Have a lot of colleges I am going to apply to. I have a good mix of safeties, not so many matches, and some reaches. Primary concern is NOT adding any more schools - not even matches. I need to cut down because I have about 30 schools.
Also, finances aren’t a concern in my cutting down process as of now. I picked most of these colleges based off of where I’d get merit aid or affordable financial aid.
Tips?
Figure out which are the best fits academically, environmentally, and socially. That should help.
Academics:
Majors and classes of interest
Curriculum
Class sizes
Faculty quality (if you are able to discern it)
Environment:
Location
Weather
Campus size/population
Surroundings (rural, urban, suburban)
Social Vibe:
Party/Greek scene
Sports scene
Political scene
Clubs
Dorm life
…things like that are some ways to evaluate schools.
Choose your favorite safeties, apply there.
Then apply EA where you can.
Anything you like less than these gets on the back burner.
A few other things to add to prezbucky’s great list to help cull your list:
Availability of undergraduate research
Study abroad within your intended major
Job outcomes/career readiness
Honors college quality
Ease of getting to said college from your home
IMO, you should have about 10 schools on your list. More than that makes supplemental essays a bear.
2-3 should be true safeties
2 reaches
5-6 matches
If you need help with more matches, you can post some stats and the types of school you are interested.
Put your schools within their respective tiers—reaches, safeties, etc. Within each tier, if you have more than a few, just do some straight comparisons among them and drop your least favorite. “Survivor, The College Choice Game!”
For example, say you were a National Merit kid and you had a safety bucket of Alabama, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Florida. All will give you good scholarships, maybe a few slightly better than others. Surely you could trim that list down to 3 from 5 and still leave yourself some wiggle room and choice.
Would reconsider momofsenior1’s distribution of safeties, matches and reaches and do more safeties if merit aid is likely to sway your decision. It will be those schools throwing money at you to bring in your talent and not matches and reaches. Definitely run the net cost calculators for schools of interest and confirm that your parents are willing to pay the estimated cost of attendance before going further. If your family income/assets requires a bigger family contribution at a reach school and you will be inclined to take a merit package at a lower tiered school, then there is little point to applying to reaches.
I’m a prospective premed. My stats are 3.9xx GPA UW (top 5 percent of class) and a 1400 SAT. I have clubs, volunteering, and other essential extracurricular activities.
I’m trying to somewhere without grade deflation, with undergrad research, and smaller class sizes. I have Case, Brandeis as my matches in terms of universities (as well as 3 UCs). I’d look more matches for Universities since I already have a lot of matches for LACs.
I would appreciate it if you could suggest some, thank you.
@YaleGradandDad My list consists of 75 percent safeties and the 25 percent are matches, along with reaches. I am heading to the most financially cheap place where I can outwork everyone and graduate debt free since I’m heading down the premed path and it doesn’t matter where you go. I will keep this in mind. thanks for the advice.
Why don’t you post your list to aid posters in helping you eliminate some of the schools. Assuming you are a California Resident with 3 UC’s on the list?
When one has a large list with at least two financial and acceptance safeties, they can cut their list using whatever criteria they want. Figure out if a school has too many or not enough squirrels if you want. 
For many students, there are plenty of schools they could choose. Only a few have specific requirements.
Many will have financial requirements, but you said that’s not an issue for you.
Since you said you wanted to go premed, I’d be asking each school where recent graduates went to med school. While the vast majority of schools can work to get into med school, I can’t agree that all are equally perceived by all med schools. I would want one where recent graduates got into schools I liked (MD or DO vs heading to the Caribbean or similar).
@Gumbymom Is 3 the limit of UC’s you can apply to?
@conflictedkang are any of your safeties colleges that you know you would really love to attend? I ask that because my d19 created a very short list by asking herself for each college under consideration whether she would actually prefer to attend it over her safety. Her reasoning was “why even apply if I know I wouldn’t really want to go there?”
For her that left 3 other schools that she would at least strongly consider if the financials worked out and she was admitted.
