Does anyone want to share their list of applied-to colleges (past and current appliers)?

[mirabillis]

I've read through many back threads about how many colleges your kids have applied to... some say 2 or 3, some say 10, 12, 14. One I think said 18. I am so curious as to what your list looked like? How far you cast your net from home, etc? If anyone wants to share, I think it'd be interesting to see. :-D

[whitestavern]

My daughter applied to 13:

Allegheny
Connecticut College
Dickinson
Franklin & Marshall
Gettysburg
Hamilton
Lafayette
UMaine
URochester
St. Lawrence
Susquehanna
Siena
Washington & Jefferson

She wanted an LAC, was chasing merit, and was undecided on major... had interest in both science and humanities. At the end she was torn between Allegheny and URoch--loved both.Ultimately chose URoch for two reasons: one, Allegheny was +/- 8 hours from home and two, she was afraid it was going to be too small. So far she is very happy at URoch - seems to be the perfect size for her and only 5 hours from home. Unfortunately they also gave her the least amount of merit ?

In hindsight, she didn't need to apply to so many. I made her apply to Conn (we live there and she didn't have any instate options, even though she didn't want instate) and Dickinson (I just thought it was a great fit). And before we even had decisions back she had decided she was no longer interested in Gettysburg & St. Lawrence (party reputation) or Wash & Jeff (too small) UMaine was her completely affordable safety admit, but she didn't really want to attend. So there were only 6-7 viable options. If her school didn't require all apps to be complete by 11/15 she may have had more time to think things through and may have applied to fewer. But it was the first time going through this, and we were thinking more options would be better than less.

 

[DawnM]

Oldest son started at CC and then transferred.  He applied to one college, got in, got a scholarship, and that was that.  

We are in NC.

Middle son got into all the schools applied to and received scholarships of various sizes to all but UNC Charlotte.  He not only got nothing from them, but they took FOREVER to get back to him.  Meanwhile, others who applied around the same time (mid November) knew by Christmas or January.  He didn't know until April!  It was maddening, and by then, he had already picked Western.  He is a freshman this year and enjoys it!

UNC Asheville 

Western Carolina,

SCAD

UNC Charlotte.  

[Lanny]

DD has 6 schools on her list and I believe she will be adding 3 more schools, because of the Merit Aid they offer to National Hispanic Scholars.   4 of the schools are highly selective private universities, so that's incredibly competitive, for everyone, but, if one does not  apply, one has no possibility of being admitted.

[regentrude]

DD applied to 12 colleges: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, University of Colorado Boulder, and a few others I forget. With several schools with acceptance rates below 10%, you need quite a few.

DS applied to St. Louis University, his top choice. And, after I nagged him enough, to Mizzou as a backup. He would have applied to U NM as well if he hadn't gotten his acceptance to SLU before that. 

[teachermom2834]

Oldest ds applied to ten: U of Tennessee-Knoxville, Middle TN State University, Sewanee, Birmingham Southern, Berry, Oglethorpe, Rhodes, Kenyon, Xavier, and Spring Hill. However, some of those were free common app and really not ever high on the list. Looking at the list now some really were not a good fit, yet they ended up on the list for one reason or another. Maybe four of them got serious discussion and consideration. I had a hard time even remembering all of them.

Next ds applied to UT-Knoxville, TN Tech, Middle TN State U, East TN State U, Nova Southeastern U, and U of South Florida. 

My next ds is class of 2021 and he will likely apply to all different schools besides our flagship. 

[lewelma]

Oldest applied to 6: MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, CMU, U of Michigan Ann Arbor. He would have applied to Georgia Tech and U of Texas Austin but he simply ran out of pup for writing all those essays. Essay fatigue is real, and he was exhausted. 

[GoodGrief]

My oldest applied to 8: U Alaska Fairbanks, U Washington Seattle (attended there), Colorado College, Georgetown, , Carleton College, Grinnell College, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley. Closest school was 6 hour drive. She came up with this list on her own, and it wasn't really super well thought out.

Second daughter applied to a massive number, because of the search for merit in the form of competitive large scholarships or National Merit schools, funds from the more generous very selective schools that offer need-based aid, an interest in possible running or skiing in school, an interest in possibly attending a religious school, and being geographically distant from most schools, making early visits to rule out schools impractical. She applied to (deep breath) U Alaska Anchorage and U Alaska Fairbanks, U Washington Seattle, Montana State, Northern Arizona University, Washington State, U of Vermont, U Kentucky, U Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, Messiah College, Hope College, Calvin College, Baylor University, Stanford, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton (attended there). We ended up visiting quite a few after acceptance, but some were eliminated sight unseen because the money didn't work out or they didn't make sense in light of other acceptances.

