Top Reasons NOT to Apply to More Than 10 Schools

Top Reasons NOT to Apply to More Than 10-ish Schools

I posted this on another thread and figured it would be wise to just share this for everyone. I am simply suggesting. Obviously everyone’s situation varies.

Top Reasons NOT to Apply to More Than 10 Colleges

1. You will be writing supplements all throughout the fall semester so your grades may suffer. This will hurt your chances of being admitted to the colleges you have worked so hard to get into.

  1. It is TOO expensive to pay the application fees ($50-$75 each) plus sending test scores ($12 each) and potential CSS Profiles ($16-$25 each). If you applied to 15 schools, it would cost $1,300+!!

3. It is too time consuming to express interest, visit schools, go to rep meetings at the school, follow-up with, and interview at that many schools. This will hurt your chances of being admitted to each individually. For some schools, lack of demonstrated will result in a waitlist or a rejection. Don’t let this be you!

  1. It may be hard to believe, but receiving too many acceptance letters is extremely stressful. You will only have a few weeks to make your decision in April and not enough time to fully explore more than a few schools. You will always wonder if you made the right choice. For some, receiving many rejections may be hard to swallow.
  2. You may have an extremely large amount of financial aid forms to complete ($25+ per school)
  3. You may confuse colleges when writing specific essays for the school or while interviewing. It’s difficult to remember exact details for so many schools. The more attention you can give to each school you love, the better your essays & interviews will be, thus increasing odds of acceptance.
  4. You will want to research and fill out scholarship applications for each school, which takes a lot of time.
  5. You’re creating more competition at each college, which makes it harder to get in. The more students who apply with little intention of attending, the more difficult it will be for YOU to get in.
  6. Having 8 private and/or out-of-state schools on your college list is more than enough to ensure that you have a well balanced list of academic “likely”, “match” and “reach” and schools, and financial “likely”, “match” and “reach” schools!

I stumbled upon this and I find that these are very misguided reasons.

  1. This is actually a valid point, but students who have good time management will do fine.
  2. Let's say you applied to 15 schools and spent $1300. Although that upfront cost is expensive, getting admitted to a top school will make the cost worthwhile. Top schools generally have excellent financial aid, and the likelihood of getting a high paying job increases substantially (compared to mid-tier private schools or lower level state schools). You could end up earning $2 million over your lifetime vs. $1 million over a lifespan. That $1300 is a drop in a bucket compared to an extra $1 million.
  3. Well prepared students will have visited college during the summers before junior and senior years so that visiting schools will not be a big deal. If you really want to go to a school, you will most likely interview anyway. Also, many schools do not take interest into account.
  4. LOL how is this a drawback? Too many acceptances? Boohoo.
  5. Top schools have excellent financial aid. $25 is nothing if a top school ends up costing $25k a year versus $60k somewhere else.
  6. If you cannot keep track of details then you would have been rejected anyways. All it takes is rudimentary editing.
  7. Again, it goes back to time management.
  8. This is a silly reason. Because a college is selective due to a high number of applications, I shouldn't apply? Colleges like WashU, UChicago, and Northwestern practice yield protection so many qualified applicants with little interest are wait-listed. If you show a lot of interest, this will not affect you.
  9. One could argue that 8 or 9 is also too much. These numbers are arbitrary cutoffs. Students who manage their time well with rudimentary focus can easily apply to more than 10 schools and still be successful.

Because FAFSA only holds 10 schools.

You can update your FAFSA and resubmit it to other schools after you’ve exhausted the 10 school limit.

Sources: I sent my FAFSA to more than 10 schools
FAFSA website: https://fafsa.ed.gov/help/fotwfaq14.htm

@Oberyn You are clearly an upper middle class or wealthy student who has money to blow on app fees and fin aid fees and expensive visits, while most don’t. The vast majority of students do not get into top ranked, elite private schools with billion dollar endowments. Most go to ordinary state schools or lower ranked privates, so considering financial aid is a must. And many acceptances on face value may seem good, but you increase your chances of having buyers regret.

I think everyone has buyers regret even when making a decision between two colleges like brown or penn for a while. Also, I understand that most people cannot afford so many college apps but it’s unfair for you to say it’s wrong for people in general to spend that much money on applications. If people have the money and are willing to spend it and if the applicant is responsible in completing thoughtful applications then who are we to stop them. If you start early you’ll be fine.

I think 10 is way too many. There is so much time and money involved in each application. IMO, if you have 10+ schools to consider applying to that is overkill.