@sunnyschool: there are 9 UC’s and you can apply to all of them. There is no limit. OP stated they were applying to 3 UC’s so just trying to ascertain if which ones and if OP is a CA resident.
I think Carleton is a great school (my younger daughter graduated from there) but as far as I know, the only merit aid it awards is a small National Merit scholarship.
The OP says they think they will get need based aid, though.
I don’t think you have any bad choices on the list. But your list is WAY too long. Remember that you have to pay application fees, pay to send test scores, and pay for the CSS profile for any of these. Plus your parents will have to fill out FA information for all of them, and that is (unfortunately) not a very uniform process across schools.
What is your test score breakdown? Are you are URM? At first glance, Williams and Amherst and Stanford seem out of reach, and I’d drop them.
I’d pick 2 schools from each reach list (leaving off the out of reach ones I mentioned above), 2 each from the match lists, a couple of safeties, and leave the UCs and CSUs on your list. Make sure that they appear affordable (net price calculator shows it, or you think you are competitive enough for merit based on the website/common data set/past postings out here of acceptances with merit that you can afford it). That pares it down to a reasonable number of applications.
If you are having trouble distinguishing between the schools, get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and read carefully about each school.
@sunnyschool - You can apply to all with the same application. Four 350 word personal insight essays with no supplements besides a few special programs (e.g., UC Santa Barbara’s College for Creative Studies.) I would only consider a UC if you are a CA resident.
Brandeis is a good match. U. Rochester might be also. Both offer merit. Are you Natl Merit? If so, USC will give you half tuition and consider you for more as long as you apply by Dec. 1st. Emory Scholars program doesn’t require a separate application
What’s your gender? If you are a woman, many women’s colleges are wonderfully collaborative and supportive – and some can be generous with merit. Scripps, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, etc. come to mind.
For any of these schools, demonstrated interest is crucial.
If you are chasing merit, you need to cast a wide net. There are some nice scholarships out there, but many of the really good ones put the schools at the level of reaches.
It’s hard to give advice on which schools to cut without an idea of what’s on your list…
Yes, but I was confused about the comments regarding financial aid. Not clear what the student’s financial need is.
Thank you for your reply. I think I am going to drop those high reaches you stated, as well as others. I’m not really after prestige, though it will be nice, since it isn’t the end of the world in my potential career path. And yes, I will have substantial need based aid already (AGI is around 63,000). The problem that I have is that my parents did not save much money for me for college. They only started saving last year. They say they can pay upwards of $15,000 a year. NPC on most of these colleges (excluding merit potential at those safeties of course) comes out to be about $20,000 to $25,000 (UCs and CSUs are 15k, so I will likely go here if I don’t get merit elsewhere) .
I don’t know if it’s a good thing to be in about 50k of debt, which will be likely if I do not get any merit aid at those Matches / Reaches (which I would not given my stats) before starting medical school. I will be completely on loans in medical school, so that is why I am looking for schools with more merit aid potentiality. All of the safeties listed above offer that.
Answering your questions:
Totally agree with Intparent. This is a crazy long list! No way to get through all these applications well.
I would keep St. Olaf on your list of safeties. Great pre-med program and generous with aid. Same with Wooster.
You may want to look on the school specific forums to see what folks are saying about the schools on your list. For example, there is a long thread about Earlham’s financial difficulties and Bard’s very small size.
Again, my recommendation is no more than 10 plus your UC/CSU since they are on application.
I just responded on your other thread in which you neglected to put your college list and the fact that you are a CA resident.
Unless you’re sure that you will get FA, you’ve got way too many schools on your list that don’t give merit. You can start by culling there. For example only reach LAC on your list that gives merit is Grinnell.
If FA is in play, that changes things. But, remember, any merit you get sill most likely lower your financial need.
You have way too many safeties. You don’t need more than a few (esp. if you’re a CA resident and have the UCs as safeties). You should probably shorten the list by looking at the CDS for each school and see what percentage of the freshman class gets merit and what the average merit awards are.
An LAC that offers a max merit award of $15K is not going to be as affordable as a UC. Plus travel will be an additional expense.