@squirk just to echo what everyone else is saying, it is definitely worth keeping an open mind and having as many options as possible. My oldest D (non MT) applied to 5 schools with rolling admissions and was accepted to all 5 by October 1st of her senior year. The MT process was a completely different experience. My D applied to 17 schools. She passed half of her prescreens (like everyone else has mentioned, that whole process is completely random) and ended up with 3 BFA offers (all 3 offers came from non prescreen schools). She did a mixture of “lottery” schools, hidden gems, and one safety. I was advised the summer before her senior year, that if you focus on fit, anywhere from 15-20 schools is ideal. It ended up working out (I think because we really did focus on fit from the very beginning), but after finding CC in late fall and seeing the sheer number of schools everyone else was applying to I was pretty panicked that we had blown it until she got her first BFA “yes”. BTW, the school and program she ended up at was last on her list the entire process until she attended the live on campus audition. She was so blown away by her whole experience that day that it moved from last to 2nd choice (very closely tied with a huge, top tier lottery school). When she didn’t get into the lottery school she barely blinked because she was also so excited about her 2nd choice. She said she just knew in her heart it would be a good fit for her. I was thrilled because that school had secretly been my first choice for her the whole time.