<p>Realistically, how many colleges should you apply to if you want to try and do a good job on each essay?</p>
<p>I have a huge list and I'm not sure how many I will be able to handle.</p>
<p>Help?</p>
<p>Depends on how competitive the schools are to get into. If you're applying to really competitive Ivy schools, then around 10 or more (you need safeties). But if there's a better guarantee that you'll get into the school, a few less will be ok.</p>
<p>Btw, will you be able to afford applying to a huge list of schools? Remember that each application is around $50.</p>
<p>I would recommend 8-10, unless there's some major fin. aid in the picture. If your safeties are true safeties, you shouldn't need more than two.</p>
<p>no more than 8-10. Less if you can swing it. My son did 9 and he was out of steam on his last few (and some of these were his reaches). Quite a few were not common app or had signficant supplements. It's lots of work - don't underestimate it. Better to do a good job on a reasonable number. And yes, do have those safeties and matches on the list - VERY important.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend no more than 8, and no less than 6.</p>
<p>I applied to 15, but I needed alot of aid money and I wanted to ensure I got at least one great deal (did at USC, and I didn't even think about them till november my senior year). Then again, I qualified for application fee waivers, being on the free/reduced lunch program. </p>
<p>It was alot of work, I will admit, but well worth it. The school I had planned to go to, UIUC (Stanford was a reach, but only got waitlised there), turned out to be 5x more expensive for me than USC. So applying to alot did save me alot of money</p>
<p>I applied to eight and found the workload just manageable. I think... four were CommonApp?</p>