<p>sugarski–just be aware of the costs to apply to 15 schools, not only are there application fees but you have to send test scores too. Most of the schools our kids applied to waived the application fee if they applied online/common app. All but 3 schools would actually accept a PDF of their score report from ACT/SAT via email from us, I just asked because I thought that our school sent test scores on transcripts and they did not so I checked with the colleges and they said sure. We had sent scores to the few that did not. (We have twins so between the 2 they applied to 20 schools). As long as you have a good list, no reason not to apply to 15 schools if you are searching for merit money. So far the kids have gotten their final numbers from about 1/2 their schools. D committed (athlete) in the fall so she only got numbers from one school. S has heard from 6 out of 10 now. Of those 6, four have added extra merit awards, small $1000-1500, on top of the automatic merit he got. The rest came over as expected. We are a full pay family so no financial aid. The net price calculators have been right on for the schools that included the automatic merit aid in their calculator. Every school on the list has come in under the NPC price.</p>