How many colleges (approximately)?
How many will be in the category of Safety, Match, Reach (respectively)?
Is this your first experience with college admissions or has/have your older sibling(s) or son/daughter(s) gone through the college admissions process?
(I ask that question bc it may have affected the number and scope of colleges on your list).
I’m two years removed. Despite my user name, I have a college sophomore.
My D applied to 8 schools -
2 safeties, one of which was rolling admission
2 reaches
4 matches of varying selectivity
She had to write 19 essays for these 8 schools.
@momofsenior1 , wow - that’s a lot of essays! I remember that with my oldest too.
Did your D end up at a safety, match, or reach? Hope she’s pleased with her selection. 
If you had to do it over, how many do you think you’d apply to?
My D20 just applied to 10 schools (1 ED, 1 EA, 8 RD). Of those, one was a bigger reach, 2 reasonable reaches (her stats are at the higher end of their range but they have low admit rates), 4 matches, and 3 safer bets. D did not like any of the state schools because she likes smaller environments but the safer schools all have significant merit which makes them affordable. She is an only child so it was a big learning curve that no one else benefits from…
My D ended up at her top choice which was high match/low reach for her major (chemical engineering). She is in honors college which was a reach and a nice bonus.
She only wanted to apply to one reach, and I pushed for two. In retrospect, no idea why I did that!
7-8 still feels about the right amount.
DD20 is my first to apply.
She plans to apply to a total of 8 schools:
2 high reaches
4 high match/low reaches
2 safeties (accepted at 1 already and is happy to attend)
She’s already applied to 5 (ED/EA/rolling). Will definitely apply to at least one more. Will see how ED/EA round goes and how burned out she is with essays to see if she actually completes the last two RD apps.
My D is looking to apply to 6-10 total: 2 likely/safety and the rest hard matches (meaning she’s in the mid-50% and a a good fit, but admit rates are low-- 15%-35%). I’m fairly certain she will choose one for ED as well. I don’t think any more than 8 is reasonable. So many essays!
2 daughters. Oldest applied to 3 and youngest to 4… They knew admission status at time of application (athletes). Youngest had a safety, a match and 2 reaches. She is at the match school. Older applied to a safety, a match and a statistical reach. She is at the reach.
DD’17 applied to two safeties, DD’19 applied to three safeties.
P.S. His applying to only one college is making us insane. He visited a bunch of schools over the last year and loved a couple, until he visited tOSU (the very last one). He heard angels singing and that was the end of his search. We are considering telling him that the Parent Pick is an actual thing and he therefore must apply to at least 2 more schools. He just smiles at us and silently leaves the room. Not sure what that means but we are working on him.
@cypresspat , hope it all works out for him! I’m with you - I’d want to add a few more in case he changes his mind, but lots of kids just know what they want and never look back I guess. 
Also two years ago:
My D applied to eight. We only felt one was a reach (no cost, no essay, one check box on the Common App), some might argue two of the others were. The other 5 were reach/safety - we were pretty confident about them. We looked at true “safety” schools, but none were appealing and the odds of rejection from all eight was infinitesimal.
I’d have to check the spreadsheet, but if short answer, 250 word, etc. all are considered essays, 20-ish sounds about right.
She got into all but the no-effort reach - we hadn’t even visited and it was eighth on her preference list. I thought she might not get in to one other but she did. Her #1 choice was rolling admission and she was in by the end of October, along with a local backup. It made the rest of the process much easier.
6-8 felt like the right number to us. There were really only two she was enthusiastic about - the others were backups.
She was our oldest, so we learned as we went. We’re much better prepared for our second, who is now a sophomore. But she’ll be aiming considerably higher (we visited Harvard, MIT, Yale two weeks ago when she was at a competition at MIT), so I suspect we’ll be learning again.
Current plan is 8.
1 safety, applied EA.
4 matches.
3 reaches.
I suggested a second safety, but my young person feels pretty passionately about the safety she has chosen, and said “Why apply to a second safety if I would obviously attend this one?” I see her point.
There has been much debating about whether to apply to a school ED. Right now, though, we are operating as though she is applying to 8 and she is working on the supplements for all the schools which have them. I have encouraged her not to pull the trigger on the ED question until the week of November 10th. (Her top contenders have a November 15th ED date.)
Probably 13. 3 safeties, 5 matches, 5 reaches. She’s my eldest. It’s probably too many, as the number of supplements has been really onerous. But she’s decided she’d rather write them than narrow further.
@Kayak24 You are spot on in terms of why we are concerned…he may change his mind. But he really is a very decisive kid who tends to not look back. However, He is only 17.
He should know by mid-December and maybe having his friends in the frenzy of applying he will elect to submit one or two other apps. There were two other schools which caught his eye and maybe he will want the benefit of a couple of choices come April. We will see.
On the flip side…how the heck do kids apply to 15-20 schools? Yikes! 6-8 seems a-plenty and I totally get the wisdom of reach/match/safety mix. We never found a ‘match’ he liked, as the other contenders are both reaches. So maybe he will have no choice, in the end.
D is applying to:
3 likelies (one is EA)
6 matches (two of which are also EA)
5 reaches (including an ED and an EA)
1 high reach (seems like a waste of an app, but not worth the fight right now)
I know this sounds like a lot, but I’d say it’s the average at D’s high school.
My d applied to 13. I believe 2 were reaches, 2 were matches, and the rest were safeties. Her reaches were pretty much where she wanted to attend, so she thought she’d cast a wide net with safeties to give her choices if she didn’t get accepted to a reach.
My senior son is applying to 11: 2 reaches, 5 matches, and 4 safeties. He’s lower stats going for a competitive major so wanted to apply to a lot to ensure an acceptance. His top choices are matches. If he doesn’t get into either of them, he’ll likely choose based on COA.
DS applied to 4 safeties and one match. He wasn’t really interested in going too far away or chasing reach schools and mostly just picked from the schools within a few hours of here that offered the program he wanted. He was accepted to them all and now we’re just waiting to see which one gives the most aid/accepts him to honors.
S19 was my second and last to apply to college and he knew he wanted to try for some selective schools with the chance of getting significant financial aid or big scholarships. So, there were 16 apps and SOOO many essays! So glad it’s over!
2 safeties (but one was a reach in terms of needing a big scholarship, which he got)
2 matches (some would say one was a reach but being in state helped; the other was a reach in terms of wanting a big scholarship, which he did not get)
11 reaches! (really 9 because he threw out 2 extra at the end which did not require additional essays or application fees)
I guess I don’t really regret the 9 reaches because the acceptance rates are so low and outcomes so unpredictable.
@elena13 , did he end up choosing a safety, match, or reach and is he happy with his choice?