How Many Colleges Should You Apply To: Finding Your Ideal Number

Deciding how many colleges to apply to is an important step in the application process. Many experts recommend applying to 8 to 12 schools with differing levels of selectivity, but general guidelines offer only a starting point. To maximize your chances of acceptance and avoid unnecessary stress, it's best to take into account your applicant profile, your individual goals and interests, and the application strategies that will impact how many schools to apply to. Fortunately, we have Crimson Education strategist Brice Lee on deck for insight. Brice explains exactly how to determine the ideal number of schools to apply to and shares many of the strategies he uses to help Crimson students boost their chances for admission by 7x compared to other applicants.

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How Many Colleges Should You Apply To?

When you’re building a list of colleges to apply to, one important step is deciding how many schools you should apply to — and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It’s important to weigh a variety of factors.

Casting a wider net may be well worth the time and money for some students, but for others applying to far fewer schools may make perfect sense.

For these reasons I’m going to walk you through how to decide how many schools to put on your list, based on different kinds of circumstances, strategies, and interests.

But before we jump in, let’s start with the bigger questions I get from most of my students and review some of the general tips and guidelines many experts agree on:

• Is there an optimal number you should apply to? Applying to 8 to 12 colleges or universities is a good general guideline to follow, but what's right for you is almost certain to vary based on personal circumstances and goals.
• How many types of schools should your list include? A balanced approach means your list will have multiple schools in each range, with several safety, target, and reach schools based on your applicant profile and academic achievements.
• Why is a personalized approach important? While general guidelines can be a helpful starting point, picking the right number of schools truly depends on lots of individualized circumstances and interdependent factors — everything from your academic profile, chosen major, and school preferences, to the time and resources you have for the application process, and more.
• Is applying to more schools always better? In the admissions game, when it's highly competitive, more can be better. There’s a general rule of thumb I sometimes call the X-Factor. The rule here is that applying to lots of schools can, at least statistically or mathematically, improve your odds for success. But applying to that many schools also requires more time and effort, so it's not for everyone! Below I’ll explain when it may make sense to use the X-Factor to statistically boost your chances for admission, and I'll highlight some of the pros and cons of applying to more colleges vs. fewer colleges.
• Key Takeaway? By making sure you have enough schools to boost your odds overall, and by having a balanced list, with several schools in each key range — safety, target, and reach — you’ll be taking positive steps to ensuring a more satisfying outcome for your application journey.

How Many Colleges CAN You Apply To?

Well... I guess you can apply to as many colleges as you want, but there are limits, don't you think?

You certainly need to consider how much time and resources you have for the process.

And, it's important to remember that even though uniform applications are out there and can dramatically streamline the process, they also have significant limits and limiting factors!

• The Common Application has a limit of 20 applications each cycle, and some of your top choices may not accept it, while many schools that do accept it also require "supplemental" essays.
• The Coalition Application, doesn't have a limit, but only about 170 schools accept it.
• UCAS, the UK’s application system, limits students to five applications.

Personal Factors To Consider

Alongside these general guidelines, there are important personal and strategic factors you need to consider when deciding how many colleges to apply to.

These factors include:

• School competitiveness vs. your applicant profile
• How competitive your chosen major is (or isn’t)
• The level of academic rigor and school prestige you’re seeking
• Personal preferences related to campus life, campus culture, and geographical setting
• Financial aid needs or considerations
• The time, energy, and money you’re ready to commit to the application process
• Variable application timelines, options, and acceptance rates across early action and regular decision rounds

Once I review with students factors like these, I may recommend one student apply to only 8 schools or less, but advise another student to apply to 12 or more, or as many as 16 to 20+ schools, it really can depend!

1. Your Competitiveness

It’s critical to consider how competitive your applicant profile is overall when deciding how many schools to apply to, and for categorizing schools as safety, target, or reach schools — ensuring how you categorize each school on your list corresponds to your own applicant strengths and weaknesses, and making sure you’ve got a good number of schools in your target and safety ranges as a backup, in case your first-choice schools don’t work out.

2. Global Profile

International students tend to face more of an uphill climb at top US and UK schools, compared to domestic applicants. Therefore, I often encourage international students to apply to a larger number of schools to offset this geographical disadvantage.

3. Major Choice

Some majors are far more competitive than others during different periods of innovation or job demand. If you’re pursuing a more popular or “crowded” major, you'll probably want to put more schools on your college list and factor in an added degree of competition when you categorize your safety, target, and reach schools.

