<p>Is it too much? The thing is most of them are UC’s so that really adds up. These are the colleges:</p>
<p>UC Berkeley
UC Los Angeles
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside
UC Merced
= $560</p>
<p>CalPoly SLO
SJSU
CalPoly Pomona
= $165</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon
SCU
= $125</p>
<p>University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
University of Washington
Purdue University - West Lafayette
Rutgers University - New Brunswick
= $235</p>
<p>It would come out as $1085 for just the application fee, not even including sending scores and stuff. Should I narrow it down even more, or is it fine?</p>
<p>Thanks!~</p>
<p>Okay, think of it this way. If you got accepted to that one school, and ONLY that one school, would you be happy going there? If not, cross it off your list. I doubt that is true for all 17 schools, so that should help you.</p>
<p>Can you afford it? If it’s really not much of a concern, go for it, but why do you need to apply to ALL the UC’s? And all of “CalPoly SLO, SJSU and CalPoly Pomona”?</p>
<p>Since you’re applying to all those OOS schools with high tuition and little possibility for financial aid, I’m going to assume you can indeed afford the application costs. So go for it.</p>
<p>You should narrow it down some more xD
You should make a list. Top 1 to 17, your list will of course be entirely up to your decision, and apply for the top ten.
Compare each one with the other ones.
And You should seriously consider admission rates.
Wooah! Good luck xD</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about the costs of applying to those schools then how will you afford UIUC, UW, Purdue or Rutgers OOS?</p>
<p>hmmm all of you guys make really good points. sorry if i seem kind of clueless. I’m just starting to make a list and am applying this fall. I think I’ll be crossing off some of the out of states.</p>
<p>Ridiculous list.
If you got accepted to all 17, what would you do?
Have you visited all 17? Appears you are in CA, what would compel you to apply to Rutgers in NJ?
You should apply at most 10. Include 2 safety schools.</p>
<p>My son applied to fifteen colleges, but five of those offered free applications. </p>
<p>woogz,
Why would he apply to 15 colleges? I wouldn’t, even if all 15 were free applications.
Were you looking for the best financial package/value? Even that can be narrowed down with some homework.</p>
<p>@TomsRiverParent, for those of us chasing merit money, 15 might be about right. But that’s after much research.</p>
<p>@suzy100
Pretty easy to figure out approximate merit money. Many colleges have a grid for merit money.<br>
The “need” money can be calculated in some instances. No need to apply to 15 colleges. It probably won’t come down to the cheapest college anyway. It will be best college for the best price. ie. Value.</p>
<p>If you post your GPA unweighted/weighted and CSU/UC GPA, SAT or ACT scores, EC’s and what amount you are willing to pay for college, many CC’s can give you ideas on how to narrow down your choices and give you options for merit and need based aid. 17 is too many but i think 10 is a good number.</p>
<p>I allowed my son to make his own decisions. Considering that ten applications are typical in the Common Application era, I was prepared to pay that many fees. I thought he could have culled a few colleges from the list, and still don’t quite understand why he applied to a few of them, but he is fairly happy with the outcome. He got into ten schools, was waitlisted at two, and rejected from three. That’s not a bad record. The three rejections were from long-shot reach schools. One of the wait-lists was from a low-to-middle reach, and the other from what we thought was a solid match. He was accepted at two other high-match/low-reach schools, albeit with no financial assistance. Two other high-matches, and two mid-range matches, met our EFC, but they still would have been very expensive. His two safeties, and one low reach, were private colleges that offered very generous merit scholarship. He decided to attend the match school which had the best financial package overall. </p>
<p>woogz,
Sounds like his decision was NOT the lowest cost college.
but the best value… cost and academics/ranking. Value is different for every student.</p>
<p>aquaelmo,</p>
<p>Ask your parents to help you run the Net Price Calculator at the websites of each of these places. Drop any that are outside your budget.</p>
<p>@ TomsRiverParent: actually, it was both. It was less expensive than most of the others, to begin with, and the scholarship brought it down even lower. He would probably have chosen it over his safeties had it been more expensive, but it turned out to be several thousand dollars less.</p>
<p>DO NOT APPLY TO ALL THESE SCHOOLS!! Most people suggest between 5-8, and I agree. Out of all the schools on this list, there have to be a couple that stand out to you (if you were accepted to all of them, where would you immediately cross off your list… don’t apply there).</p>
<p>Choose Around:
2-4 Reaches
3-5 Matches
2-3 Safeties </p>
<p>Definitely don’t apply to any more than 10 schools because when writing your essays and preparing your applications, it’ll be clear if you are really passionate about attending a school, and there’s no way you can be 100% committed to 17 schools. Try visiting some of the campuses, talking to alumni, researching each college’s financial aid, and student life to narrow your list down.</p>
<p>woog,
Like I said. Value. Doesn’t mean lowest cost.
Someone may pay 5000 more per year because they think it is a better school for them in the long run when looking at all the factors. Yet someone else may say 5000 more is too much.</p>
<p>While it’s tempting to apply to all those UCs if only because one application more or less suffices, pick a safety from the set of 8, 2 or so matches and 1 reach. Then pick one or two CSUs. Presumably because you are applying to all the UCs the CSUs that you’re picking are safeties. If they aren’t then apart from UC Merced your UCs are reach schools or low match at best. With the California publics on your list the out of state publics don’t make a lot of sense. If your stats are at the level of UC Berkeley accepted students then you may want to add additional reach colleges to your list.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the recipe that “8” is enough, or “17” is too much. What matters is that your list is balanced and that it is in line with your chances of acceptance and with your interest with the program at each of the colleges on your list.</p>
<p>In the grand scheme of things $1000 is small change compared to the cost of a 4-year college education.</p>
<p>fogcity,
It is totally unnecessary to apply to more than 10 colleges. Your analogy of 1000 is chump change in the grand scheme of things is kind of dumb.<br>
Your philosophy is Basically… ready shoot aim.
If you do your homework, make visits, etc… you will have a good idea where you will get accepted to, etc.
Ready(do your research), AIM, APPLY
You have to keep asking, if I got accepted to xyz college and no other, would I go to xyz. </p>