Reply to What is the perfect number of college apps to submit?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't think it's necessarily the number but the range that's important.  Even a very competitive student shouldn't just be applying to Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

In general, 2 safeties, 3 mid-range, 2 reaches.[/quote]

If these are REAL safeties that the student would be reasonably happy to attend, I agree, though I think it is fine to add an additional school to each of these categories. If the student is having trouble identifying acceptable safeties, makes sense to bump these numbers up so that there might be choices in the end.

But much depends on whether one is seeking financial aid or merit aid.

If merit aid is needed, and financial need is low, skip the reaches (unless they are in-state publics) and focus on safeties, with a few matches. (E.g., a VA student looking for merit aid at large universities might have UVA as a reach but then focus the rest of their applications on schools such as Delaware, South Carolina, Pitt, UVM, Tulane, American. No point in sending apps to Georgetown or Penn or NYU, because the first two give financial aid only--no merit aid--and the third is incredibly stingy with both merit and financial aid.)

If lots of financial aid is needed, a different approach may be needed, dictated by the student's record.[/quote]

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