@Sonnie323 yes, the MT advisor we have been working with, and most everyone I talked to about this process, said to have 20 on the application list - but that was not of any interest to my S. He wants to be on stage, not in a classroom so I was going to count myself lucky if I got him to make a list of 15!! Visiting the schools was essential in our case because he is not a researcher so being on campus and hearing about programs was the only thing that got him interested enough to eventually get his list up to 12. We didn’t visit all of the schools, figuring some would be scheduled if he got an audition, or if he gets accepted, but visiting a sampling of some with a "traditional"campus vs in the middle of Times Square, and some with BFA programs vs BA programs helped him rule out some completely before ever applying, and others he dropped off the app list just because ones he was more interested in gave him an audition before he submitted the app to other schools that were on the list “just because”. In the end he applied to 3 schools requiring prescreens, 1 school as his safety (ie - non audition) and 8 where he scheduled an audition at the same time as submitting the app - it yielded him 9 total auditions. I did have some freak out moments reading on here about the 20-25 schools others applied to, and questioned daily during prescreen season if he did the right thing, but I came to realize every one has their own journey to get where they are going; so as long as each student stays true to what they are looking for, eventually they will find it!