We get this question a lot: how many schools should I be applying to? The answer is a bit different for everyone, but we’re very intentional about the range that we suggest for each person, which is between 8-12. More is not better, in this situation. It’s just more stress and more work. And at a certain point we’re looking at diminishing returns in terms of essays and overall work quality if you’re applying to 18-20 schools. We know that it’s scary to have fewer schools on the list, but if you’ve done everything right leading up to this point, there really should only be 8-12 schools on your list. Why this range? A few reasons.
It’s about fit, not ability.
We know you’re smart. We know that you can keep up with the most intense and academically rigorous of environments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what you want from your college experience. Remember: this is where you’re going to be spending four years, and once you’re there, basically no one cares that you did or did not get into Princeton. We know it’s hard to ditch your preconceived notions about what the “best” schools are and to not approach this process with a “YOLO?!” perspective and apply to every Ivy there is “just in case,” but we’re telling you that if that’s your approach, you’re doing it wrong. Schools have different vibes, cultures, and values--they’re like small towns, or sometimes cities. Make sure you’re applying to the towns and cities where you’d be happy to live and in which you’d thrive, not just the most “popular” cities.
You should be editing down, not adding on out of fear.
As we’ve written about before, this process is all about refining, from college lists, to Common App essay, to supplemental essays, to your activities section. While there’s no possible way to convey the complex human who you are in one application, it’s better to show some restraint, order, and intentionality with your application as opposed to having it appear like a chaotic Pollock painting of information. Similar to your application, your college list should reflect your research, understanding of various schools, your scores and GPA (and how they fit together), and an understanding of what you want. When we see school lists that have a seemingly random assortment of schools that are different sizes, embody different cultures, and are sort of, well, all over the place, our instinct is to scrap it and start from scratch. Start big, make a list of schools that you genuinely love and would be happy to go to, and edit it down from there. Pay attention to your gut. And don’t, we repeat: DON’T add on schools at the last minute out of fear. That will never produce a positive outcome.
8-12 allows for balance.
We say challenge yourself to narrow your list to 3, 4, and 3, in each category: reach, target, and safety. We like the target category to be a bit bigger than the others because with targets it really could go either way and if all goes according to plan, you should get in. They’re good bets to take, so we like to bolster that section. More than 3 reaches, and your list gets top-heavy, which isn’t good. 3 safeties are your insurance plan. And it’s a solid one. It allows for one or two schools rejecting or deferring you solely because they know you won’t attend. If you’ve done your research and realistically understand your profile to be numerically overqualified within the context of accepted students at the schools in this section, then 3 safeties are sufficient.
Oh, and....no more than 1 Ivy.**
If you are the average overachieving student, this rule applies to you. And by average we mean you have great grades and great scores and great extracurriculars, not that you are a B+ student. So, if you want to put more than one Ivy (we include Stanford, UChicago, Duke, and MIT in the Ivies, by the way) on your list you might be guilty of the aforementioned “YOLO?!” way of thinking. We aren’t fans. Each of the Ivies are quite unique in terms of personality, and we rarely think that a student would thrive in more than one of those environments. If you’re finding yourself wanting to apply to more than one Ivy, we implore you to interrogate your opinions on the Ivies and your list in general. Is it because you truly think you’d thrive there? Or is it because you’re feeling like it’s now or never and you like the “idea” of going to an Ivy? Yeah. No. That’s a red flag for us.
**There are exceptions to every rule.
Call or email us if you need some assistance with the challenging task of narrowing down or completing your school list.