<p>New here.
My D settled on 4 colleges and 2 Univeristy plus she wanted to play lax . Money was an issue. We could afford the In state University but not the other schools. So we did not advise her to do ED. Since she was not doing ED we had to make sure a Lax coach would support her in RD.We told her she could only apply to blind need schools that matched the balance with merit or scholarship with an aim to not borrow more than 2-3k a year in loans.
We told her to not waste to time on school that had less than 25% acceptance rate(but it turned out afterwards that a couple of her match schools dropped below that because of the high application rate of this class) except for the State University. We also eliminated schools she knew from the coach only had a slight interest.
The big one… we told her not discuss this with anyone, but her gc or us!!! It forced her to really look at what she wanted in College, not what her friends were doing. It saved a lot money on applications and my D gave those schools her full attention, visiting, asking questions of current students and spending time on their supplemental forms.
Which left
one reach school RD- waitlisted- then came off the waitlist, but then she decided on a match school instead. ( top 20 University)- never found out finaid
4 match schools RD- accepted (all top 20 LAC)- finaid all 4 between 28-30k merit
1 safety school /early action -accepted (State University)- Full tuition</p>
<p>I applied to 3.</p>
<p>A lot of guidebooks (especially older ones) will tell you the max you should apply to is 6 - possibly 2 each under the categories of safety, match, and reach.
But now that Common App has become THE universal app, it’s easier to apply to well over 6…if you’ve narrowed down your list already and it’s painful to see one college get chopped off the list, go for all 10!</p>
<p>It also depends what school you’re applying to -if any- EA/ED. If you’re fortunate enough to get into that one, of course you won’t have to apply to any more than one! So your EA school should be considered thoroughly. What are your chances of getting in, and would you really stop applying to other schools and commit to that one if accepted?</p>
<p>I applied 7 including some not that prestigious schools.
But I also applied to US Berkeley, UCLA and USC as well.
So you should apply all the school that you want to go, but don’t forget about in case of very bad luck, you will still have place to go.</p>
<p>My list is 13 and that’s after considerable trimming down. My list is almost all reaches with a few safeties. Is 13 too many? I haven’t visited most of them. Should I try to narrow my list down after visits?</p>
<p>Visiting will eliminate some schools on your current list…then you will realize that you need to find more schools like “School A” that you really love!</p>
<p>I applied to 12 schools, which I had actually cut down from 17. I don’t know, it depends on if you can handle all that work and writing.</p>
<p>I applied to 4 reaches, 7 matches, and 1 safety school. Of course, I did my research and have good reasons why I applied to each school. I visited half my schools as well. In addition, I liked having a lot of options, and given the hype about the ultra competition about this admissions year, decided to cast a wide net to ensure I would have a decent selection come April.</p>
<p>My results? 7 acceptances, 2 waitlists, and 3 rejections. I am quite satisfied.</p>
<p>However, I will say that even though I applied to 12 and thought it was a good number for me, a lot of people will think it is excessive and say you can definitely cut down to 5-8 or 6-8 schools. (shrug) I think it’s an individual thing.</p>
<p>If you apply to more than 15 schools, then I think that’s sort of the threshold where you can start questioning if you’re applying to that number of schools for the right reasons and if you truly are interested in attending any one of them.</p>
<p>As for safeties, you definitely need them, but don’t load up on them for your list. Pick maybe up to 3 safeties that you would absolutely love attending if it comes to that point, but then start filling your list with match and reach schools.</p>
<p>I applied to 3, all safeties. 3 acceptances. I couldn’t be happier. :)</p>
<p>This is a very subjective topic…CB’s “College Matchmaker” isn’t accurate 100% of the time, but it’s a good place to start. ^_^</p>
<p>I applied to 3 reaches (U Va, Northwestern, UM), 4 matches (UW, UIUC, UM-College Park, UT Austin) and 1 safety (A&M). Want to know the results?
