<p>Hi I was wondering how many college applications is too many, my friend advised apply to 6-8 safeties, and as many reaches as you want...that could leave me around 14-16 schools. How many schools did you apply to, and how many were safeties/ reaches.</p>
<p>-Total Schools
-Safeties
-Reaches
-Comments on why you did</p>
<p>I always planned to apply to around 10 reaches and 4 safeties, but now that I get closer to applying, I understand how much work that is</p>
<p>That friend gave bad advice. Don’t arbitrarily apply to schools. Try to use a ratio to narrow it down. For every 2 reach schools you have, you should have 3 matches and 2 safeties. That is a reasonable ratio.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about ratios or other random mathematical stuff. Think strategy.</p>
<p>What’s the point of a safety? It’s the ensure the best possible worst-case scenario. Start by adding enough safeties until you’re comfortable with the idea of only getting into one of those colleges. If you’ve got guaranteed admission for your major on financially friendly terms at just one school, that’s all you need. You might want two anyway, though, just for the illusion of choice and maybe to maximize financial aid.</p>
<p>Then come the matches. How good are your safeties? Think of flaws they have that could be improved upon- or just other schools you’ll be more content with the thought of going to. Make sure you visit and test fit if possible. Add matches to maximize your odds of not having to go to a safety school. If it takes 5-6 matches for you to feel like you won’t end up at a safety school, then do it. Of course, stop if you feel the total number of applications is too many; you don’t want to overstretch yourself.</p>
<p>Reaches work differently than the other two categories: you want to maximize your odds of getting the best-case scenario. So just add them to your list until you think the list is too big. A top-tier applicant with a good safety likely won’t be able to avoid a reach-heavy list. However, keep in mind that you really need to research your reaches because they demand the most from you in your application. One reach application does not take the same amount of work as one safety application. So be careful so that you can churn out really good reach applications, because that’s where you really want to go.</p>
<p>Just trying to move everyone to this thread…</p>
<p>@International95 wrote Um, I applied to over 20 schools, but that’s because I am an international seeking aid and there are no safeties outside merit $$ options (simply case of probability). Americans can take any strategy they want. If you want to go somewhere just because of the prestige, apply to as many reaches and matches as possible, and perhaps two or three safeties. Some tend to apply to fewer than 10 schools, and others just apply to 1 or 2 (state school/ED/EA). It’s a case-by-case thing, really.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 wrote My D applied to 3 reaches, 4 matches, and 1 safety. As expected, she was wait listed at the reaches, got into the others. The reaches were her idea. The matches and safety were mine (which she agreed to) and offered her a chance at full tuition. But, yes, it really is a case-by-case thing.</p>
<p>I would however suggest that any list include only those schools that your family can afford. Run the net price calculators on each one and show the Expected Family Contribution of each school to your parents. Get their agreement to pay the EFC before applying there.</p>
<p>My son applied to 4 Matches and 1 Safety - But he had a school in mind all along that was a match and so it wasn’t much of a challenge because he only did the others to appease me. It was pretty well decided before we started applying. Filling out the forms for a reach when he wasn’t really interested in going to one seemed like a lot of work for nothing. </p>
<p>A friend’s D applied to 14 schools. And, amazingly enough, got into all 14. (and some of them are tougher schools…like NYU and American…) </p>
<p>@dividerofzero That isn’t an arbitrary ratio. It was developed by the writer of The New Rules of College Admissions. </p>
<p>OP, you should use a ratio. It always you to strategically plan where you want to apply and it helps you eliminate a lot of schools. Also, if you get rejected by all those reaches, you have a lot to fall back on. It makes sense 2:3:2</p>
<p>I don’t know what the reasoning behind 2-3-2 is since I haven’t read that book (or even heard of that guy).</p>
<p>Anyhow, a ratio is a good guide but not flexible enough. For example, I’m in Texas and didn’t screw up in school so I get guaranteed admission to UT-Austin (and a full ride + stipend from Texas A&M). I’d need one or two safeties at most.</p>
<p>With the exception of maybe CMU, virtually every program at the top of computer engineering would be a reach. I wouldn’t even be able to find 3 good Matches (CMU + Rice, maybe, because of the Subject Test fee waiver + ???). If I had to add another two safeties and three matches for every additional two reaches, I’d be really constraining my flexibility; every additional safety would be a full ride + stipend offer that I would waste time and money on and ultimately end up rejecting because they can’t match UT or A&M. Every additional match would either be too expensive to justify picking it over UT or not good enough at ECE to justify picking it over UT. My time and resources would be best spent working on some really good Reach applications because most programs that are worth choosing over my Safeties are very tough to get into.</p>
<p>So the ratio certainly doesn’t make sense in the case of people like me. My strategic method, on the other hand, is flexible enough to adapt. Even if it isn’t arbitrary, it’s a piece of advice I wouldn’t spread. And honestly, I don’t trust people who sell those “how to get into college” books and services because that industry as a whole is pretty sketchy.</p>
<p>I believe you should go 1 safety (this should be a school you like which is financially and academically fit).
3 matches + 3-4 reaches so ideally around 7-8</p>
<p>Since I am a rising junior, I was wondering how long an application usually takes to complete…are the essays the hardest/most time consuming part?? How long do those usually take?</p>
<p>I applied to 2 safeties and about 15 match/reach schools. I say match/reach as an example of say vanderbilt or rice which are difficult to get into but not HYPMS impossible</p>
<p>@spuding102 How long did it take to apply to all of those schools!</p>
<p>I think that after researching/visiting more schools my list will shrink as I find out what I like in a school.</p>
<p>I applied to nine schools, four match and 5 reaches. If I hadn’t gotten into any of them I would have just went to the local commuter school which has a rolling application. I got into all my matches and none of my reaches.</p>
<p>I applied to 7 schools: 2 safeties, 2 matches, and 2 reaches and was accepted to all of them. I really liked every one of them and would’ve been happy at any of them. Whatever you do, don’t waste time on a ton of applications–you can only attend one school!</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages I applied to 8. 3 were safeties (and only required one app, state schools). The rest were reaches and high matches. I got into all but two reaches and chose the best school that gave me the best FA package.</p>
<p>I applied on PAPER. Literally wrote an essay 6 times, stamp/SASE envelope for all recs and transcripts…it was a process.</p>
<p>If I had to apply to those schools today I doubt I’d get into any of them, even the safeties then would be matches now.</p>
<p>My List:
1 Safety
1 Match
6 Reaches</p>
<p>Here’s my reasoning: I applied to 4 schools early, including my safety (EA), match (EA), and two reaches (one EA, one ED). Depending on the results, I would add more safeties/matches/reaches. They key is, I knew I was going to receive my results before the RD deadline. </p>
<p>Results: I was accepted into my safety and match, rejected at one reach and deferred at another reach. I was pretty happy/content with the match that I had gotten into and decided that I wouldn’t waste time/effort/money on other matches or safeties, so I applied to 4 more reaches and I got into one of those reaches! Good strategy, saved time, effort and money.</p>
<p>(The only thing I regret about the process besides not spending enough time on my apps was that I didn’t look into more schools that waived application fees.)</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>OP, 14 schools seem like a lot. Look up the early admissions policy of all your schools and definitely apply to all the schools that have EA/take a similar route to what I did.</p>