<p>Ok... Im only a junior....but I have been thinking about colleges and I have a few things that I dont understand...
Why should a student only be limited to applying to like 6 schools?
I thought that it would be smarter to apply to more schools so that you have a greater chacne to get in to moer schools? </p>
<p>I guess im missing something here that everying else gets........so help me out kk</p>
<p>chillin,
I think the answer you will find to that question on CC is that you shouldn't necessarily need to apply to more than 10 schools if you do your research first. It is very important to start off with an understanding with your parents as to how much they can afford to pay towards your education. Will you need financial aid to attend college? Knowing that, you should be looking for maybe 2 "reach" schools, 2-3 "match" schools, and 2-3 "sure bets." Search through this forum and you will find definitions for each of them. If you carefully look into prospective schools and narrow down a broader list into these categories, you should be successful in being accepted by a number of schools. What's the point of being accepted into a dozen or more schools? It seems to me that it would then become much more difficult to decide on which school to attend. It's nice to have some choice, but I believe that you can have too much choice.</p>
<p>The FAFSA can only be submitted to 6 schools at a time. There is no limit to the number of batches of 6 or less that can be submitted. Some high schools are trying to limit the number of applications/student to decrease the workload and push students towards a more thoughtful approach. It can also be a lot of work for the student to submit to a large number of schools. Many require supplementary applications beyond the common app. There can be issues with tracking all of the deadlines and submissions. The usual 2 safeties, 2 matches and 2 reaches may not fit all applicants, but it is usually best to limit the number to a reasonable number. Anything beyond a dozen or so is a lot of work.</p>
<p>Remember there is no reason to get into more schools. You want to spend time with your selection and get into one school that meets your needs.</p>
<p>negatives to applying to many schools are
- you are already busy with your heavy senior schedule
- it cost money for appl fee, test score sending, visiting etc.
- writing many outstanding essays is more difficult than concentrating on several choosen ones and making your application fit with every school you apply
-not needed in most cases if you do your homework right</p>
<p>Now I am not saying it is should not be done. If you are in great need of comparing fin aid packages you might really benefit from applying to 10 schools or so. If you are very organized and capable of preparing majority of your applications during the summer, visiting during your junior year- it might be not difficult to do.
Still you can not go to more than one school even that you most likely be very successful at several schools you will apply.
I think it is great that you already started to prepare for your application process. For most people applying to less than 10 schools works as very good strategy.
Figure out with your parents where you stand financially and start figuring your other criteria. Also remember that your criterias are subject to change- what you think is important now might not be so in a year. I could not believe how much my D changed during her college search.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You may not have thought through your options as well as if you apply to fewer schools. This may actually increase your chances of getting acceptances only to schools that you wouldn't want to attend.</p></li>
<li><p>You are more likely to get bored during the admissions process, which can mean blowing off or making careless errors in some essays or acting bored or irritated during interviews, which if you have to do 10 interviews can put a serious crimp on your time.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you are looking for good aid (merit and/or need based) you may want to up the number of schools you apply to to maximize the acceptances and colleges that offer you money. Appling to 10 colleges will not increase the number you get into if 8 are way out of your league, but applying to 10 with a healthy number of reaches, matches, and safeties is good because you maximize your chances of getting into one reach, and of getting scholarships from match and safty schools.</p>
<p>chillin, I'm of the more is better school especially if you're interested in very selective schools, need substantial financial aid, have lopsided credentials or fall into some special category like international student or have a non-contributing parent. </p>
<p>I would however mention a few restrictions: You must do your homework and have a good reason for every school on your list. You must devote adequate time to each application.</p>
<p>I would say that 10-12 is about right if you fall into any of the categories listed above. I would not worry so much about distinguishing between match/safeties and safety/matches. I would just make sure that you have one or two solid sure bets (that you really would like to attend) then go full speed toward whatever your heart desires. If you need financial safeties, then you may have to expand the sure bets to 3-4.</p>
<p>My son's school limited applications to 6, which I thought was both unrealistic and unfair to kids who were interested in and qualified for selective schools and who had thoroughly researched and visited. It put unnecessary stress on families that were already anxious about the outcome. </p>
<p>I'm not advocating the shotgun, every ivy plus Stanford and MIT approach. Nor do I think that you need to go over 15. As I said 10-12 sounds about right in today's uber-competitive market.</p>
<p>Remember once you get in you need to choose - might want to visit (maybe for the first time) so if you get into more than a few schools you are going to be very busy in April. And housing is usually determined by when you send in your acceptance...
My d applied to 9, was accepted at 7, waitlisted at one.
Managed to visit 5 of the 7 (two were local, the other three were 4 - 5 hours away - in different directions) and all were during "accepted student" weekends which used up the whole weekend.
