<p>And how many safety schools is not enough?</p>
<p>You need at least one safety school which you are 100% assured of admission, 100% assured that you can afford it, and 100% happy to attend.</p>
<p>Some here recommend having two safety schools in order to have a choice in April if you do not get into any other school.</p>
<p>That’s helpful, thank you.</p>
<p>Now how many colleges is too many? My family overestimates me and my chances of getting into top colleges and are pushing me to apply to a bunch of top universities which are absolute reaches for me. I don’t want to have to sacrifice my match schools for more reaches, so would it kill me to just apply to all? I’ve decided to drop from 3 AP’s to 2 AP’s senior year, so I’ll have more time to work on college apps.
And we’re talking about like 20 schools here. Like 15 of them use the UC app and CA however. Is this crazy?</p>
<p>How many applications do you think you can comfortably finish by a month before the deadline? (People tend to over/underestimate themselves, so avoid just thinking of a number and try to break it down somewhat mathematically- how long do you think it’ll take you to be content with your essays, etc.?).</p>
<p>As for safeties, you just want the near-guarantee of an outcome you’ll be comfortable and satisfied with. Once you think you’ve got that in your hands, you’re good to go and should move on to matches. Don’t be too risk-averse, but remember that you have a not insignificant probability of getting rejected from all your matches and reaches and should plan as if you’ve already been rejected everywhere else. Once you get to matches, make sure that every one of them is better than your safety. Don’t waste energy on places you won’t go to.</p>
<p>For me, that meant one safety since my “satisfactory outcome” was a top-ranked ECE program without shelling out over $45k/yr- since I graduated from a Texas public school, UT Austin Cockrell was a really good worst-case scenario. If my “satisfactory outcome” had been the illusion of choice or not shelling out over, say, $25k/yr and being 100% sure I would get into my desired major, I could’ve had two safeties with A&M. So it all comes down to a few things:</p>
<ul>
<li>what you want as your worst-case scenario</li>
<li>how sure you want to be that you’ll achieve it (and the odds of not only getting into a college but getting into the program you want with the financial aid you want)</li>
</ul>
<p>EDIT: Just saw your latest comment. 20 schools using the UC app isn’t too bad as long as any school-specific stuff doesn’t add too much time. It’s less about how many schools you’re applying to (until you factor in finances, but it seems like your family isn’t concerned about that so much as it is about having a shot at UCLA and Berkeley) and how much effort you put into applications. If you overestimate yourself, fall of senior year will become a disaster. And it gets even worse when you realize you didn’t have time to apply to scholarships. (My experience).</p>
<p>There are only 9 UCs that you can apply to, so one UC application can count for up to those 9. One CSU application can apply to 23 CSUs, though (but CPSLO wants additional supplemental information).</p>
<p>The Common Application is used by many private and some other public schools, but many of them have their own supplemental essays to write.</p>
<p>If you have the stats and UCs are affordable, sign up for this program during June or July to make UCR a safety: <a href=“New Students | Apply | Undergraduate Admissions | UC Riverside”>https://vcsaweb.ucr.edu/gap/index.aspx</a></p>