<p>Last year one of the seniors at my school (Bergen County Academies) applied only to Rutgers and Yale regular decision. </p>
<p>He got waitlisted by Yale, and never got off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Wow, you guys apply to a lot of schools. I think my school suggests 5 or 6, which is probably what Iāll aim for. My dad applied to 3.</p>
<p>At my sonās high school, the most that Iāve heard of was 16 by one young lady. She said she needed to apply to several schools because she was trying to get into their theater programs. Another girl applied to 14 one year. My son applied to 11 ā got into six, waitlisted by three (Cornell, Duke and Harvard) and rejected by two. My youngest son, who is starting his HS freshman year, said that he only has a handful on his list, and knowing him, that list wonāt grow too much. He has no interest in the Ivies, MIT or Duke.</p>
<p>Is there a limit to how many times SAT/ACT will waive the mailing fee for sending test scores to different colleges?</p>
<p>Realistically, I think I am going to apply to 12. Theyāre all pretty competitive, and Iām going to need financial aid</p>
<p>My son will be applying to 16 or so. He is aiming for top schools and they are a lottery, so it definitely makes sense I think.</p>
<p>Ten is a good number. That gives the applicant a solid spread with two good safeties (hopefully including an in-state public), three targets, and five reaches. Really, if one wants to apply to reach schools and do so seriously, one should apply to no less than three or four.</p>
<p>I think whoever applied to those 29 and got rejected by Stanford lied, or is just the Son/Daughter of Albert Einstein. How can you get into the top elite? EVERY one of the elite?</p>
<p>Ok, I know itās not a lie, but I am curious. A achievement of that magnitude is awesome and brings a little skepticism.</p>
<p>I think I applied to 16, got into half.</p>
<p>Of those I really only wanted to go to seven.</p>
<p>Got into one.</p>
<p>Donāt knock people who apply to lots of places.</p>
<p>My dad wasnāt going to pay for anything at all, so I applied to 13-14 just because I needed aid offers. Iām glad I did.</p>
<p>I applied to 22, the most in my class (170) was 25. The most of anyone Iāve known personally was 33. The least (RD only) of anyone Iāve known personally (who applied to college, some of my friends are spending a year working first) was 2. My school recommended applying to 10-12</p>
<p>^^ Yeah, I applied to 5 total and I was happy with that number</p>
<p>@nothingto, itās legit my friend. Go message anonymous93 or however you spell it</p>
<p>Iām planning on applying to 12. 5 reaches, 5 matches, and 2 safeties.</p>
<p>If I get into UMich, Iām only applying to Duke, Stanford, Vandy, and maybe Harvard.</p>
<p>Iāll be doing 20, but when you really think about it and look at the supplements, its not a whole lot of work. You just have to take the time, which is an issue this year because the commonapp only opened one month later than usual!</p>
<p>@nothingto: if you can get into one of the HYPSM, youāre qualified enough to get into the restā¦itās only a matter of luck to see if it will actually happen. so basically once youāre into one elite school, itās really no big deal to get into 20 other elite schools, since arguably, most elite schools look for the same general characteristics in applicants.</p>
<p>I ended up applying to 18 schools last year, but started off with a list of 35. I got to cut that list in half when I got into all 3 of my EA schools. I was going absolutely crazy my senior year with keeping track of everything, and I spent thousands of dollars of my daddyās hard-earned money, but in the end it was worth it. </p>
<p>I was able to use financial aid packages from schools Iād gotten full-rides to (and probably wouldnāt have applied to in the first place if Iād been forced to cut my list down to the recommended 7-10) to bargain with the fin aid offices of schools I was actually interested in attending but which hadnāt awarded me enough fin aid. The school I eventually picked cut my expected contribution in half in an attempt to lure me, which worked. And in the process, I saved my parents around $10,000 because I had all those other acceptances/fin aid offers to bargain with, that I wouldnāt have had if I had applied to less schools.</p>
<p>btw the record at my school is 27, but the guy filled out a lot of free apps to schools heād probably never even consider attending.</p>
<p>Both of my kids applied to 8 colleges. One of them applied to 10 graduate schools. Both were pursuing very competitive admissions processes and were accepted to top colleges or programs or grad schools in their fields. </p>
<p>Back in my day, (and things have certainly changed since then when it comes to college admissions), I applied to 5 colleges (attended Tufts) and two graduate schools (attended Harvard). For someone seeking competitive admissions today, that would be atypical. </p>
<p>As someone who advises students applying to college, I think for many kids that 8-10 schools (a balanced list of 40% reaches, 40% matches and 20% safeties) should work and hopefully yield options. Then, for the majority of students, a span of 8-12 suffices. It is only in special circumstances that I think more than 12 are warranted (though I would never limit anyone to a number). For example, I work with many students applying to BFA (by audition) programs and these have acceptance rates in the single digits and are very chancy odds for EVERYONE. While 10-12 schools should work, I sometimes have students who canāt decide between a BFA and a BA and so they apply to 13 or 14. Another example, might be someone seeking merit aid and so they have to cast a wider net. Still, I canāt imagine needing more than 14 schools. Every situation is different but I canāt think of hardly any situations that would require more than 14 and most situations should not require more than 10 or 12. I have never had a student apply to more than 14 or 15. Again, for a regular admissions process that is not specialized, 8-10 should do it, or not more than 12. An appropriate list and a well balanced one is essential. Do the research to narrow it from 30 down to something like 12 before you apply, not in April of senior year.</p>
<p>While I am not into applying to more than about 14 schools tops, I also am not into a school dictating to students the number they can apply to. There are sometimes special circumstances. A school that says no more than six colleges, for example, would not work for someone applying to BFA programs.</p>
<p>I sincerely hope that anybody who applied to 29 colleges gave the teachers who wrote their recommendations a very handsome gift and an extremely effusive thank you card.</p>
<p>Endicott, while I agree with your sentiment generally speaking, I know that the narrative recs that my kidsā teachers wrote were copied and sent to various schools. My kids applied to 8 colleges and this did not involve 8 different letters. However, there were different forms. </p>
<p>It would be more work for a GC to have to prepare that many packets to go out though. </p>
<p>I have heard of some high schools that have a limit on free transcript packages, but charge a fee after a certain number.</p>
<p>(I personally think applying to 29 colleges is ridiculous and misguided)</p>