<p>I see so many people on here applying to 10 or more schools. I thought I'd do it as well, to maximize my chances of getting into a top college..</p>
<p>But taking it into consideration, I think its a stupid idea. It's going to cost alot of money, and you can only attend 1 school in the end, right?</p>
<p>I know that the school I'll most likely attend is Rice due to its proximity to my family and the great aid they give. All my stats are on par, and I'm a URM. Plus my essays should be great. Yale and Stanford, however, have always been my dream schools. So wouldn't it be better to apply to Rice, Yale, Stanford, and a safety or two rather than HYPS + all other Ivies + 5 other top schools + 3 safties? Seems like a much more reasonable route to me.</p>
<p>decrescendo: Hopefully you’re in the sweet position that Rice is a lock down for you. When I was a senior, I had a UMich acceptance at the end of October in hand. Therefore, I ONLY applied to a small no. of reach schools thereafter – even if all rejected me, I was still golden. As it were, these others accepted me as well and I ended up at an HYP, sadly declining becoming a Wolverine…</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay - Really? :(. I guess if I can’t get in there, it’s worth applying to a few more. I just thought that applying to 5 schools and putting in alot of effort was a better idea than sending out 11 or 12 applications.</p>
<p>T26E4 - I don’t know what you mean by “lock down.” If what you mean by that is that I absolutely love Rice, then yes, you’re right. I would be very, very happy to attend there. At the same time though, I’d be happy to attend Stanford or Yale too (who wouldn’t?) haha. I just didn’t see the point in applying to all these schools when I know which select few I want to go to, since I am above average among admitees (Rice) and on par with admitees (Yale and Stanford) from those schools’ applicant pools in regard to class rank, test scores, GPA, and extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Yes, applying to 10+ schools is stupid, <em>especially</em> if that includes all the Ivies. I’m not sure there’s a single person in the world who would be a good fit for all of them, since they’re all so different from each other. 7’s about the maximum I could agree with–two safeties, two matches you like better than your safeties, and three reaches. Or maybe one match and four reaches. I personally only applied to four.</p>
<p>Kajon - My financial safety is Louisiana State University. I’d be fine attending the Honors College there, and they have a 70% acceptance rate for in-state students, so it’s very very very unlikely I’d be turned down haha. Of course, I’d be much happer at Rice, but… haha.</p>
<p>Lirazel - Thanks for agreeing! Lol. Yeah I know. There are Ivies that are very different from each other (like Penn v. Dartmouth… they’re definitey different). That’s why its confusing to me when people on here apply to all of them. I’d say Yale fits my interests best… but then again, I’m probably not getting accepted haha. I don’t really see the point in two safeties when I’m positive my state flagship will accept me, and I’d be cool going there.</p>
<p>feareman - It does make the process much easier and with less stress. Haha my schools of choice are Name Brand Schools, I guess.</p>
<p>I did 5 and that was more than enough. I did 1 reach, 3 matches and a safety. No regrets. I think anymore than 2 reach schools is just silly, causes low acceptance rates, and hurts poorer applicants</p>
<p>I was originally going to limit myself to 8 schools, but with the economy like it is today, you can’t really depend on public schools as safeties, especially in California with budget cuts, admissions staff reductions, and much less predictability in admissions.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if Rice is a reach or match… I was told from multiple people that it was a match. But from what an earlier poster said, it seems like nothing is ever certain.</p>
<p>I’d really just like to apply to Yale, Stanford, Rice, and LSU. I guess I might have to apply to a few others, but it’s really frustrating because I don’t really want to attend anywhere but Rice (or Yale or Stanford if I’m accepted). Oh well haha.</p>
<p>Are you in state for LSU? If so, applying to those four wouldn’t be too bad, as long as you’re sure to get into at least LSU. Rice, Stanford, and Yale are similar enough that I can see you applying to all three. However, there are probably other schools similar to these three that are statistically more likely to accept you. Just in case you want to be extra safe, adding one or two more schools wouldn’t hurt you too much financially and might end up in your favor.</p>
<p>Statistically speaking, you’re probably a match for Rice, but I hesitate to call any school with around a 20% or lower acceptance rate a match for anyone. Essentially you’re looking at three reaches and a safety.</p>
<p>schee410 - LSU is in-state for me, so there’s no way they’d turn me down. I’m pretty sure they have to accept all in-staters who have a 3.0+ GPA and a 20 or higher on the ACT, and I’m way, way above both of those cutoffs.</p>
<p>When you say “schools similar to these three that are statistically more likely to accept you”… could you give a few examples? Just out of curiosity.</p>
<p>When applying to top schools or going after full scholarship merit aid an applicant can often get better aid than at their financial safety. For that reason it may make sense to apply to 10 or more schools.</p>
<p>Exactly true - don’t apply to reach schools for the heck of it - only apply to schools - reaches or not - that you would genuinely be interested in attending. The quality of your applications will increase, and your stress level will decrease.</p>
<p>I’m trying to cut my list down to about 6 schools, for financial reasons. </p>
<p>I think the main reasons why one would apply to 10+ would be a) because the applicant is still not fully certain of what they want in a college or b) because the applicant is seeing who will give them the best financial package.</p>
While saving $100 on a college application including scores and an FA app is appealing, it has to be weighed against the possibility of saving 100 times that amount if the applicant is able to secure better financial aid.</p>