I’ve tried to have D23 spend the same amount of time investigating each school on her list, regardless of where it falls on the likelihood scale. Every school had to have something genuinely appealing about it—some program or feature she could look forward to—or else it got cut from her list. I didn’t want her to feel like she was “stuck” going to a school that was only applied to as an afterthought.
Currently she’s got 8 schools, 4 of which are very likely, 2 are toss ups because they’re unpredictable, and 2 are reach/unlikely. She’s visited 3 of the likely, and one each of the toss up and reach. Not sure if she’ll have the chance to get to the others before decisions.