And you think this is somehow unique to you?
Bottom line is, the fewer schools you apply to, the more certain of them you must be about affordability and likelihood of admission.
“the fewer schools you apply to, the more certain of them you must be about affordability and likelihood of admission”
this is key.
If money is not an issue, you can afford to apply to less schools. But if you need a lot of financial aid then you should increase your chances of not only getting accepted but also getting aid (no point of getting accepted to a bunch of schools you can’t afford to go to).
My D applied to 8 colleges: 1 rolling, 3 EA, 4 regular so it spread out the application deadlines which was really helpful. 2 safety, 2 matches, 2 reaches, 2 high reaches. Only 2 offered need based aid, the rest both merit and need-based (she was seeking some merit aid.). By end of January she had 4 acceptances, 2 with strong f. aid packages.
She received 6 acceptances, 2 wait lists so she positioned herself well. 4 offered enough financial aid for consideration (2 need based, 2 merit.). She elected not to be wait listed but we didn’t see all the schools who offered enough f. aid until 4/29. Talk about cutting it close!
Ten.
Either
3 Reach
4 Match
3 Safety
or
2 Reach
6 Match
2 Safety
Take advantage of fee waivers & early action.
6 out of my 10 colleges I didn’t pay for fee waivers