How good is a brute force based approach to university applications?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I am an international applicant with the following stats:</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2320
Sat 2: Chem-800,math 2c-800, Lit-800
IB score : 38/42 (with a 5 in math HL, so that really sucks)
GPA: hard to calculate, but consistently in top 5% of class (Rank 1 in final exams of 10th and 12th grade)</p>

<p>I have taken a gap year in which I am doing a load of stuff, community service, internship as well as a personal business.</p>

<p>My point is, I want to get enrolled in one of the best universities of the USA. It doesnt seem worth spending so much money and time otherwise. These are those 10:</p>

<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Upenn
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Stanford
Duke</p>

<p>I know that all of these colleges are reaches, I should apply to more achievable colleges too, and I am doing that. But I really want to go to one of the colleges above. Some of them I like more than others (especially Upenn-Wharton and MIT-sloan), but I wouldnt mind any of them.</p>

<p>But getting accepted is a very iffy proposition. In my case (as my stats are very ordinary, compared to other applicants), acceptance depends mostly on luck. And so I was weighing the pro and cons of:</p>

<p>Applying to all 10 universities v/s applying to a fewer number (say 2 or 3)</p>

<p>I feel that applying to all 10 would statistically increase chances f getting into at least one. This is because each will have different supplementary essays, so even if some are badly perceived, others may be be positively perceived. But 10 applications will require a lot of extra work.</p>

<p>What are your views? Any others people facing the same dilemna?</p>

2

<p>When I applied, I applied to 10, and 9 of them were ranked in the top 20 (though I did not look at any rankings while I was applying - this was something I found out in retrospect). Applying to 10, whatever their caliber, isn’t particularly unusual.</p>

<p>I’m sort of amused at your choice of 10. I’m sure this is field-dependent, and I know little about b-school rankings, but a few of your choices never crossed my mind, and I had a few that you don’t have, like U of Chicago and Rice.</p>

<p>How many other applications are you doing (you imply that you have some safer schools on your list as well)? There’s a point where you start to sacrifice quality in pursuit of quantity (and total money spent on application fees starts to get awfully high). I thought that 10 was a reasonable <em>total</em> number. You might consider picking your five favorites from that list, and five safer choices (from whatever country). Or your seven favorites, and three safer choices, or whatever. Assuming that you care about getting in <em>somewhere</em>, you want to have at least one school that you are sure that you can get into (the “safety school”). If you have 9 reaches and 1 safety school (which is what I was going for, though my “safety school” probably should have been safer), that’s fine, as long as you’d be okay with going to that safety school if you didn’t get in anywhere else.</p>

3

<p>My experience, which I strongly believe is right, is that the more the better. Its not hard these days to churn out multiple applications in light of the common application and online apps. Remember in 1995 THREE apps is probably as difficult as TEN today. Why not give yourself the best shot possible. Writing the supplemental essays will take you a couple weekends! I would concentrate (if that means anything) on three-four, but modify your core essays to fit the rest. Trust me, it won’t take that much extra time and you’ll feel a lot more comfortable knowing you gave yourself the best opportunity to go to one of the best schools in America.</p>

4

<p>hmm thats my problem to be honest. I was thinking Uchicago Uvirginia was a match, as was emory. bentley n usc cud be safeties.But I am not really fine spending all that money for these. So I dont think I am going to waste time energy and money applying anywhere else.</p>

<p>I chose wharton and sloan because they have the best b school for undergrad. The rest were chosen using the question: would I love to graduate from these universities (if i dont get into one of the above 2)?</p>

<p>I know I will look like an idiot if i get rejected from all 10, but I know that if I dont get in them, I surely wont go to the USA, so whats the point?</p>