The college application process is entirely new to me (I never went), so I don’t really know what is normal. D has safeties, schools that are expected to be very cheap (though not great academically, some matches that are affordable, some that potentially will not be without great merit aid, and a few reaches.
How many colleges are common for a child to apply to? How do you narrow down the acceptances - cost, interest, or a mix of both?
My son will be applying to three in total. One is a safety state school, the other is a local private school where he could commute, and the last one is a private school outside of commuting distance (financial reach). With us it is cost. Private schools at a cost to attend of $65K can add up quick under the best case of graduating in 4 years. They all tend to throw the token $15-20K Merit aid but even at $45K a year, it is still a bit hard to swallow for just an undergrad degree. We make too much for need based aid so we are limited to commuting to a private school or attending an in-state school. Not too many options when you look around. It really is shockingly limited. Only three schools for us.
With the advent of the common app, I think you will find most responses are close to 7-10 schools per person.
12 for my son. 1 in state & 4 private. The other 7 are large universities.
Each of my kids applied to 7 colleges. They each had a list that was longer than that, but both got early admission offers in December (or earlier) that they liked and were affordable, so that let them forgo applying to colleges they wouldn’t likely choose over the acceptance they had in hand. Some high schools limit the number of applications they will let their students file, Seven or 8 were common numbers, and I even heard 5 once, but I bet the number has been increasing in recent years.
Most of my kids’ friends and friends’ kids who were applying to selective colleges and were educationally ambitious (and who did not apply to one college ED, or if they did were not accepted there) wound up applying to 10-15 colleges. There probably isn’t any reason to apply to that many colleges if you are neither (a) interested in going to one of the 30 or so most selective private universities or their liberal arts college equivalents, nor (b) searching aggressively for the highest combination of need-based financial aid and non-need-based merit scholarship.
Kids I have known have applied to anywhere from 1 to 30 colleges (and I’m sure somewhere there is a kid who applied to more than 30). One is fine if you know what you want, know that you will be accepted – or hear from them that you have been accepted before the deadline to apply elsewhere – and know what the college will charge and that you can afford or finance that. Thirty is, frankly, ridiculous. The kid I met who applied to 30 colleges was from San Diego, and most of the colleges to which she applied were brand-name East Coast colleges she had never seen and knew little about. She figured (wrongly) that only a few would accept her, and she would concentrate on learning about them in April. As it happened, almost all of them accepted her, and she wound up having to decide on which 5-6 to focus her attention.
As for sorting them out once acceptances have been made . . . well, if you are a human being, and somewhat rational, of course you take cost, interest, and a variety of other, lesser factors into account. (Factors like, how convenient is it to get there, does my boyfriend/girlfriend/frenemy/nemesis go there, how do the colors look on me . . . , and the ever-popular what do my relatives think.) Usually, you discard the ones you absolutely can’t afford and the ones you really don’t want to attend, and deal with the others on some sort of sliding scale of tradeoffs based on your personal values.
^ agree not to apply to colleges you know nothing about and “just because” Find 2-3 safeties they would like going to and then a few matches and reaches - but don’t apply anywhere you know you cannot afford. With the common app, it’s so easy to add schools! You can run the cost calculator for any schools you are interested in. As far as deciding once you get accepted - I think it would be a combination of personal ranking/financial package.
D17 decided to apply to 3 Early Action schools - 1 private safety / 1 private reach and 1 state safety (at mom’s begging). Really, these are her back up schools. If she gets in - she will 1) feel relieved that she’s in somewhere and 2) She chose schools that she would be happy going to and that are a fit for her (programs, location, campus feel, etc.)
However, she is waiting to apply to her dream school so she can hopefully up her SAT scores this Saturday to have a better chance (it’s a high match/low reach). She has 5 other schools on her list that fit this same category (2 of which are very solid 2nd/3rd choices she knows she would love). This category is tough because it’s really a crap shoot when you look at how low acceptance rates are. So this is the largest category.
She also has 3 reach schools (1 IVY and 2 others). She expects nothing out of this list.
Total: 12
This SOOOOO varies by student.
One of my kids applied to seven colleges (music major…so all reaches really).
The other kid initially applied to three schools…and really we should have let it go there. They were all sure things for admission, she loved them all, and she got accepted to all three by mid-December.
Stupidly, we asked her to do one parent pick just in case she changed her mind…and she then added one reach. Those were a waste of time…and money.
