How many applications are too many (or too few)?

[Anonymous]

This is going to depend on your kid. Mine fell in love with one that was a target with rolling admissions that we could afford to full pay. His plan was to apply early and if he got in, be done. That’s what he did. I spent the fall asking if he wanted to apply to others, just to see, and he kept saying this is where he wanted to go.

So he had a stress free admissions process but this is unusual. And of course, I’m left thinking that I wonder if he would have gotten into this or that school or what the financial aid packages would have been.

But he’s happy and it’s a great fit.

I would try to pick at least one rolling admissions early, that she could see herself at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your student is willing to complete 15 apps, then 15 apps is fine.

Most do about 9 with 3 reaches, 3 matches, and 3 safeties. To be blunt, once one has identified and applied to at least 2 safeties, then the rest doesn't matter as much.

There’s a difference between having 15 on the list and applying to 15. My 2 high stats kids only applied to 6-8 each and had good results.

For fall EA/ED/rolling you want to have
- 1-2 rolling/safety
- 1-2 target in-state public schools EA
- 2-4 out-of-state EA/SCEA
- 1 ED if kid is really sure

You hear back from rolling, ED, and some EA/SCEA before RD deadlines. If you’ve planned well, you’ll have a 1-2 acceptances. Any defers/declines help you know if you are in the ballpark for competitive schools. Then adjust the remaining RD application list.

My kid with strongest profile only did 4 EA/SCEA (no ED), accepted 2, deferred by 2 (both very competitive). Then only 4 RD to ivies, accepted to 3.

Doing 15-20 applications is really just a recipe for stress and not necessarily better results.

Nope. My DD was rejected REA from HYPSM. I’m glad she did not give up as she applied to three of the 4 remaining schools and was admitted to 2 and waitlisted at the other. Each school is different and kids who are a fit for Stanford might be rejected by MIT….

Exactly. My kid was rejected from this ED school and his top EA choices like UVA don't announce admissions until February and even the safety (he only applied to one) came in after the new year. That means he didn't have the luxury to either stop applying or apply only to four more ivies. PP says that applying to 15-20 is "a recipe for stress and not necessarily better results" but what else can a top stats student do if rejected early on?? Anyway, my kid got into his 1 safety and his 4 targets, accepted at 5 reaches (inc an ivy), waitlisted at 5, rejected from 5 (inc ED). And the lesson I learned from the experience is that it is really hard to predict.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

When you say 15, does this include just the reaches or does it also have targets and safeties? You definitely need a well rounded list with reaches, targets and safeties. Keep in mind that schools with less than 20% admit rate are reaches for anyone regardless of stats.

My kids had a final list around 12-13 with reaches, targets and safeties.

If you have not visited schools of interest yet, get going. A lot of potential schools of interest came off the list after a visit.

Keep in mind that each application is a lot of work, even with the common app. A lot of schools have supplemental essays either for admission or for scholarships. Some have interviews too. So you want a list that makes sense and then focus on putting care and attention into every application.

For very high stats kids, there are no targets — only reaches and safeties. That’s why these kids end up applying to so many schools. And that’s why safeties with rolling admission / early notification (like Pitt and St. Andrews) are so popular and get a lot of applications in early September.

Well, you are choosing to call Pitt a safety but most of us wouldn't (I didn't) even for my high stats kid. I only call something a safety if it does not consider interest and has over 70% acceptance rate.

DP, but I absolutely considered Pitt a safety for my high stats kid. Unfortunately, we visited and kid refused to apply b/c they didn't want an urban school.

[Anonymous]

Try to pick a rolling school, but don't be surprised if your kid doesn't like any of them.

[Anonymous]

My more “average” stats student (3.5w gpa, TO) was originally going to do 8 applications like their older sibling (4.2 gpa), but with a few free apps and with a few more last minute considerations, we went to 14.

They really have no “dream” school, but have more EA reach schools on there. 3 of those schools have asked for mid semester grades before deciding.

Already in at 2 schools but they are not their top choices. Already rejected at 1 school and deferred to RD at 2 more.

It’s a crapshoot. Just want them to have options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is going to depend on your kid. Mine fell in love with one that was a target with rolling admissions that we could afford to full pay. His plan was to apply early and if he got in, be done. That’s what he did. I spent the fall asking if he wanted to apply to others, just to see, and he kept saying this is where he wanted to go.

So he had a stress free admissions process but this is unusual. And of course, I’m left thinking that I wonder if he would have gotten into this or that school or what the financial aid packages would have been.

But he’s happy and it’s a great fit.

I would try to pick at least one rolling admissions early, that she could see herself at.

