<p>I just realized I want to apply to 11 schools. I am a very busy student and don't have the greatest time management skills so would that be too much for me to handle? I just want to get an idea of how much time and effort I would need to put in to apply to that many schools.</p>
<p>btw my college counselor said 8-10 apps and my tour guide at Caltech said 10 minimum.</p>
<p>I can lower it down to 8 but dont want to.
In this order of preference (the full 11)</p>
<p>Stanford
MIT
Cornell
Caltech
Northwestern
U Penn (I would eliminate this second)
Carnegie Mellon (I would eliminate this first)
Univ of Michigan
USC
Univ of Illinois
Univ of Nebraska (in state safety)</p>
<p>honestly…i’m a firm believer in 6 max…i actually think all kids should be limited…but most people on CC think 11 is fine, maybe even a little low…</p>
<p>if you don’t think you can handle it, try cutting it…if you suck it up, go for 11</p>
<p>It would probably be too much to handle for someone who is busy and has poor time management skills, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you don’t try to do them all at once. Try getting some essays out of the way before school starts.</p>
<p>I don’t see how it can be too much, knowing many universities you’ve listed can also be found on commonapplication.com. Also to note you may be surprised how simple some college applications actually are… some require no essays, many can be done with 30 minutes.</p>
<p>I think it is definitely doable. I am applying to probably 12-16, but 6 are UC’s and my safeties or financial safeties.</p>
<p>If you start now the essays will be doable. What you can do to help is take all of the schools not on the common app that you know you want to apply to without a doubt. Whatever the best extended essay is from those schools can usually be used as your common app essay. Additionally, shorter answers from those schools apps can be applied to many of the schools on the common app that have supplements. In reality, you should only be writing about 12 essays at most with this method. This way you can focus on a few essays rather than too many.</p>
<p>I hope that made sense. It’s kind of late for me and I’m starting to get off my sugar rush. :)</p>
<p>In my opinion, a safety is a school you’re SURE you’ll get in. I don’t really believe in matches, so my opinion is it’s best to have 5-9 reaches and 1 safety. </p>
<p>I think 11 is fine if you can handle it. Depending how many are on CommonApp, your time will be cut down a lot also. I think if you get to 15-20+ then you have too many. I think I applied to about 15 and now I can see that I should have cut about 4-5 schools… it just wasn’t worth applying to so many.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine I did 9 this year. Get on the commonapp now so you can work on essays so that when you get to the others you won’t feel swamped. Btw, USC’s was super easy last year, don’t ever worry about that one[in terms of time consumption].</p>
<p>oh, please…i can only wish to narrow my ‘30’ list down to 11. ah, but that’s what happens when u have vague requirements & a common major interest
but you’re seriously fine.</p>
<p>edit:can’t u use the same main essay for pretty much all of your colleges?? i understand many schools have short supplements, though.</p>
<p>i did 6, and i feel like that is a very appropriate number. MAYBE add one or two more, but after that, i’d be hesitant. you need to work hard to show yourself 3-4 marches, 2 reaches, 2 safeties :)</p>
<p>btw, since you’re applying to stanford, just a heads up: that app, IF YOU TRY, is vicious. takes a longggggg time.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you plan to major in, but I wouldn’t eliminate CMU first. It is usually an excellent match/safety in case you don’t get into Stanford, MIT, or Caltech (the top schools on your list) and, depending on your intended major, it is a better school than Michigan, Illinois or Northwestern for example. </p>
<p>The only major drawback I can think of is that Carnegie Mellon is expensive and doesn’t give out too much financial aid compared to peer schools.</p>
<p>well you seem to have schools of different calibers here. (possible safeties, matches, and reaches even though i don’t know your stats.)
keep in mind that you’ll probably be recycling a lot of essays in an application.</p>
<p>honestly… I’m a firm believer in 6 minimum ;-)</p>
<p>Ok, if you stick a gun to my head, I’ll go as low as 4. 6 to 10 is always my recommendation. I have seen too much heartache for students and families because they narrowed their choices too far. </p>
<p>Particularly because you are looking at many very competitive schools, I don’t think 11 would be inappropriate at all.</p>
<p>Your list looks pretty solid. Even though I only applied to 5 schools, it’s generally inappropriate when you are applying to so many selective schools to not apply to at least 8. If I were you I’d also throw in an SCEA application to Stanford or two EAs to Caltech and MIT to possibly limit the work you’ll have to do later on. Start first with the most desired apps and go down to the least desired, with time permitting.</p>
<p>Example:
My current school list is around 9 schools. So to start off I have chosen one safety, two matches, and one reach that I want to make my priorities. I plan on starting those applications in August and will dedicate a lot of effort to those apps. Then, if I finish those 4 and still have time for more, I can start working on the other 5 schools on my list and work on those until I run out of time or energy.</p>
<p>The main obstacle with applying to a large number of schools is making sure that you are able to perfect each app. So start off by perfecting your most important ones. If you have time after that, go ahead and apply to as many schools as you want.</p>
3-4 marches, 2 reaches, 2 safeties :)</p>