Anonymous wrote:9-12 is a good number with appropriate mix of safeties, targets and reaches, toward the upper end if you are chasing merit/tuition discounts.

My DS applied to 12, ED1 deferred, accepted ED2, accepted at 5 others EA and rolling before the ED2 decision, 5 others pulled after the ED2 decision so a lot of them turned out to be unnecessary.

Even without the ED acceptance, he should have probably only applied to 9 or 10 at most. A lot depends on how well you identify targets and safeties as my son was focusing on Top 30 to Top 50, although he applied ED to 2 of them because he really liked them and they have low acceptance rates.

Anonymous wrote:Curious how many colleges kids are applying to ? Our private college counselor is saying 10- this seems low to me.

Depends on how selective a school your kid is targeting?

Anonymous wrote:2025: 9 schools including two schools abroad, will attend in-state public

in at 4 (safety, target, and both int'l), WL at 1 (target/reach) rejected at 4 (reaches)

This is the person who got it right.

If your kid is applying to more than 10 schools, they have no idea what they are doing or what they want and you have been of zero use to them.

5
got into all of them

My kid will be doing 20, including UC’s.

Everything is highly unpredictable these days.

Anonymous wrote:Curious how many colleges kids are applying to ? Our private college counselor is saying 10- this seems low to me.

2024 Grad: 21

10 Acceptances
3 Rejections
8 Waitlists-Didn’t stay on. Satisfied w acceptance and ready to move on.

9-12 is a good number with appropriate mix of safeties, targets and reaches, toward the upper end if you are chasing merit/tuition discounts.

Anonymous wrote:Curious how many colleges kids are applying to ? Our private college counselor is saying 10- this seems low to me.

19 total:
14 in the US and 5 UK/RU

20

no ED, a couple EA

Probably too many: 14

Reach: 4 (2 rejections, 1RD admit, 1WL admit)
Target: 7 out of 7 (one rolling, 6 EA)
Likely: 3 out of 3

List was a bit longer because of the uncertainty of applying test optional and wanting to see what money was offered.

2022 - 9, got into 6, waitlisted at 4
2024 - 10, all apps submitted but got in reach school for ED so withdrew the apps
2026 - thinking 7-10 depending on early EA results

Anonymous wrote:two kids.

Both applied to ONE school. In. Done.

Nice, that's the way to do it. The kids pick the school, not the other way around.

Class of 2024: 9
Class of 2026: expecting 6-8

10. His HS limited it to 10. He got into all 10 because I didn't want him wasting any since we needed significant FA.

Anonymous wrote:My DC has a 35 ACT and 3.94 UNWEIGHTED. Attends a school where APs aren’t offered. DC self studied for four AP exams and got all 5s.
Counselor is suggesting schools that have a 60% acceptance rate. Extracurriculars and internships are very solid.
I cannot wrap my mind around why DC would apply to schools with such high acceptance rates.

I'm guessing you have a college list of highly rejective schools and the counselor is suggesting safety schools.

It's possible that you don't know as much about current admissions as you think. A 3.94 unweighted GPA is great, but not impressive enough to put it in all-caps. Along with a 35 ACT and 4 APs with a score of 5, your kid may have the stats be put on the "to be considered" pile, but there are many more steps before they are on the "accepted" pile.