This sounds a lot like our DC1 except she fell in love with a safety. We made her apply to a few more but, in retrospect, we shouldn’t have. She knew herself way better and, like PP’s son, had a stress-free senior year and is loving it at the school both she loved…and who loved her back.

DC2 is different and has a more measured plan of 2-3-2 (semi-reach/target/safety). Would be genuinely happy at all.

TBH, y’all sound crazy with 15+. You’ve created this self-fulfilling prophecy and unpredictability. When schools get 10s of thousands of apps for just a few thousand (or even hundreds) of slots…what do you expect?

(full disclosure: not in DMV but at a somewhat competitive/magnet, suburban VA school)

[Anonymous]

We are on the west coast, and my son is applying to 23 schools that includes 13 schools outside of UC/CSU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My cousin has 4 kids. They all got in ED to one east coast liberal arts college. Sports.

Neither cousin nor their spouse has any ties to the school. Now they're all '28 '28 (twins), '29 and '30

Very confused. What makes this relevant to OP's question?

All the kids applied to the same college, they never did any other applications for any of them.

4 kids 4 applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who sounds like many of the kids that people are posting here. Highest rigor, dozen+ APs, 4.0UW, 1560 SAT, captain of sports team, solid ECs but not state/national level of anything. I'm biased, but also a great kid and will likely do well wherever she ends up.

Her college counselor is clear-eyed, saying she's a reasonable candidate for any school she wants to look at but she could get in somewhere highly competitive or be completely shut out. When we look at the colleges that match what she is looking for, we are still over 15 colleges! That seems crazy to me, but with single digit to very low double digit acceptance rates, we are not sure what to do. I'd love to hear advice from parents with recent grads or with seniors this year.

When you say 15, does this include just the reaches or does it also have targets and safeties? You definitely need a well rounded list with reaches, targets and safeties. Keep in mind that schools with less than 20% admit rate are reaches for anyone regardless of stats.

My kids had a final list around 12-13 with reaches, targets and safeties.

If you have not visited schools of interest yet, get going. A lot of potential schools of interest came off the list after a visit.

Keep in mind that each application is a lot of work, even with the common app. A lot of schools have supplemental essays either for admission or for scholarships. Some have interviews too. So you want a list that makes sense and then focus on putting care and attention into every application.

For very high stats kids, there are no targets — only reaches and safeties. That’s why these kids end up applying to so many schools. And that’s why safeties with rolling admission / early notification (like Pitt and St. Andrews) are so popular and get a lot of applications in early September.

This is true. My kid ended up applying to, what felt like afterwards, as too many safeties. There were horror stories shared about kids who kepts getting rejected, so DC had a big safety net. They didn't ED anywhere and got into their favorite school EA.

Scary story: my son is a BSN/RN and he applied to a college which accepted his application and fee and processed it and accepted him, and shut their doors in bankruptcy the summer after his graduation. That was so shady.

[Anonymous]

not OP kid with similar stats and only safety vtech which isnt one, denied rea and not sure they will do any other rds, all ea schools are the toughest public to get into, kid being uncooperative, what can i do?

[Anonymous]

My son with low processing speed was only able to do 6, and that after incredible labor and suffering. I expect my normally functioning daughter to do double that, especially as she's major-undecided and feels that this counts against her. My son's advantage was that he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and mostly targeted universities that had solid offerings in that major and were within his reach. He got into 4 out of 6, and the 2 that rejected him were his reaches, which we didn't really expect him to get into - so his outcome was unsurprising. My daughter feels it's going to be more of a crapshoot for her generalist profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well…school Counselors always say no more than 9.But reality is the average number is often above 10. For Asian, 20-30 is not uncommon.

Is this possible? I thought common app allows up to 20 applications? Are the rest international schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well…school Counselors always say no more than 9.But reality is the average number is often above 10. For Asian, 20-30 is not uncommon.

Is this possible? I thought common app allows up to 20 applications? Are the rest international schools?

you can add more schools if you use both the common app and the coalition app. Reddit kids go up to 50+ like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well…school Counselors always say no more than 9.But reality is the average number is often above 10. For Asian, 20-30 is not uncommon.

Is this possible? I thought common app allows up to 20 applications? Are the rest international schools?

Yes, Common App allows up to 20 apps, but MIT, UC schools and Georgetown are not on the Common App. Georgetown is switching to CA next year. My kid is applying to 24 schools after being deferred ED.

[Anonymous]

2023 daughter- applied to 3. 1 rolling early, 1 ED, 1 EA. Got into ED and done. Had a plan for more schools but she was looking at primarily SLAC so not many EA fall deadlines.

2025 Son- applied to 22. ED1 denied, ED2 deferred, got into all safety EA and all but 1 Target EA (deferred at 1). During RD got into ed2 school, another EA reach deferral, and a few others. Ended up at ED2 school.