How many colleges did you apply to?

I applied to 3. All in-state, all public. I got accepted to all 3. They were all either “match” or “safety” schools (no “reach” schools because I wanted to stay in-state and didn’t apply to any private schools)

I applied to 7 schools:
One public in-state school
Three private out of state universities
Three out of state LACs

(Two safeties, four matches, one reach)

4 Reaches, 3 Matches, 2 Safeties.

Already got accepted to a match and a safety, for what that’s worth.

Applied to 17 schools my year, all top 25 universities or top 10 liberal arts schools. It was a lot of work, but I think I grew significantly as a student and got to understand myself a lot better through the process. I would suggest not applying to so many if you can help it…

4 reaches, 2 matches, 4 safeties.
really, only two of the reaches are really living on the edge, and the other 2 are possibles

19 (hopefully 20, we’ll see if I can get the app in). 11 reaches, one high match, 4 matches and 3 (maybe 4) safeties.

3: 1 safety, 1 high match and 1 low/mid reach.

21 - this seems like a crazy number but here’s how it unfolded.

This summer the only school not requiring teacher recommendations or even formal transcripts in our area was Iowa State. So D applied and was promptly admitted - going to college somewhere for sure. Then the early decision / early action decision round - it was between Brown ED and Stanford REA. Visited Brown 2nd time and sat in on three classes. Applied Stanford REA, got rejected. Was accepted to U.Wisconsin Madison on Friday and expect to hear good news from U.Illinois Urbana soon. Then we will have until late March to hear back from 4 Ivies, U.Chicago, Amherst, Georgetown and Williams as Reaches. Notre Dame, William & Mary, Smith, Vassar and Kenyon as Targets. Finally G.Washington, U.Maryland, Case Western and SMU as Safeties. Resisted the temptation to apply to Grinnell and Wash.U these last few weeks, enough with the applications

D has tried hard to both select colleges where she would be happy and figure out where she stands relative to other admitted students. Maybe Rice would have been a better choice than SMU - not sure if we can afford an entirely new J.Crew wardrobe.I don’t think determining whether a school is a reach, target or safety school is an exact science but she’s probably close and has not applied only to reach schools or only to safety schools.Her writing is extremely strong and quite frankly, for many of these schools, there aren’t a lot of extensive, school specific essays required so she spent months on the primary common app essays and she knocked out the supplemental essays over thanksgiving. She has visited all but 4 of these colleges over the last 18 months and interviewed wherever possible.Still have the Ivy alumni interviews though.

Given how crazy admissions is these days appyling to 8 reaches should yield maybe 2 or 3 admit decisions form the reach colleges. The safeties are being targeted for significant merit aid since financial aid is not an option for our family. Ideally, in early April D will have to decide between a couple of top colleges and a couple of full-ride scholarships. She may have to attend more than one admitted student weekend to make up her mind but this kind of “dilemma” is better than many alternatives faced by students

Spending between $75 and $100 per college to apply is not chump change, but a good investment if D gets into a top college or snags a full-ride scholarship. I know that conventional wisdom would have a student apply to between 6 and 9 colleges but if you are academically competitive for top colleges and capable of writing strong essays is it crazy to apply to 20 colleges like this or is it smart given admissions rate trends?

I guess we will know in April won’t we?

I only applied to two. Although, I’m really regretting that decision. Not sure if I’ll be accepted just based on the fast that I’m out of state.

My D has applied to 4 so far, and is still on the fence about applying to another art school or two that has a Feb. 1 application deadline. She has been accepted at 2 schools (one is the financial safety in-state school but doesn’t have the exact program she wants), waiting for an ED2 (non-binding) decision this week from her top choice (but will need a big scholarship for this one), the last is a RD that won’t come until March. Our original list was about a dozen schools; two are probably too-far reaches for her SATs, two were in California and she decided she didn’t want to go that far, and two were eliminated after disappointing visits.

In 2011 my S applied to only 4 schools because he had a very specific program and process he wanted. He only got in to one, but luckily he has been very happy there. D has said she did not want to repeat his experience, but her acaedmics are much better than his were and her art portfolio is very strong so we have not been as concerned about admissions.

14 - Attending Barnard College of Columbia University
Applied to:
FIU (no essays, no recommendations); FAMU - full ride, ASU, FSU and UM (safeties).
Bryn Mawr, Smith, Barnard (Seven Sisters).
NYU, SJU, Fordham (NYC schools)
Ga Tech, American, Howard (National universities in large cities)

My D applied to 14 colleges–all RD. 4 colleges have waived application fee.
1 Ivy
2 Public Ivies
3 Private National Research Universities
3 private OOS LACs
3 public OOS universities with NMF full funding support
1 OOS public flagship university
1 instate public flagship university

She has been admitted to the 5 publics and 3 LACs. Waiting to hear on highly selective public and privates universities.

She has pretty much decided against 3 colleges (1 OOS public flagship university and 2 private OOS LACs)

I applied to 7 schools: 3 safeties, 2 possibles, and 2 reaches. 2 of the schools are public OOS (UCs) and the other 5 are private (2 instate, 3 OOS). I was originally not going to apply to two of those colleges but then decided to as I was filling out applications. I’ve been accepted to 3 of the privates (one of which is instate) and am awaiting the decisions from the other 4.

I’m happy with my list and wouldn’t change a thing, even though I’ve already decided against 2 of the 7.

Applied to 3 and won’t apply to anymore. 1 match, 2 safeties.

D started out applying EA to 4 schools.
Notre Dame (deferred)
Boston College (admitted)
Bentley and Loyola Maryland (admitted to both with presidential scholarships)

At the last minute, we panicked and she applied to one more match school. Glad she’ll have at least 3-4 options, but not more than that - too much stress too late in the game…

I ended up applying to 13 schools.
University of North Carolina Wilmington (accepted, >90% probability of attending)
Quinnipiac University (accepted + $13k)
Bentley University (deferred)
Syracuse University
University of Pittsburgh
Hofstra University (deferred)
State University of New York at Binghamton (deferred)
Stetson University (accepted + Dean’s Scholarship)
Rider University (accepted + Dean’s Scholarship)
University of Massachusetts Amherst (denied)
Northeastern University (denied)
Fordham University (denied)
Clark University (denied)

I sent in 34 applications, but I am only completing 24. Didn’t pay an application fee for any and some accepted unofficial test scores. I applied to 4 safeties and 3 matches, looking back I would have chosen to only apply to 20. I know it’s a lot, but since I don’t pay for applications I think its worth it to have options.

applied to 7
1 in state public (NY)
1 in state private
2 out of state public
3 out of state private

3 safeties, 2 match, 2 reach

D applied to 9:
1 instate public flagship
2 regional private univs
1 LAC reach
1 LAC high match
2 LAC matches
2 LAC low match/safeties

Accepted at 5 so far (merit aid at 4 of these). Having that first EA acceptance back in November really relieved some stress! To do it over again, I think she would apply to no more than 6.