im an incoming senior and i’ve been contemplating which colleges i should apply to. so far i think im only going to apply to 4: ucberkeley, ucla, ucsd, and johns hopkins. people essentially say im a shoo-in for ucb, ucla, and ucsd (2400 baby!), but im still a little wary of applying to only 4, since dont most ppl apply to around 6? my worst nightmare is not getting into any of the ones i apply to and having to go to a community college…haha
so basically, do you guys think i should apply to some real safeties like the lower-tier UCs, or just keep it at 4 and save money?
<p>I only applied to four schools, and it would have been three if my GC didn't insist I try to find another school. As long as one is truly a safety, four is fine. Why bother applying to a school you would be miserable at?</p>
<p>Every book I've read says to apply to eight colleges: 2 reaches, 2 safeties, and 4 matches. A lot of what I've read on-line, however, differs.</p>
<p>I say a safe number is 5-6 (it's what i'm doing)</p>
<p>1 reach, 1 reach/match, 2-3 solid matches, 1 safety</p>
<p>based on what other ppl think, i think u shouldn't apply to any fewer than 4 schools</p>
<p>The normal answer is to apply to between 6 and 8 colleges. There should be about 1-2 safeties, 2-4 matches, and about 1-2 reaches. In practice, it is difficult to tell the matches from the safeties from the reaches. This is particularly true at the extremely selective schools because of the lottery aspect for top applicants. At these schools, for every applicant accepted, there are four or five who are almost identical but are denied just because they don't have room for everybody. In 2003, there were about 760 people with perfect SAT scores in the US. Of these about 500 applied to Harvard and less than 300 were accepted. HYP is not a match for anybody. Okay, maybe a legacy URM from North Dakota with perfect gpa, perfect SAT, and an Olympic Gold medal.</p>
<p>When looking at the 50% SAT ranges for a college: If you are a non-legacy, non-URM, non-athlete, then you need to be near the top of the 50% range during RD in order to be a good candidate.</p>
<p>In your own case, I assume you are from CA. State schools are normally easier to get into for in-state students. </p>
<p>There are both admissions safeties and financial safeties. </p>
<p>With your SAT score, you sound good for those schools but there are other considerations. If you are not sure if you have a safety, go ahead and apply to another school. It will be worth the trouble just for your piece of mind.</p>
<p>I'd say at least 10 if money isnt a probably. Today college admission is so competitive and you want options. You dont want April to come around and wish you applied to "that" school. Just cover your bases. But if money is a probably I would say 6-8 is reasonable. BTW, many college waive application fees if you apply online. You may also be able get waivers from ur GC</p>
<p>theres no way you wont get in to UCSD, so if you'd be happy there then don't worry about safeties</p>
<p>If you're grades and EC's match your high SAT score, you could probably get into any UC, so you probably don't need to apply anywhere else. I'm applying to 7 schools, but only because I have to audition for my major at all but one.</p>
<p>I am not aware that the admissions policy of your 4 choices is automatic simply because of a 2400. Nothing is that guaranteed. But your jump from those to attending a cc is a bit extreme. There has to be other safeties that you have an interest in. If you failed to get into any of your 4 choices, where else would you want to go, for whatever reason (i.e. close to home, affordable, etc.)? Those can be your other choices.</p>
<p>Only people with out-of-control egos or application fee money to burn would apply to 10+ schools. They're just out to brag that they can afford to apply to a whole bunch of schools. </p>
<p>Since you didn't mention your stats (other than the 2400), what your academic major and/or career goal are, etc., it's a little challenging recommending other schools to you.</p>
<p>Submitting 6-8 applications is reasonable. Any more is just showing off, unless there really are 10+ schools that you are interested in.</p>
<p>I assume you are in CA. Over the last year, going through the application process, I didn't get a really good feel that there are 'automatic' admits at those 3 selective UC campuses. Also, above an admissible threshold, I don't think high SAT scores do much for you at UC. If you look at the accepted student average, it is pretty low compared to private schools, so you can see it is not a priority.</p>
<p>I wouldn't feel good about my kid applying without a real safety so I'd add one or two other UC's. While you may expect to get admitted, you could be one of those who don't. My cousin went to Princeton but was not accepted at Berkeley (instate, too.)</p>