How many schools will you be applying to this year?

With the ongoing pandemic, college selection has been a confusing time for us students. Some kids can’t really go to see universities or see life in a college town/campus. Also, college admissions is still up in the air. Rumors are going around that schools will be accepting less students from the graduating high school class of 2021, which is unsettling for many teens. In your opinion, how many schools should kids be applying to this year? Is it any different from previous year? If so, why?

Personally, I think I will be applying to 13 universities (2-3 extra just in case).

My HS 2021 will apply to one ED school and 5 overseas school at the ED deadline. Depending on the outcome, if needs to go to regular round will apply to 5-8 more schools. HTH.

@GlobalFencingMom Yeah, that sounds good.

You can only attend one school. S20 applied to 13 I think. If he had done some more research about the schools and their curriculum he probably could’ve taken 3-4 off the list. Too many required classes. Do a lot of research up-front.

Applying, writing essays, honors colleges, and visiting take-up time. I think 5-7 is the sweet spot unless you need merit scholarships. If you do then apply to as many as you reasonably can.

I think the most important thing, especially in today’s Covid environment is to find two safety/match schools close to home (within a few hours drive). S20 has been on campus 3 weeks. He’s mentioned that some freshman have said if they had a do-over they would’ve stayed home or gone to their in-state options given the current situation.

D21 has solid group of 3 schools she is definitely applying to and will fire those off within the next two weeks (no ED; 2 are rolling admission NMS schools and 1 is an EA app). After that, she has two groups of about 3 schools each that she has organized by application deadline - some in November, some in December or January. So, 9-10 schools total.

eta: I forgot to mention, this is pretty much in line with my older d20’s number of apps, which was 11 last year. Honestly, I feel as if her application experience makes us more focused this year and that d21 will be just fine submitting less applications than her sister did. She may not even bother with the last few, so she can focus on her current schoolwork and other activities without feeling the extra pressure of submitting more apps than necessary.

@amsunshine S20 did 13. S21 will do less than 10. Probably 7 or 8. Very focused. We had the same experience with apps. Lol.