<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I’m new to CC, and a junior. Just wondering, is 10 an abnormally large number of colleges to be applying to? Yale’s my first choice at the moment - congrats to everyone who got in EA this year!</p>
<p>I don’t think any number is abnormally large! I’ve heard of ppl applying to 40 colleges :eek:</p>
<p>But more seriously, 10 is fine. I myself applied to 8 and am completing a ninth application. It’s a once-in-lifetime thing, so it’s always better to be on the safer side (+more options). But make sure you don’t apply like a rampage (i.e. sloppy apps), give each application the time and attention it deserves.</p>
<p>I think 10 would be just fine, but don’t go too much beyond that.</p>
<p>I sent 19 apps(withdrawn 7) and most only to see whether I could get in. I now regret it. Because of this, I barely paid attention to the schools I truly cared about.</p>
<p>I’m now biting my fingers. No, not fingernails. I mean fingers :D</p>
<p>GOod luck with the process.</p>
<p>Ten is just fine. A lot of college counselors recommend that you have 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reaches for a total of 9 schools. So, I think 10 is alright.</p>
<p>10 is stupid. Unless you’re rich, please save yourself and your poor parents (poor in the sense that they get bad part of the deal) the trouble of filling out the FAFSA and sending useless and meaningless tax returns and W-2 forms to 10 colleges only to get a completely crappy deal! And then they’ll keep mailing you back crap about them not having the financial aid documents. You’ll have to go to Staples at 9 o’clock PM when you should be cramming for that AP chemistry test. You’re applying to Yale, this means you have some intelligence. So reduce the number to about 6 or 7. That whole 3 safeties, 3 matches, 3 reaches thing is ridiculous. Apply to schools you want to go to. Visit the colleges. I’ve gotten into every college I’ve applied to so far including Cornell, Carnegie Mellon etc., I applied to 6.</p>
<p>while i understand the immediate problems posed by the application fee and stuff…i think there’s no harm in applying to 10 schools…it gives you more options…there’s nothing worse than being forced to regret not applying at all…and also…in the long run $65 will be a really trivial sum because wherever you go to college you’re probably gonna end up paying so much that it won’t even matter…!!!</p>
<p>Applying to 10 different schools does keep your options open.</p>
<p>Wow… This is a big difference between Canadians and Americans. My decision is between two colleges (Yale and Winnipeg). Most of my friends only applied to one college. Personally, I’ve got my safety school (a decent school…ranked 4th in Canada and only $3,000 CDN a year) and my dream school (lol yale…more than 10x the cost). It is extremely foreign to hear that someone might apply to 10 colleges, let alone 40! I guess the college system is just much different down there.</p>
<p>I applied to 22 because I think its good to make a final decision once the letters are in</p>
<p>in order to avoid doing sloppy apps do an excel spreadsheet and spend about a week searching all the websites and loading all the info into that spreadsheet(you can do this in the summer)</p>
<p>then make a list of all the essays you need to write and wherever possible to make 1 essay that combines two things. </p>
<p>Then start off on the actual apps, I reccomend filling them out using adobe acrobat professional beta(free), start from the safeties and work your way up to reaches. In addition,I sent everything out certified mail and recorded in my spreadsheet when I got the postcard in the mail back. I clipped this postcard to a copy of what I sent out. That way if there are any discrepancies you have proof.</p>
<p>also, have your parents do a final check of your app before you send it out. Also, do everything before the deadline. on december 15th(stanford;s deadline) I found myself locked out of my house and my car. I had to run down the street and ask neighbors to use their phone. Then I called my parents. My dad and I ended up driving a 80 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone to get to the post office. Of course, I had a backup plan in case that didnt work(I planned on driving to LAX). moral of the story, get things done fast!</p>
<p>Also, I sent everything out in large legal size manila envelopes. This is a good idea because my apps were very large(photography samples, cd of recorded music, etc)</p>
<p>Do whatever you want. Regardless of whether people think 10 is too many or too few, it will be rather easy for you to apply to many with the online Common App. My only advice is to apply to schools that you really do want to go to – never apply to a school that you have no intention of attending. But beyond that, whether you like 5 or 15 is up to you.</p>