I got into one of my 3 reaches. I got into 3 of my matches. And I got waitlisted by my SAFETY! In other words, colleges are REALLY arbitrary at times that you just don’t quite know what will happen.</p>
<p>Applying to many schools may reveal generous financial aid offers that you may not have been previously aware of. I say apply to at least eight schools, but you could go as high as twenty (if you can afford the app fees).</p>
<p>Heres what I recommend. First write your application essays for your safeties (2). Then your matches (2-4). Then see where you are. Is it november already and you’re having a hectic term? Or is it august and you have plenty of time to craft beautiful plans to try to weasel into your reach? If you are sick of the application process after you’ve gotten your safeties and matches done, then FINE, leave it. You’re done, pat yourself on the back and for god’s sake, try to learn something now in HS rather than be a transcript. However, if you have the ambition, the time, and the resources, focus in on ONE OR TWO reaches and really do those well. Then see where you are. Chances are you’ll want to call it a game, but if not, then tack on one or two. </p>
<p>The main thing is not to do 15 applications at the same time, because they will… not be indicative of your full potential. You can apply to 15 schools, just take the time to do each one individually. And get your safeties and matches out of the way. Don’t be stupid and apply to all the reaches and end up having to rush your safety apps on december 30th. </p>
<p>Keep applying until you get to the point where the quality of your apps is declining, and then STOP.</p>
<p>CB matchmaker is about as helpful as online dating websites. Talk to real admissions people and your college counselors to evaluate reach, match or safety. </p>
<p>(I’m sorry, I should tone down my anti-CB attitude)</p>
<p>I did 9, and would really not recommend more than 7 unless you start working on essays (at least somewhat) over the summer. I did 3 UCs, 4 CommonApps, and 2 individual apps.</p>
<p>Yes, CommonApp makes the basic application for many schools the same - but don’t forget about supplements. Each of my 4 CApp schools had supplements with some additional writing in them. All told, just the supplements added another 8 300 word essays plus some more portions that took a lot of time and focus.</p>
<p>My view is that people should be applying to schools they really know and love - not just because of rankings or reputation or OMG it’s HYPS or anything arbitrary. More applications just reduce admit rates for the people who genuinely love schools (without ED), make most everyone look worse with lower yields, add to the unnecessary craziness of applying, and generally make it harder to get accepted to specific places. I already mentioned the time aspect with applications, but it should also take time to get to know if you could see yourself living there, becoming part of community, and actually adding something to the college. When I see someone applying to 12+ places, I instantly think that person hasn’t done enough research. Harvard is not the best school for everyone, and just because you like H/Y/P doesn’t mean you should apply to every other Ivy as well. Each school is different, and very few can be compared or considered matching to justify mirror applications in the hopes of getting into one of them.</p>
<p>And really, the biggest annoyance with lots of applications is that come April, if you’re on CC there’s a good chance you’ll probably get into a lot of them. I was accepted to 5/9, and it wasn’t fun having to decide between 5 schools that I genuinely loved for various reasons. Once your apps are submitted, you’ll want the rest of your senior year to fly by as easily as possible. Don’t make it arbitrarily harder on yourself, admissions officers, and everyone else.</p>
<p>i think 8 is a good number. not all reaches are exactly equal, neither are matches and safeties.</p>
<p>good number of matches should be 3. then work your way up to the reaches which i think we can pick and choose to be 1 high, 1 middle and 1 low reach, almost like half reach/half match. for example, i won’t pick hypsm as my 3 reaches but 1 or 2 at most and pick another one that’s somewhat higher than your match. then two good safeties, good schools offering programs you’re interested in, maybe 1 state and 1 lac. but make sure that safeties are the schools you won’t mind taking at all if they’re gonna be all you have in the end, at least. this way, i think, you got yourself pretty much covered. </p>
<p>so actually, it’s 2+1+3+2 = 8</p>
<p>talking about chances and number of schools applied to, we don’t necessarily increase chances very much by applying to a larger number of schools. i think the key is to select a good balance of reaches, matches and safeties. one important area is to carefully study the middle 50% sat scores for each school applied to.</p>
<p>Actually, middle 50% sat scores tell a lot of story. Apart from the fact that half of the admittees fall into this range, with 25% above and 25% below, it says a lot about our chances considering all our other qualifications (high academic strengths, ecs, essays, etc.) being equal. we need to see if our sat scores would be in line more with the upper 25% of students admitted to school you’re applying to, which means 75% percentile and up. Or we’re in the upper middle 50% which means 50%-75% percentile. Or we’re in the lower middle 50% sat scores which means 25% - 50% percentile. anything below represents slim chances indeed as the lowest 25% range of sat scores is pretty much reserved for atheletes, development admits, urms, legacies and so on.</p>
<p>come back to a number of schools applied to, i think our sat scores should serve as an indicator. matches should be around 50% percentile (say you select 3 schools in 40%-60% percentile range), while reaches should be around 30% percentile plus minus (3 schools in 25%-35% percentile ranges; maybe one of these 3 could be down to 20% percentile) and of course safeties could fall between 70% - 80% percentiles.</p>
<p>how to derive the percentiles compared with our own sat scores, it’s hard to tell. there’s no exact mathematical fomular but i guess we have to work out the numbers and get a feel for each individual school. most of the reaches have the middle 50% percentile with 780 or even 790 math scores as highest meaning the top 25% admittees of the school have scores 790 and up. that’s a highest reach for practically all applicants. imagine yourself in the applicant pool, and see where you stand.</p>