The other two that she did not visit were even further away but would have been great schools to consider - just ran out of time.</p>
<p>"And housing is usually determined by when you send in your acceptance..."</p>
<p>True for some schools - was not true at all for either school that my kids chose.</p>
<p>If you have a lot of reach schools, you will definitely need more applications. It's also extremely helpful to be able to compare financial aid packages (assuming you need FA) and use them to negotiate with the school you ultimately hope to attend.</p>
<p>I'd go with the 10-12 apps vote.</p>
<p>It's basically a probability problem. If you apply to more schools you do not increase your chances of acceptance at any one school. In other words your chances of acceptance at school A are the same whether or not you apply to school B. Your chances of rolling a six when you roll a die are 1 in 6 each time no matter how many times you roll. That said, if you absolutely need to apply to reaches, matches and safeties. The disadvantage I can see to applying to 10-12 is that you will spend time and money...</p>
<p>I think it is impossible to say how many applications make sense without knowing a little more about the selectivity level of schools we're talking about, need for financial aid (as many others have mentioned), the applicant's criteria for school selection, the applicant's competitiveness in the applicant pools, whether the applicant can visit prior to application to vet the schools and finally whether any of them are rolling or non-binding EA.</p>
<p>My own S applied to 4 schools as a freshman - one rolling and two EAs with merit $$, one of which he loved, meant he could stop after those three or apply to one lottery reach. Which he did and was rejected; making 4 apps total, 3 acceptances, two of which he knew from visits and other research that he loved.</p>
<p>As a transfer, he didn't have a chance to visit any schools which weren't in the above 4; didn't really have a chance to do a thorough thinking through of the choices. So he applied to 12. It was too many, in a way, but it gave him time to think it all through at the end. Not the best way and involved many essays and many tailorings of master essays to work for all of the schools. Involved a very understanding professor who was willing to do all the recs. Was very costly, but in his case Tulane was paying the cost since the transfer was necessitated by their post-Katrina restructuring. Also involved LOTS of administrative work, tracking score reports, transcripts, hs packages etc. etc. But, no problem, his mom was available to do that ;). Made sense in his situation, but that free secretarial work may not be available or appropriate for every kid.</p>
<p>So, if you tell us more about your college wants and needs and your own profile, we might be able to target the answer more specifically to you.</p>
<p>There is probability in admissions, which a greater number of apps would help-in the area of financial aid, which IS random. It was about as half as cheap to attend Northwestern for me than to attend my state school (U of I at Urbana Champaign). Explain that one. Shotgun approach may just be delaying ur decision, but the financial aid for some of my schools almost completely eliminated them... your admitted, but your financially rejected.</p>
<p>I think the higher you aim, the more you need to apply to, as long as you have thought about why that school is a fit for you. My D applied to and was accepted to 15, mostly top 20 schools. It was highly unexpected to be accepted to all of them. In her case, it was entirely possible to go 0 for 15. The financial aid was all over the map, as were the few merit offers, ranging from $0 to $100K. I think it's a really personal decision and I don't think anyone, especially your high school, has a right to limit you.</p>
<p>I am in favor of 10 +/- apps.....if highly competitive schools are in the mix... my S applied to 10, accepted at 5, rejected by 1 and WAITLISTED at 4... I think schools are toying more with waitlists than ever before.... our hope was he would have 3 great choices.....he had 5.....ending up in New Haven.... you can only go to 1....but, he could easily have been waitlisted at 5, rejected by 4 and accepted at 1...... it is not random, but it is definitely hard to know what the outcome will be if going after the top schools.</p>
<p>I agree with maineparent. The wait list game makes it necessary to apply to more schools IF you are applying to the most competitive schools. My D was waitlisted at Harvard, JHU and Stanford; accepted at Berkeley, Tufts, Yale, UCLA, Georgetown, and did not even get an interview at Penn. Go figure.</p>
<p>My daughter got into Harvard and Columbia and Emory as a Scholar - had her best interview at Penn - and did not get in. Go figure is right.</p>
<p>WoW! thanks for all of the responses.....
I have narrowed my list to liek 12 right now......and I dont think I can cut one more off......</p>
<p>There is a negative in applying to more than 10 schools if going 0 for 15 is a possibility. Find a rolling admission school that you like and apply early.</p>
<p>It depends on your time, money and effort level. We did around 8 with the first around 12 with the second. Cost for applications around $400 for each. Alot of schools offer free applications and others use the common app. </p>
<p>In some cases it is very good to let one school know you are looking at a rival as well. It can free up money and let's the school know what level of schools you are looking at. </p>
<p>The big thing we found is no one school asked for the same essay. This really sucked as it would have been nice to just have one to use over and over. Instead a different one each time and in some cases, 5 or 6 from one school. </p>
<p>So, it will depend on how much work you are willing to do.</p>
<p>The time element of making multiple apps. turns into a pretty big deal. All of those essays start to add up to a big chunk of time if you figure that each one ends up taking about 3 hours to modify one of your base essays to fit. remeber that many schools require more than one essay. </p>
<p>We did 6 apps and by the time S was finished with the last one he was really ready to be done.</p>
<p>After sending in apps, remember that you will likely be filling out multiple scholarship applications.</p>
<p>I think that if you feel that you have 12 top picks you need to spend time to really differentiate between the schools the better split them up. What will you do if you get 12 acceptances? Out of thos e schools you have to have some that you really prefer and some that you really aren't keen on. Try to drop some of the ones you don't love.</p>
<p>Time, time, nothing but time.</p>