Each of my children applied to six colleges each, and were accepted to all of them. My daughter’s six were all out of state. My son applied to five out of state and one private university in-state.
There is a lot of tracking whether the application materials got in and financial aid requirements to track if you apply to a lot of schools. Plus the cost of applications, sending test scores, and sending the CSS profile if it is required. My kids both had 8 schools on their lists (but one only applied to 7 in the end, as she got an EA acceptance to a school she preferred and was affordable before that final app was due).
D applied to 7 in the early round, and will potentially apply to 4 more in January depending on the results.
She originally had 8 on her list (2 big reaches, 2 reaches, 2 match/high match and 2 safeties). At the relatively last minute, she added 3 more safeties, because she wasn’t sure she’d be thrilled at the first two. Hoping for good news in December!
Although there are posters that are very judgmental on this topic I don’t think there is a right or wrong number. S1 applied to 20 and would have applied to more but he ran out of steam. Sure, hindsight is 20/20 and now that we know the results it is easy to say it was way too many applications. However, at the time there were a lot of individual factors that caused him to apply to 20. First, we really could not predict what to expect financially based on a very complex situation. Secondly, S was a stand out applicant, yet our school seldom gets admissions to anything but state and regional private schools so there was no way to predict his chances.
I agree. At DS’s school, kids apply 12-15 on average. I hear a significant number apply to 22+.
One each. They did their research up front and both were willing to take a gap year if things didn’t work out at the chosen school. Both schools had rolling admission so they knew in October that they were accepted. Neither is a ‘reach’ type kid and each wanted a school where she felt comfortable academically and financially.
If you keep it to 10 or less it will save you some grief with the FAFSA. The kiddo can only attend one…so there is a point where it is simply too many. And yes, people have strong opinions. Clearly mine is really you needed 15 colleges to apply too (or more incredibly). This comes up every year and more people will come back and say they could have narrowed it down than people that come back and gee, I wish he would have applied to 8 more LOL. Let research be your friend…put the work there and not into a buckshot approach to apps. Mine 3 applied to 4, 7 and 9. The one with 9 was a crap shoot so needed a few more - Engineering, LD very lopsided test scores (low-low English and high-math). The one with 4 had zero reaches and just needed to figure out where he wanted to go, and the one with 7 had a nicely balanced list of a couple safeties, 3 matches and 2 reaches and was undecided east, west or midwest.
Unless it’s an epic fail at choosing colleges to apply to, the vast majority of kids will have a choice and that’s all they really need. A decade ago cost might have been a big question mark, but with calculators and all the information that is available it’s pretty easy to guesstimate how much it will cost.
My kids applied to 6 or 7 schools each. This was far less than some of their peers did. If you choose wisely, you should only need 6 or 7 schools. Otherwise, those supplements become really onerous and the application fees add up. Our number one rule: If this was the only school you got into, and you wouldn’t be happy about it, don’t apply.
We did a ton of research and visits on the front end of the process with D15. Saw many schools which wound up being a bit pricey surprise surprise. But by her senior fall she had whittled her list down to 5 schools and submitted her (1) ED and (2) EA apps that November. She wound up not needing to apply to the other 2 RD.
1 financial safety, 3 matches, 1 reach, 1 lottery.
I agree with other posters that there is no right number to apply to, just what’s right for you and what you can track to make sure all the info is in on time and all the essays, letters of recommendation, and other stuff is done.
We ended up with lucky 13. We are chasing merit to some degree and wanted to maximize D’s chances. That being said, there are several on her list that she has essentially lost steam on beyond doing some initial research that put them on the list in the first place. I wish we had more affordable safeties that she would be happy attending, but I think that’s just my paranoia/conservative approach, and I certainly don’t want to expand the list at this point.
Did a ton of research and visits and applied to 4 EA and 2 (maybe 3) will be RD. My kid cannot imagine the quality of the apps other kids are producing when applying to 10+ schools. 6 good ones is enough for us. 1 is a sure thing and 1 is a high reach, 1 a reach, and 3 matches.
Again, cannot imagine the time (for good quality essays) and cost it would be to do more than 10 apps. To each their own.
I applied to 3 in 1977, got into 2, went to 1 then transferred. My 2 students applied to 20 each, taking into account ED1, ED2 and EA, maximizing their opportunities. It was a lot to manage with the supplemental essays. I rec 15 tops.