<p>So i have a pretty large list and i would like your advice on what size i should narrow it down to. Seeing as i am only a sophomore in high school i have a wide range and a lot of time to decide.
Upenn
U of Chicago
U of Georgia
Princeton
Harvard
Columbia
DUke
UNC
UVA
Ole Miss
U of Richmond
Hampden Sydney
Washington and Lee
Middlebury
Cornell
Vanderbilt
Emory
Sewanee
Rice
Furman</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help.</p>
<p>My school restricts it to 8. It’s supposed to be 3 reaches, 3 matches and 2 safeties. I would say around 8-10 would be good.</p>
<p>It is okay to have a really long list of schools at this stage of your “journey”, but keep in mind the following:</p>
<p>Can my parents afford for us to go visit the schools on my list that are far away?</p>
<p>Does my family and I have the time to go visit the schools on my list and/or attend college fairs in my local area?</p>
<p>Can my parents afford to pay the application fees for all the schools on my list?</p>
<p>Can my parents afford to pay for this school should I not receive any scholarship money or financial aid? Don’t forget to include travel expenses to come home during holidays/breaks.</p>
<p>Do I have Reach, Match, and Safety schools included- based on my stats/resume?</p>
<p>How many of the schools on my list have their own application and don’t use the Common App.?</p>
<p>Will I be able to complete all the supplemental essays that are needed to apply to all the schools on my list? (Remember, even though many schools use the Common Application, there are supplemental essays that may or may not be used over again, depending on the school.)</p>
<p>The longer your list the more responsibility you will have for effectively MANAGING your schools. For example, there will be different deadlines, including different deadlines to the same school for scholarship consideration, some will be early action or early decision (which is binding), some will recommend interviews, some will require different test scores, different # of recommendations, etc., etc. You will need to have a STRATEGY laid out. I would suggest putting all your schools on a SPREADSHEET with a TIMELINE of the deadlines and other important bits of information that I just described. </p>
<p>My son just submitted his last application. He applied to 17 schools which included 5 UC’s (CA schools) that use the exact same application. It was a TON of time and money to visit many of these schools, pay application fees, send test scores multiple times, etc. Sit down with your parents and discuss a BUDGET, including all of the “hidden” costs. This may help you answer your question as to how many schools you shoud realistically be looking at. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>thank you jshain for bringing those points to my attention. To clear things up i will not have any problems paying for school.</p>
<p>My original list was 16-18 schools, but as I went through the application process it got cut down to 11, which still was probably too many. 8 schools seems to be the “going rate”, though I know people that only apply to 3 or 4, and then some who apply to 15. I would say don’t apply to more than 3 reaches, and spend most of your time on matches.</p>
<p>The previous salutatorian at my school had a schedule, and thus worked on 26… but she ended up going to legacy northwestern… Waste lol</p>
<p>Some kids will apply to a dozen or more schools that just look like a slice out of the US News N-through-M ranked schools. I suppose this can work, if you are careful to center the range around your stats and you don’t care too much about “fit”. The more ambitious you are and the more selective you make that center point, the more schools you’ll need in order to assure you have a few good, affordable choices by April. If you aim too high or ignore costs, you can get shut out of a big pile of schools. </p>
<p>My youngest applied to 6. 3 reaches, 2 matches, 1 safety. All 6 were similar schools that more or less satisfied a few clear criteria. He was happy with the outcome.</p>
<p>I think 10-12 schools is a good number. Also I would make sure and trim the safeties. You should make your list match/ reach heavy because that is the wild-card element. You don’t need lots of safeties or low matches, its a misuse of apps in my book. </p>
<p>Also your list seems a little random at the top? Columbia and Middlebury on the same list? Really different schools.</p>