<p>I am sure this must have been addressed elsewhere but I can't find it...what is the usual number of colleges to apply to and distribution in terms of safeties, etc? My daughter has seen lots of good schools but I think is garnering too large a list of super reach schools (e.g., Yale AND Harvard, Swarthmore and Haverford, U of Rochester, as well as schools that are less of a reach for her like SUNY B, Geneseo, Stonybrook and the CUNY Honors Programs. We are still picking a safety or two. But how many is too many? I loved Yale and Harvard myself but do people typically apply to them both?</p>
<p>If one genuinely envisions attending either and is at least a viable candidate, I see no reason not to apply to both Y and H – they are very similar.</p>
<p>I would be mindful of the total no. of apps when their workload makes any one of them less strong – i.e. working on too many weakens their individual quality.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Unless you are truly in love with multiple safety schools and can’t choose between them – a rare occurrence – one or two safeties should be adequate (one if it is both an academic and financial safety, which SUNY/CUNY often is).</p>
<p>As far as applying to both Yale and Harvard, I see no issue. When you submit your FAFSA, schools have the ability to see what other schools your FAFSA is being sent to. Harvard and Yale consider themselves to be on the same level and a little competition never hurts, exspecially if you have a truly exceptional student.</p>
<p>I’d rather see a student apply to Yale and Harvard, than a student apply to just Harvard and several other schools that are not considered on the same academic level as Harvard.</p>
<p>So far we have the foregoing, plus Brandeis, which we saw today. I see Brandeis as a match school for her–it was a reach for my friend’s son who we visited today (he is a freshman) because his numbers were significantly lower. It is hard for me not to envision the SUNY/CUNY as her safeties (especially Stonybrook) her unweighted average in a very competitive school and program is 95-96 and her SATs are 2220 (740) in each section (which I think makes her a bit unusual). But I will have a better idea after Monday when we get the Naviance password.</p>
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<p>From my knowledge of the average statistics of SUNY Stony Brook, your daughter is practically a shoo-in. As for the CUNY programs (I will take the liberty here of assuming that you mean the Macaulay Honors Program), I would be leery of considering them safeties. While your daughter’s stats are in the range, they do get a good deal of competitive candidates. I personally know several people with similar or better stats than your daughter’s who were waitlisted or flat-out rejected last year, and this year’s applicant pool can only get more competitive. </p>
<p>And there’s nothing wrong with applying to both Yale and Harvard; just bear in mind that Yale has a mandatory supplement and that Harvard does not.</p>
<p>I would recommend limiting the number of SUNY schools, though. There’s no need to apply to the majority of them.</p>