[kirag714]

My older daughter applied to 9 schools: University of Pittsburgh (we're in state), University of Vermont, Colorado College, University of Denver, George Washington Univ, Fordham, Tulane, Skidmore & Washington Univ in St. Louis. A rather odd list - she feels like she didn't think it through well enough! However, luckily she got into her first choice school (Colorado College) so that made her final decision easy. She's a sophomore there now.

My senior is still working on her list - currently she has 12-14 schools on it, but I think it will get pared down quite a bit before all is done. Definite applications are Swarthmore (probably ED), Barnard, NYU, Eugene Lang at the New School, Fordham, Clark, UPenn, GWU, American and Pitt. I'm also encouraging Haverford, Franklin & Marshall and Lawrence University (a bit in the boonies for her, but they have a program that is right up her alley, plus it's a great school). She's also thinking of wading into the University of California system and applying to UC San Diego, but we'll see . . . 

And of course this could all change if/when some acceptances come in. In addition to (probably) applying to Swarthmore ED, a bunch of those schools are Early Action or rolling admission, so she should know by mid-December about a bunch of them. Fingers crossed - I can't wait for this to be done!
 

[kokotg]

My son has (gulp) 20 on his list right now. He's having a hard time getting rid of any; several are big reaches and several more are safeties or matches where he could potentially get very nice financial aid. For quite a few of them there's either no application fee or he has a fee waiver, and some of THOSE don't have supplemental essays, so there's not much downside to applying. I told him for now he should just prioritize the list--get the ones he's the most interested in done--and then see if he has any energy left for essays and applications by the time the deadlines roll around for the rest. We have a few more visits lined up for the fall, too, so some might get eliminated after he sees them. ETA list: UGA, Williams, Vassar, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Bates, Haverford, Dickinson, Grinnell, Carleton, Rice, Hendrix, St. Olaf, Macalester, Earlham, Oberlin, Knox, Kenyon, Yale, Harvard.

Edited October 8, 2018 by kokotg

[KarenNC]

We're in NC. My daughter wanted a smaller to mid-size school, within driving distance of home, shooting for one where her stats put her in the top 10-20%. She investigated a ton of schools and we made visits to many of them (several more than once), but she narrowed the list for applications to: Roanoke College, Catawba College, Lenoir Rhyne University, Appalachian State University, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Charlotte. She applied to the honors colleges at all but Roanoke.  

[JazzyMom]

We’re in Texas, and my son has applied and been accepted to Texas A&M, University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Tech, University of Oklahoma, and University of Arkansas.  

He is still waiting to hear from University of Houston (a safety) and 2 reaches - University of Texas at Austin and Southern Methodist University.

He was primarily looking for schools within a reasonable driving distance that offered merit for his stats.  He has already received merit aid at a few of the schools.  A few of them are financial reaches, but we figured it couldn’t hurt to have a few reaches on the list.

He spent a week each at summer programs at 3 of the schools and has done all day visits at another 3.  He still needs to visit the 2 out of state schools.

He wasn’t initially interested in doing college visits, but has ended up enjoying them and finding them very helpful.

Edited October 9, 2018 by JazzyMom

[Arch at Home]

My oldest applied to 13 - University of Missouri Kansas City, Truman State, Drake, Grinnell, Baldwin Wallace, St. Edwards, Pomona, Williams, Barnard, Benedictine, Wellesley, Fordham, and Missouri State. This broad list was put together to give her options as when it was put together when she still didn't know what she was looking for. In addition, the dual enrollment program she was in required 10 applications and 1 was the local university. In the end, she decide she wanted a highly selective liberal arts college and was accepted into 2 - Grinnell and Wellesley. She came back from her visit to Wellesley singing the praises of their Calculus 3 class and I knew that her decision was made. She had found her people.

My middle student is currently a senior and is also coincidentally applying to 13 - University of Missouri Kansas City, Truman State, Drake, Grinnell, Barnard, Wellesley, St. Olaf, Macalester, Carlton, Occidental, Bates, Mount Holyoke, and Smith. This DD is in the same dual enrollment program so she is also require 10 apps including the local university. She has benefitted from the experience of her sister and has made more college visits. DD17 also wants a highly selective out of state liberal arts college and is blessed that all are on the Common App and a number do not require supplemental essays.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Arch at Home
clairification

[SanDiegoMom]

We are in VA but planning to move mid college career to CA so my dd applied to both east and west coast. She applied to 14, but in retrospect 10 should have been enough:-) William and Mary, NYU, Brandeis, American U, Columbia, and the top 6 UC's, among a few others. She's at UCLA on the GI bill. 

