Most students Apply to 4 or fewer schools

<p>I never really considered the UCs as separate applications even though they are (one app to many schools). Although it cost more to apply to several UCs, we considered a few of them as “safeties” when my daughter applied. Even though I was pretty sure my daughter would get into Berkeley and UCLA (which she did), I did not want to be the parent who was so sure that they overlooked applying to schools that were more of a sure thing. So she applied to six UC campuses. I felt OK about doing that because no one else had to write recs or be inconvenienced. In addition, she applied to six reach schools and was accepted into four (three of them YPS), wait-listed at a small LAC and denied at one. When it is my son’s turn to apply, I know he will want to have several reaches. I think he’ll apply to a few very small programs because small might be good for him, but what I learned from last time is that the problem with small programs is that they have such limited space that it can become even more difficult to get into than a school like Stanford or Yale. So if you have a few small schools that seem like a good fit, and a few schools that seem like quite a reach, don’t count on those small schools that seem like a fit. They are often looking for a broad group geographically and may only be taking a very small group of students from a particular region. So, while my son, on paper, might end up looking like a good fit, I will consider all small programs a reach, add to that larger programs that are a reach, add to that several UC applications and that will look like a lot of applications. But I really think it’s better to be safe than sorry. The one thing I would do differently, however, is that after my daughter got in early at one school, we should have dropped some of the other applications. The only reason we did not was that I felt that the teachers had already sent in their recs, etc. and I felt like she needed to finish what she’d started. I’d do that differently now – I’d say just keep the schools you would consider attending over school X. In the end, she did not go to the early admit school so it was worth doing some of the extra apps, but maybe not all of them.</p>