Shotgunning—I'm very confused

RichInPitt
Mon, 29 Jun 2020 21:39:41 +0000

skate17;d-2190361:

For all those that have applied previously, is shotgunning an advisable strategy or not? It seems logical to me on the surface,.

I’m curious why you think it’s logical. The time involved in applying to more and more universities means less time dedicated to each application. Which means a lower quality application to each one.

Each application is a statistically independent event, so applying to more won’t improve your chances at any individual school.

I would hypothesize that lower quality applications to 20 schools would yield a worse result than 8 quality applications to the schools that really interest you.

Do all 20+ schools even have the education you are looking for and a campus where you feel at home. There aren’t many students who say “Caltech and Brown are pretty much the same to me for what I’m looking to study”.