<p>laxfan, try to think of applying to a couple of extra schools this way: It costs $60 to apply, and $100000 to attend. All in all it’s not a whole lot of money, and it can actually save you money in the end. For example, I had applied to seven schools for undergrad. I didn’t get into the highest ranked school, but I did get into all the others. My financial aid offer from RPI was better than CMU’s by about $8000 a year. I sent that over to CMU, and they were willing to match what RPI had offered me. That alone paid for all of my application fees.</p>