Hi, sorry if I did not select the right category I’m new to cc. I just wanted to know if 10 is too many colleges to apply too. They are
Stanford (top choice) high reach
Princeton: high reach
MIT: high reach
University of Pennsylvania: high reach
Harvard: high reach
Case western reserve university : safety
John Hopkins university: not sure
Georgia institute of technology: not sure
Rice university: not sure
Northwestern university: not sure
I want to major in neuroscience and become a neuroscientist. I’m really interested in all of these schools.
With the top 5 schools on your list, no 10 is not too high. If not enough schools if you keep the bottom half of your list. You don’t have any true safeties.
You need to add some safety schools to your list. Case Western is not a safety. If you are determining it is a safety based on your stats being well above their 50% mid-ranges, I would say that only puts you in the top 75% and should not be viewed as a safety.
I am not sure what you mean by “not sure” but take a look at some of the ED / EA acceptance threads for the schools on the list to get a feel for the uncertainty that is part of this process. There are many students with great stats that were rejected from these schools this app season.
Add 2 safeties to your list to make sure you aren’t stressing a year from now about not having any good options. If you are a NMSF, start looking at schools that offer big merit scholarships to NMFs and see if there is any of those schools you would like to add to your list as well.
It’s not uncommon to start out in September with 20 schools on the list and narrow it down to 6 - 8. If you have 5 lottery schools on your life, you need to factor that in and will need to be above 6 - 8 to make sure you have some options in case you are not admitted to those lottery schools.
IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT FORGET TO SPEND TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY USING THE COST CALCULATOR POSTED ON EACH SCHOOL’S WEBSITE SO YOU ARE SURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD THE SCHOOLS.
Good luck!!
Okay thank you! I live very close to case western reserve, does this make a difference? Could you also suggest some safeties ?
A few comments:
–It is fine to apply to 10 schools IF you are able to make the time to do an outstanding job on the supplements that each school has. If you don’t have the time to give each supplement the attention it requires then it would be better to apply to fewer schools and have stronger supplements.
–Whatever your stats, your list is very top heavy. Most of the schools must be considered reaches simply because they have acceptance rates so low that they cannot accept all of the qualified candidates.
–Unless you get into Case EA and you are sure the school is affordable, I wouldn’t consider it a safety. I’d add in a couple of safety schools, preferably one or more with rolling admission so you know you are in by December.
- Have you taken the SAT or ACT? If so, what was the result?
- What is your unweighted GPA?
- Are you involved in any sports teams or clubs? What is your level of involvement and have you earned any awards?
- What is your family willing to pay?
Your list is very top-heavy. Answering the above questions will help us give intelligent advice.
Now someone is going to do this if I don’t – here are the proper ways to use to/too/two:
To:
- I want to eat some food.
- Give my shoe to someone.
Too:
- There are too many bugs in this house.
- I want to come along too.
Two:
Give me two dollars, please.
I don’t usually critique usage, but you must master the simpler things if you want to be a competitive applicant at the more reachy schools on your list. 
^^^along tbose lines it should be “too many” not much. Agree with comment above.
Thousands of high scoring, EC rich, uber achieving students are interested in those schools. You need more match/safeties or you will be one of the many kids who goes into this process thinking they are a shoe-in for these top schools and not have a good option come May. Sorry, it’s reality.
Lol, I know sorry I was in a rush when I was typing this. Also I do not have those scores as I’m only in 8th grade, I’m a A student though
8th grade??? Go away! You shouldn’t even be thinking about a college list yet. Come back in a couple of years. Enjoy middle school.
ETA: When you come back in a couple of years, create a new username. Don’t fall in love with any one school. Now go have fun.
8th GRADE?? I strongly suggest you get off of CC and come back late sophomore/early junior year of HS.
I’ve been thinking about college since 5th. I just want to make sure I do things right to get into my dream school.
I understand that you really want to go to a great school. However, it is way too early to make a list of specific colleges. I recommend getting off of CC until you are a sophomore or so. Until then, I think CC will do more harm than good. You should not have a hard-set “dream” school as an 8th grader. High school, believe it or not, is not all about getting into the best college you can. Work hard, pursue your passions with fervor, leave some time to relax/take care of yourself/have fun, and the rest will fall into place with good guidance. Where the guidance falls short, the CC community can try to help. That is when you should come back your sophomore year or so.
My students each appliled to around 19 which seemed to be the upper limit of manageable. You need at least one real safety, if admitted to, you will attend. Good Luck!
@educateddarcy We DO understand that typos happen. You should understand that people who post here regularly see many posts, including posts from international students, with basic grammar errors and sometimes pointing out those errors can help them to recognize areas that need improvement for their application. This post had multiple basic errors. There was no way to tell from the original post if the OP was international or not a native speaker of English and there was no way to know that the post was hastily typed and prone to typos (which many note in their posts if that is the case).
Thanks so much!
I know! I just want to make sure I’m heading in the right direction. I don’t want to mess around freshman year and ruin my chances at all these schools. Most students who attend these schools have a perfect GPA and near perfect SAT or ACT scores. So I’m sure they started thinking about college pretty earlier on too.
@stanford200381 Yes, it is good to work hard in freshman year, but you shouldn’t focus too much on college. Worry about it when you get to high school, and enjoy these last few months of “freedom.” I thought a little bit about college in middle school as well but not to the point where I was making a list and planning out everything I would do in high school. TLDR; Make a plan and work hard, but don’t /obsess/ (over schools, clubs, awards, grades, whatever) - things will fall into place as you go further along in high school
10 schools is not too much to apply for but you have on your list 9 schools that are reaches for ANY student and one that at its best if a very likely for ANY student. No safeties.
8th grade? I didn’t even know who most of the ivies were at 8th grade (I probably only knew Harvard and Yale, I’m pretty sure I thought Princeton was in California). Anyways, point is you should not be thinking of colleges yet, at all. Do well in school, enjoy your life, do things that you like and continue with those, study for SAT’s Junior year and see your scores, THEN think about colleges.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
OK, enough posts about typos - the kid gets it. Focus on the question, please.
But 10 colleges is not too many. However, a good rule of thumb would be 3 reaches, 3 matches, 3 safeties, and the state flagship, IMO. That said, 8th grade is too early to focus on the question.
Here would be my advice for an 8th grader
It is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). You don’t even have one year’s GPA and you have no standardized testing. You also need to recognize that Middle School and HS should be experiences in and of themselves – a time of learning and growth and not just a college application prep experience.
It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Get involved in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.