<p>Personally, I applied to nine.</p>
<p>Okay, well I have the whole 3 safeties, 3 targets and 3 reaches, and the extra reach for good measure. (I’m guessing the more you apply to, the more likely you are to get into atleast ONE of your reaches, right? :P) Thanks for the advice all - I guess I’ll stick to my list for now. It’ll be significantly cut down if I get into Yale EA. <em>fingers crossed</em>
So what constitutes a ‘sloppy app’, besides mediocre essays? Oh, and on an unrelated note, how important are after-school jobs/some kind of employment in an application?</p>
<p>S applied to 16 (three required zero effort, via UCAS in the UK) - in hindsight, he probably only needed one safety instead of 3, but we applied anyway. Four reaches, and five matches that had a possibility of decent merit aid.</p>
<p>Advice to all applicants with great stats, IF finances are a big factor for your family: research early and in detail, apply to at least 5-6 merit-aid-possible schools, and give them the same level of attention you will give to the reaches. This approach was successful for our family: to date, S has been offered a total of approx. $465K in merit aid.</p>
<p>i comfortably applied to 14, so 10 should be no biggie</p>
<p>i applied to 10, but i felt that was too many, because on top of that there were scholarship applications to fill. i did two safeties, but i really only see the need to apply to one safety, if you know you will get in, and that one you should make sure you are content with because you may not get anywhere else. next, your matches. i would say three matches. everytime you consider a college, think if you would ACTUALLY choose it over your safety if money becomes an issue especially. and then if you go for reaches - brace yourself.</p>
<p>I applied to 7.</p>
<p>1 safety
3 matches
3 reach</p>
<p>So far, accepted into the safety and one match. Deferred on one reach.</p>
<p>If I hadn’t been accepted to Yale EA, I would have ended up applying to eight or nine other schools - it would have been a bit of a strain for my parents to pay all the fees, but it would have been worth it. Luckily, I got to narrow my list down to two other applications after the good news came on December 15 (I still had about two weeks to get my other apps in). Maybe you can do the same next year. Good luck!</p>
<p>(It would have been a bit of a shock for my parents to shell out a few hundred dollars for applications, because when my sisters applied to colleges a few years ago, they only applied to in-state schools and spent at most $25 on one application fee. ;))</p>
<p>I ended up applying to six (two reaches, two middies, two safeties). My feeling is, you should only apply to schools that you really like. You should be able to look at your list and say “I would be able to make myself happy here”. Notice difference from “I would BE happy”. </p>
<p>As for fees, some schools offer special deals; Lewis & Clark lets you apply for free if you do it online. There’s also fee waivers if you really need them.</p>
<p>Good luck with everything!</p>
<p>I applied to 11. In retrospect, 7 of them would’ve been enough. The amount of effort needed depends on the actual schools (ie. how many common apps, how many essays you can recycle). Some schools, like Washu require no effort to apply (but they’ll waitlist you if you don’t show interst). 22, however, is probably too many because there’s no way you’re going to fully consider all 22 of them, let alone 40.</p>
<p>1 safety (accepted)
4 safety-matches (3 accepted so far)
3 high match-reaches (1 waitlisted)
3 HYP</p>
<p>I applied to 11…</p>
<p>5 reaches
5 good matches
1 safety</p>
<p>I paid a lot of attention to my reaches, but not so much to my good matches and safety.</p>
<p>So far…</p>
<p>accepted - 1 reach, 1 good match, 1 safety
“liklied” - 1 good match
waitlisted - 1 reach</p>
<p>My best advice is to “tweek” and reuse parts of most of your essays. Some essays I just modified to fit different schools. With others, I took different paragraphs from different essays. Altogether, all my essays were based on 5 or 6 originals. I hope that helps :).</p>
<p>I applied to 9 schools: 8 reaches and 1 safety. A little lopsided but my family’s in the too poor to pay but too rich to get aid category and I didn’t want my parents to waste away their life savings for an average school. </p>
<p>I didn’t put as much effort as I could have into my apps (I’m not a natural or stellar essay writer) so I’m not really expecting many positive results. If you’re not a natural when it comes to writing, I recommend writing your essays 3 months in advance. You’ll be surprised at how much you can improve upon you essay after a long hiatus.</p>