I have always thought the standard is to apply to 8-10 schools. However I currently have 18 on my list, which is absurd. Do people actually apply to 18 schools?
How many schools do you all plan on applying to? What do you think should be the cap for how many someone applies to?
I know a girl who only applied to one school. I know people who have applied to 21. I am applying to 18 or 19 (9 state schools so one app, and 9 privates). It really depends on money and where you want to go. For me, I am fine with going OOS or staying in my home state. However, my teachers do have limits on the places where they send rec letters, and I will be incredibly squeamish if I have to spend $1500 on app fee costs.
@michelle426 What do you mean they have limits on where they will send letters?? Why??
@neuprospect98 No it’s just a weird thing that some of my teachers do. My APUSH teacher will only send letters to 10 schools. They do this so they don’t spend hours trying to figure out where their student is applying. Most teachers have unlimited schools, but some teachers may have limits. Talk to your teachers about this.
@michelle426 Oh really? I have not heard of this. I asked my teachers and they never mentioned it, so I am hoping it is good. I do not see a reason to limit students, because is it not one letter for all schools?
“What do you mean they have limits on where they will send letters?? Why??”
It’s pretty common in private schools to limit the number of applications a students can send out. (Probably less common for individual teachers to have limits.) The schools want to preserve their relationships with the colleges, so this way they won’t have individual students hoarding more acceptances than they need (impacting their fellow students) and students won’t turn down colleges in such large numbers. So, they want to force students to do more of the matching and hard work of figuring out what will be a good fit.
@pointoforder Oh, I have never heard of this. Interesting! I go to a public school and do not have friends that attend private schools, so I guess that is why I have never heard of this happening. Honestly, it makes sense. Applying to too many schools is a waste anyway, there is no way you can consider so many acceptances. You would go mad.
D did end up applying to 20 schools. Was accepted to 11. Wait listed by 3. In hindsight, between 9 and 12 would have been a more appropriate number. Aside from application fees, I don’t think it’s a problem applying to a lot of safety/target schools but preparing an application to an Ivy League or very top LAC requires more time and genuine focus. Just sending out scores of applications to reach colleges is not as effective as a focused approach. Deciding amongst 11 offers of admission wasn’t that difficult. One thing you might not realize. There is a tightly choreographed sequence in which colleges release admissions decisions. The very top LACs announce a day or two before the Ivy League which all release decisions on the same day / time. What this means is March starts off with a string of acceptances followed by heart breaking rejections (for most applicants) in late March
D applied to 8 + her large state flagship. A couple were low reaches. Did not do ED for financial reasons. She applied only to schools that she had visited, and that she wanted to attend. All applicattions were in by mid-October.
Five months later by late March she had many great choices, and a wide selection of aid packages. By then she had revisited several schools, had done some overnights and attended classes. Four plus State U had dropped off her list for several reasons, and she could concentrate on which one of the remaining schools could best meet her interests at a price she could afford.
The number she applied to worked out great for her, but will vary greatly depending on each applicant’s situation.
My kid applied to 8. One was EA, UT was auto-admit and the other 6 were RD. He would have applied to 1 more but realized he didnn’t want to go to that school. His 1st choice was his EA and it is where he is attending.
I don’t know if they can legally do that. My kid’s school said after x number, they would start charging, but they would still send everything.
In my opinion, about 6-8 applications is a reasonable number for most students who are applying to selective colleges. Example: 1 safety, 2-3 matches, 3-4 reaches.
There is no point applying to schools that are far out of reach for your stats.
There usually is no reason to apply to colleges that are much more selective than your first choice.
If you’re clear enough about your first choice to apply ED, and it’s not too long a reach, then you may not need any other reaches.
There is no point applying to a college if its online net price calculator shows an estimate your family cannot afford
(or if you haven’t even bothered to run the NPC and they cannot afford the full sticker price).
Usually, there is no need to apply to more than 1 or 2 safeties.
The recommendation thing is done differently in each school.
In my (Catholic) school, I submit the letters to Naviance, along with a hard copy to the Office of College Placement. They take care of it from there. I have no idea who has applied to how many schools. (I could check Naviance to find out, but there’s no reason to do so.) There’s absolutely no limit on the number of schools.
To get back to the main question though, it’s going to cost you between $30 and $50 for most of the schools you apply to. So those 18 schools could cost pretty close to $1000.
And let’s pretend you get into all of them. There will be some you won’t consider, and others that you would LOVE to attend. Why not make those decisions now?
Have you actually visited all 18 of those schools? And loved them all? Are they all at the same price point? Do they all offer the same in terms of internships and career placement? Do they all offer the same off campus access if that’s something you value?
Narrow down your list to schools you can actually see yourself attending and graduating from.
One way my S whittled down his list was by using non-binding EA/rolling admission schools. He got into two schools that were like his 4th and 5th choices by mid-December so it turned out that he didn’t need to apply to any schools below those on his list for RD. You may want to see if you can stage your applications similarly.
@tk21769 I completely agree with the amount of schools and distribution you recommend! Thanks for your help!
@bjkmom You are right, I have not visited all 18 schools, however, for some schools it is not possible for me to visit. For example, I am interested in applying to Occidental College, in California, but I live in New York. I understand where you are coming from though, I can definitely get the list of schools down. I am being too open and keeping schools on my list just because they sound cool.
@happy1 That is actually a really good plan, I think I will submit all my EA schools first, and wait to hear back, then if I do not get into any of my top choices, I will submit more RD applications! It actually seems like a brilliant plan. Thank you for you for sharing your insight on this topic and helping me to decide how I should handle this crazy time of year!!
My elder son only applied to nine. Since he was looking at Theater programs (six of those nine included auditions), that was actually a low number, and I had people say that his list should have been larger. He ended up accepted to our state flagship, his ultra-safety, and one auditioned BFA program. My younger son applied to fifteen colleges. I think that five or six had free applications; three were UCs, which had a single application. I think he could have cut the list down to 10-12. If you are hoping for merit aid, it’s good to cast a fairly wide net. That’s not necessary if you are happy with your safety. I recommend setting up a manageable timetable, including colleges with rolling admissions, non-binding Early Action, and leaving other safeties with late application deadlines on the back burner. If you like your state flagship, and are confident that you can get in and afford it, go ahead and aim high for other colleges. Five was typical back when I applied in the 1970s. Eight became the norm later. I think that 10-12 is typical in the Common App era. I suspect that there were diminishing returns for some of the “shotgunners” who applied to 20+; they might have had better results had they been able to dedicate more time and attention to specific applications, and selected their matches and safeties more judiciously.
@woogzmama Yeah BFA Theater is different. I have two friends applying for BFA Theater and auditioning for them, and both of them are applying to 15-20 schools. It is so competitive.
@neuprospect98 , Honestly, at this point, a wide open list is fine.
But start to think about what’s important to you. And begin to visit schools now… you may be surprised to find likes and dislikes you didn’t know you had. (My son and I visited one school in CT, and he realized that it’s about as large as he would like to go. OK, great… that cut a number of schools off his list. He had no idea he preferred a small school until he visited a larger one.
And “sounding cool” may be a better reason than you think. If a school meets all your other criteria and, in addition, sounds cool, then it may be a perfect fit. It may be a school you can be excited about attending, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.