How You Should Judge Colleges: What Students Should Look For - Applying to Colleges
How Many Colleges Should Be On My List?
It is a good idea to start with a fairly large list of colleges (15–20). Then through campus visits, research, and an evaluation of all of the factors discussed in this chapter, you can whittle down the list to a reasonable amount of colleges to which you can apply. If you are not opposed to living in another part of the country, it is a good idea to “think outside the box” when contemplating prospective colleges.
Some students apply to 3–5 colleges, others apply to as many as 12–15 colleges; many students are somewhere in the middle. If you are an average student considering moderately selective colleges, applying to 3–5 schools is just fine. If you are an above average student and you are considering selective to highly selective colleges, then you may want to apply to a few more schools, with a final list of about 6–8 schools. If you are in the top 10–15 percent of your senior class and you are interested in the most selective schools in the country, you may want to apply to even more schools, settling on between 8–12 (or more) colleges, because of the stiff competition to the most selective colleges.
With the introduction of the Common Application and the Universal Application, students have been known to apply to 15 or more colleges because of the ease of applying using these streamlined applications. However, when you apply to so many schools, it becomes more difficult to establish that you are serious about all of these schools, because you may not have the time to visit all of them before you apply. It is also hard to write detailed essays for each school when you have so many essays to write. In times of economic distress, students tend to apply to more colleges as they do not know how enrollment will be impacted by financial hardships and they do not know if their financial aid packages will be high enough for them to attend the institution of their choice.
Do I Need to Apply to a Range of Schools?
It is wise to apply to a range of schools to cover all possibilities and ensure that you have several colleges on your list where you could see yourself happy for four years. In past years, many guidance counselors used the terms safety, target, and reach schools to describe a range of schools for students. Due to changing economic and demographic conditions, the use of the term safety school may no longer be warranted as there are too many unknown variables in the college admissions process. More appropriate terms may be probable or highly likely schools (instead of safety), likely or realistic schools (instead of target), and dream, or unlikely schools (instead of reach).
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