<p>Ideally, how many universities should you be applying to? How many should be Dream, Reach, Match, Safety?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance. :)</p>
<p>I’d do:</p>
<p>0 dream
2 reach
3 match
1 safety
1 guaranteed safety</p>
<p>^What’s the difference between a ‘safety’ and a ‘guaranteed safety’?</p>
<p>A school that can provide guaranteed admission to you is a guaranteed safety. Most people don’t do this, it’s just what I’d do.</p>
<p>I applied to 11 universities. That was way too many. If I could do it all over again, I would apply to 8- 9. 1 super reach (optional), three reaches, three matches and two safeties.</p>
<p>Three reaches, three matches, an admissions safety and an admissions + financial safety (in case financial aid didn’t make the other “admissions” safety affordable).</p>
<p>I suggest also considering the deadlines and amount of time required for the applications, not just the number of applications. My D is applying to 11 schools for next year. She had 4 applications due November 1 (EA), 2 due December 1, 2 due December 15 and 3 due January 1 (but needs to finish before Christmas since we’ll be out of town). It has been a lot of work on her part since she is applying to schools that require a lot of essays and short answers. Fortunately her classes this semester aren’t too time-consuming and she has cut back on her EC’s. The original plan was to wait to do the RD apps until she heard from the EA schools but with the December deadlines for RD applications that hasn’t worked out.</p>