Is five a good number?

Applying to College
1

<p>As of right now, I’m only planning to apply to five colleges (four UC’s: UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UC Davis, and one private: University of Pacific for its accelerated dental program).
I’ve been told (by my counselor, as well as friends & family) that I should apply to least apply to 7+ colleges, but ideally 9 (3 reach, 3 match, 3 safety).</p>

<p>Am I applying to too many “reach/match” and not enough “safety”? or vice versa?</p>

<p>My stats: 3.7 UW, 4.0 UC gpa, 4.1 something Weighted
2050 SAT I, 760 Biology M, 780 Math IIC, 800 Chinese
almost no extracurricular activities (I was involved in this intense 4-week biotech training and interned at a biotech company for 3 weeks. 2 years of drama, but no significant acheivement).</p>

<p>Thanks! any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)</p>

2

<p>If you are sure that:

  1. You will get into at least one of those five schools, and
  2. You will be happy going to any of those five schools, and
  3. There’s no other school you really want to go to,
    then you don’t need to apply to any more. Don’t apply to more colleges just to beef up the number of apps to what other people say is appropriate. Apply to the set of colleges that is right for you, regardless of how large or small that set is.</p>

<p>By the way, I applied to 3 schools, and I was pretty certain of the three criteria above. Things worked out.</p>

3

<p>If you did your homework on the schools, have schools in each admissions category that you would love to attend, then your list is fine.</p>