<p>Every time I talk to my mum about college she tells me I have to be applying to more schools and suggests all these schools I don't like. I got yelled at this morning for not applying to enough schools and how if I don't apply to enough she won't be able to afford college (when my sister was applying to college, she showed one school another school's FA package and the first one increased its aid). I'm applying to nine schools, CC. Is that not reasonable? What can I do?</p>
<p>There’s more than just the number of schools, though. Are they all expensive? Are some of them notoriously bad with financial aid (e.g., NYU)? Are some of them known for good merit or need-based aid? Are all of them reaches? Etc., etc.</p>
<p>As long as you have at least ONE institution on your list that meets the following criteria, you are golden:
- You can pay for it without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed state aid and/or guaranteed merit-based aid offered by the institution itself.
- You know for dead certain that you will be admitted because you meet admissions standards posted right on the institution’s website OR your high school has years of records that clearly show that no one with your profile has ever been denied admission.
- Your potential major is available.
- You know you can be happy there if it is the only place you get into that you can afford to attend.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a rock-solid truly safe institution on your list yet, then find one. Better yet, find two or three so that you have options come next April.</p>
<p>Fix your mom a nice cup of whatever soothing beverage she prefers, sit down with her, and talk about the money situation. Find out exactly how much is available, then take another look at your list with that in mind.</p>
<p>Excellent advice from happymomof1 and sikorsky</p>
<p>Let me add a few thoughts (which admittedly make many of the same points).</p>
<p>What level of school are you applying to?</p>
<p>If you say that your list of 9 consists of all 8 Ivies plus Stanford, I’d say that you need to rethink your list. However (assuming your grades and scores are competitive) you had three reach schools, 5 match schools and one true safety, it’s probably enough. However, there are situations where it may not be. Let me give a few examples:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do you have a well planned list? With 9 schools – I think 2 Reaches, 5 Matches, and 2 Safeties. (NB – 8 Ivy League Schools Plus … Tufts (a safety for NO ONE) is not a well planned list.)</p></li>
<li><p>How competitive is your list? If your match schools have >50% acceptance rates, you you can apply to fewer schools than if your match schools have <20% acceptance rates. Nonetheless – a well planned list of 9 should be sufficient for even highly competitive schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Will you be crushed if you have to go to your safety school? If the answer to this question is “yes” then you should do whatever you have to to limit the chances of this occurring. This means apply to more schools.</p></li>
<li><p>How important is it to aggressively shop financial aid packages? Let’s say that School A (your first choice) will require your family to pay $2000/year more than School B. Wouild you have to go to School B anyway because even though “A” is technically affordable it would be a strain. By the way, this is a very legitimate reason to choose a school. If this is the case, you may have to apply to a few more schools so that you can see a couple more financial aid packages. For example, if you need 3 or 4 safety schools so you can package shop them, then 9 may not be enough.</p></li>
</ol>