<p>Why do most people have small college lists and mine has at least 30-40 colleges on it? I'm a spohomore right now, and I'm just wondering what is making it so hard for me to shorten the list. And also if anyone else is in this same situation, please comment.</p>
<p>I have nearly 50 colleges on my list, and I’m a junior, so I have even less time to narrow my list down. For me at least, it’s hard to decide for sure that I would never want to go to a school when I haven’t visited and the websites for each college look so similiar. That’s why I like CC. I can ask questions I need to get new opinions and more information. Just try asking about things that will help you narrow your list down. And remember, you have time to knock schools off that list.</p>
<p>A list of 30, 40, 50 colleges? Can you even name them all on the spot if someone asked you to right now?</p>
<p>Wow. I started off with 20 and thought that was a lot.</p>
<p>With so many schools, you need to be agressive (though you do have time for your list to organically deflate). Divide schools into safety, match, reach. How many safeties do you need? If it’s a true safety, financially and academically, only one, especially if you apply early and have a decision in hand before the RD round (even better if you apply to a match or reach school EA or SCEA and have a viable, desirable option in hand). Then, how many reaches are realistic? For students with 2300+ SATs, top GPAs (this varies by schools), and truly impressive ECs (or some sort of hook) should apply to a whole slew of top schools to account for the randomness of the process, but the same sort of logic does not apply to kids with middling stats. It’s unrealistic to apply to HYPSM with a 2100 and a 3.5, or even slightly better stats with less-than-passionate, unfocused ECs.</p>
<p>Then comes the environment question: rural or urban? big or small? etc. I can understand liking seemingly disparate schools (I feel like I’m not allowed to like Columbia *and *Dartmouth, though I plan on applying to both), but there comes a point (<em>ahem</em> 30-40 schools) where you’re probably being overly generous. I could never attend Middlebury, but Dartmouth’s rural location is somewhat mitigated by a nicely sized undergraduate body. It’s okay to have exceptions to the big, general ideas (size, location), but they must be carefully considered.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’ll try and answer your question. It’s easy to rule out many schools when:</p>
<ol>
<li>You visit and just don’t see yourself there</li>
<li>You consider your own stats and the college’s admitted stats to see if you have a reasonable shot</li>
<li>Have safeties, but not too many</li>
<li>Know a general geographic area where you’d want to go to school</li>
</ol>
<p>Not beng realistic accounts for many colleges on the lists of most.</p>