[Pawz4me]

I really think it will vary depending on your student's stats and extra curriculars, how set they are (or not) on a particular school and the acceptance rate(s) of the colleges.

DS22 applied to seven. Two were safeties and the rest were top 10 to top 30 schools. We still felt that was an adequate number, given that one of his safeties was a school with the top ranked honors college in the country, and he would have been happy to attend there.

DS19 graduated from an early college high school and had his head and heart set on one university. We were told by an admissions counselor that being an early college student and his stats made him an automatic admit to that school. We still insisted that he apply to a couple more, just in case. So his total apps were three.

Neither of ours was particularly interested in ranging too far from home. They didn't rule it out, I don't think, it's more that they had really good choices within just a few hours' drive so saw no particular reason to go a plane flight away.

[8filltheheart]

It should be totally student dependent.  My oldest only applied to 1 bc he was adamant about where he wanted to go. #2 is our Aspie and he needed to live at home so he attended locally. #3 applied to the only program available in the state for OTA. #4 applied to around 8. #5 applied to around 12 (she wasn't sure what she wanted. She started off thinking she wanted a small school but ended up shifting gears to large publics.) #6, our 11th grader, plans on applying to 1.

[alewife]

17 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I really think it will vary depending on your student's stats and extra curriculars, how set they are (or not) on a particular school and the acceptance rate(s) of the colleges.

DS22 applied to seven. Two were safeties and the rest were top 10 to top 30 schools. We still felt that was an adequate number, given that one of his safeties was a school with the top ranked honors college in the country, and he would have been happy to attend there.

DS19 graduated from an early college high school and had his head and heart set on one university. We were told by an admissions counselor that being an early college student and his stats made him an automatic admit to that school. We still insisted that he apply to a couple more, just in case. So his total apps were three.

Neither of ours was particularly interested in ranging too far from home. They didn't rule it out, I don't think, it's more that they had really good choices within just a few hours' drive so saw no particular reason to go a plane flight away.

I agree with the bolded.  I am going through the process for the third time and final time now, and each time has been different.

My oldest applied to three schools.  However, had he not been admitted in the early action round, he would have submitted more applications before the January regular decision deadlines.

My middle applied to one school, but his process was the most time consuming and complicated.  He was a recruited athlete who began receiving offers of admission from various schools the beginning of his junior year.  We took him on many college visits in the fall of junior year.  At the end of the fall visits, he had narrowed his choices down to 4 schools.  He revisited those four schools in February of his junior year and made a final decision in March of junior year.

My youngest has applied to 4 schools.  She received a likely letter from one of these schools.  Had she not have received the likely letter, her application list would have been longer.

[littlebug42]

My oldest is my first going through this.  She applied to two schools, Kent State University and Ashland University,and has been accepted to both through rolling admissions.  Both schools are in our state.  Now we wait for financial information as that will likely be the deciding factor. She says she would be happy going to either although her heart is really set on Kent State.

[easypeasy]

Oldest applied to many. If she hadn't burned out on applications, it would have been more. She refused to apply to any Ivies, much to my chagrin (she'll never know now!). So we cast a wide net, in search of scholarships on several fronts.

She was unsure of her major, unsure of which team/coach she wanted to sign with, unsure of small vs. large, unsure of urban vs. rural, unsure of far away vs. close by, unsure of... life. lol So, she applied to many.

As far as locations - these schools were all over the eastern coast and other schools that offered nice automatic scholarships for her credentials. She wound up going to a school far, far from home (I didn't include it in this list). ?

UMass Amherst, University of Central Florida, Florida State University, University of Florida, Alabama, Alabama Huntsville, Clemson, University of Oklahoma, Temple University, Boston University, University of Texas at Austin, a couple local flagships, and... I know there were a few others, but it's all foggy almost four years later.

DD2 is taking a gap year. When she applies next year, she will probably wind up applying to five schools only. She's a musician, and by that point, she'll have done private lessons at several schools and toured most of the schools she intends to audition for. So, she'll already have a fairly solid idea of where/who she wants to study.

DS's current first-choice is a highly selective school, so I'm encouraging him to investigate many other options. Hopefully his list won't be as long as DD1s, but it's got to be longer than ONE!

[BakersDozen]

Oy...my older 3 dc applied to one...the local community college. I/we figure with the incredible Honors program (books/tuition/room/board plus all-expenses-paid trip to London, Costa Rica, Greece, etc.) it was a pretty good deal. One of our dds is in the running for a 4-year scholarship to one of the 3 major AZ universities because of her experience at the CC, so that's a bonus, too!

I guess I could have my next dc apply to Embry Riddle (local to us and we know the admissions guy who can waive the application fee, lol). It's not like my ds would actually go there but he could go through the application process just to do it.