<p>I'm about to start my senior year, and getting ready to start the application process. I play two varsity sports in the Fall alone (one of which I'm the captain,) while I have FBLA, SGA, NHS, Class Office, and travel sports (though my academic load is so-so for the first semester.) With this load, what number is just "too many" to apply to? </p>
<p>I guess it's sort of a paradox; the people who do less have more time to apply to schools, yet the people who do more should probably be applying to a lot because they have chances at big-name schools, if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>It gets crazy after 10, I think. My kids had 8 and 10 colleges on their lists to start with. D1 ended up applying to only 7 of her 8 (got into one EA that she preferred over the 8th school, so skipped that one). D2 applied to 8 of 10 (again, mostly due to an EA admission that knocked something else off her list).</p>
<p>It isn’t just about the applications, which are a lot of work. If you are applying for financial aid, every school seems to have their own twist on it. It is a crazy amount of work and keeping track for that process, IMHO. I am very glad D2 didn’t have more schools requiring that process… eight was plenty.</p>
<p>I always think that people who apply to more than 10 didn’t really do their homework on fit, cost, merit aid possibilities for their stats, strength of their major, etc. I know you have been posting out here for some time, I would assume you are coming up with a pretty educated list. Applying to too many college also dilutes the quality of your “Why College X?” essay that so many schools want, I think. My kids were able to be quite specific about what it was that appealed to them at each college because they had been genuinely thoughtful in narrowing the field to those colleges.</p>
<p>D’s guidance counsellor’s rule of thumb is, at a minimum: two reaches, two matches and two safeties. If, on the other hand, you hope to reap some athletic or other scholarship money or you are looking for a big-name institution you would undoubtedly increase that number somewhat. I know kids who applied to as few as 4 schools and as many as 16. What are you trying for?</p>
<p>More like “what is your plan”? Are you shooting for a scholarship somewhere? If so you would apply to a bunch more places where you’d have a chance at getting some money. Are you going the “prestige” route? If yes, you’d have to put in more applications towards the “reach” schools. Are your grades pretty good AND you’re willing to stay in-state? Then you can save time and money (each app has a fee associated with it even though you may use the same “common app” form for all of them) by just applying to a few state schools that best serve your career (or interest) goals. So which schools do you have in mind, if any?</p>
<p>Uhm, I guess my plan is that I have a few schools that are great, but definite safeties for me so I’m going to apply to a good deal of reach schools, though I’d be perfectly content with my safeties. I’m going to apply ED I to a top tier LAC, ED II to an LAC closely tied to the first one, and if those fail, I have a number of other LAC’s and one university, which is like a big LAC. I’m very big on the liberal arts curriculum (one- because I don’t know what I want to do with my life, and two- because I’m super into philosophy.) I have a decent resume (top 10% of class easily, 3.8 GPA UW, ACT of 29 [will be 31 soon, rest assured,] stellar EC’s with 10 varsity letters and 3 leadership positions, and national distinction.) I come from a school where no kids ever go to top schools, so my guidance counselor calls me the “wonder kid” of our school. That sounds really pretentious, but I just want to go broaden my horizons, I guess.</p>
<p>Sounds like a plan to me. Money is not an issue then? In that case, the goal for applying is to make sure you have a sure place to land if all other applications fail and best case scenario of all, having a decent choice among the more selective schools you got accepted to. If you’re sure you’re not overreaching with your chosen schools given your grades and stats, I’d say between 7-10 apps should be enough. There are places online where you can get acceptance stats for the schools you want to apply to organized by year and compare how your stats mesh with those of the students who got accepted.</p>
<p>I’m applying to about nine schools. You should recognize that each application is to be handled with thorough effort and thought. I’ve had many friends who applied to 10+ schools, but didn’t put any effort into their apps.</p>
<p>So I ended up applying to 16 schools last year LOLL - it’s not really about how much work you have on your hands as much as it is about whether you can and want to handle applying to that many schools.</p>
<p>It’s all about whether you can handle writing that many essays. Honestly I regret applying to so many safeties, but I don’t regret applying to HYPS I recycled a lot of essays and paragraphs in different applications so the work wasn’t really a problem. I never like stayed up till 3 AM or failed a test because I was working on my apps…And my social life didn’t change at all. It’s probably because it’s not like you’re writing a bazillion page thesis on a tiny bacteria or something…you’re writing about yourself. I made every one of my essays creative and unique and I think that’s why they worked (and why the application process to 16+ schools wasn’t hard). I got all my applications in by the middle of November :D</p>
<p>Just know what you want to say and it’s pretty easy. The only thing stopping you from applying to a thousand colleges is the money issue I guess. If money’s not a problem then apply to as many as you want. I applied to 16 to soften the blow of any rejections. The college application process sucks but it’s totally worth it! I’m going to the school of my dreams :D</p>
<p>Oh, and @apkid3 , I’m a varsity soccer player (captain,) and a varsity football kicker. Last year, there was only one conflict, and I went to the soccer game. I practice 4 days a week with soccer and 1 day a week with football. It worked well last year, but with travel soccer and college apps it’ll be tough this year.</p>
Applying to too many college also dilutes the quality of your “Why College X?” essay that so many schools want, I think. My kids were able to be quite specific about what it was that appealed to them at each college because they had been genuinely thoughtful in narrowing the field to those colleges.</p>
I recycled a lot of essays and paragraphs in different applications so the work wasn’t really a problem. I never like stayed up till 3 AM or failed a test because I was working on my apps…And my social life didn’t change at all. It’s probably because it’s not like you’re writing a bazillion page thesis on a tiny bacteria or something…you’re writing about yourself. I made every one of my essays creative and unique and I think that’s why they worked (and why the application process to 16+ schools wasn’t hard). I got all my applications in by the middle of November :D</p>