makes decisions much tougher when it comes to may 1st