4. Personal Resources

Managing the workload of completing applications and weighing the monetary costs associated with application fees are also important considerations for most students. As you put together your list, you’ll want to think about some general cost-benefit factors for deciding how many schools you can realistically put on your list and which schools are truly worth keeping on your list (or not).

• How competitive the school is and the statistical acceptance rate
• Whether they accept the Common App
• Supplemental essay requirements
• Application fees
• Application timelines/deadlines

Expert Tips and Insights

In addition to considering these many personal factors, think about how your application planning and strategies may influence how many colleges you should apply to.

Since many of your strategic choices overlap with personal and school factors, and possibly admissions dynamics and trends as well, getting one-on-one counseling from an experienced college admissions counselor can be helpful.

That said, I can offer you some insights tailored to different scenarios or circumstances. Hopefully those that resonate with your own circumstances will help you decide what's the right number of schools you yourself should apply to.

1. Early Application Strategies

In addition to asking how many schools you should apply to, there's the more nuanced question: how many schools should I apply to early action?

Obviously, applying early action or early decision raises the bar in terms of meeting application deadlines, so it’s important to be realistic about whether applying early is practical in your circumstances or not. That said, applying early to certain schools — often highly selective ones — can give you quite a boost, statistically, in terms of facing better acceptance rates. Therefore, research which schools on your list offer a significant acceptance rate advantage for early applicants and consider applying to as many of them as possible in the early round.

Another big benefit of early action is getting notified early of the decision. How does this impact how many schools you'll apply to? Well, if you’re admitted to one or more target or reach schools early, you no longer have to apply to any of your safety schools, and only to additional target or reach schools if you want to — depending on your remaining options and preferences.

2. The X Factor.

When you have a strong interest in getting into schools that are very selective, even for top students, there's only so much you can do to make your application stand out. However, you can also try to boost your odds for success statistically as well by applying to a greater number of top schools — what I call the X Factor, because it’s an advantage I have calculated mathematically so to speak (yes, as a formula!).

While applying to more schools can improve your odds in quantifiable terms, you still need to factor in the work and costs of submitting so many applications. If you really want to pursue this strategy, it's likely to mean applying to more schools overall, as many as 16 to 20+ colleges when you include your safety, target, and reach schools, in order to increase your chances of admission to at least one of your reach or hard reach schools.

In the end, you may get into only one reach or hard reach school, but if you had only applied to three selective schools instead of ten or more, that one very selective school that accepted you may have never been on your list!

3. Having an Ample Safety Net

A foundational strategy for everyone’s list is to be sure to apply to least two, three, or even four safety schools — schools where your odds for getting accepted are 75% or higher — ensuring you have put an adequate safety net in place in case your applications to the more selective schools don’t get you in.

Remember that even a safety school might reject your application unexpectedly, so I generally advise students to apply to three safety schools minimum. And also remember — if you get accepted to any top-choice schools during the early action rounds, you may be notified early enough that you never have to bother applying to these safety schools during the regular decision round!

When Applying to Fewer Colleges Makes Sense

It most cases, if you really only need to apply to a smaller number of colleges, common sense will make this apparent.

Times when a student really does not need to apply to lots of colleges can include:

• Early Decision: If you apply under a binding early decision application option and you're notified early that you're accepted, you have a spot and you need to withdraw any other applications you've submitted or plan to submit, giving you no reason to apply to lots of schools.
• Early Action: If you get accepted and notified early at one or more of your top-choice schools, you may decide there's no reason to apply to any more colleges during the regular decision cycle.
• Athletic Recruiting: Often times students with exceptional athletic talents and achievements will get a guaranteed offer of admission well before application deadlines. If you're recruited in this way, you many not need or want to apply to any other schools.

Tips for Choosing the Right Colleges

We’ve talked a lot about how many schools to apply to. But this assumes listing not just any colleges but ones you’ll be excited to attend — with, yes, even your safety schools having adequate academic rigor for your academic profile along with any other features important to you personally — such as geographic features, school size, or core values — features that make all of your listed schools a strong match for you.

• Don’t apply to colleges you don’t want to attend. It seems simple, but you might be tempted to apply to a college because you fit into their criteria. But if you can’t picture yourself there, it’s not the school for you. Keep your focus on schools that align with your personal, academic, and career goals.
• Prioritize your wants and needs. You’ll be spending at least four years of your life at college. Don’t choose a school covered in snow for half of the year if you prefer warm weather. If you like the small school atmosphere, don’t choose a huge school with thousands of students. Make a list of what matters most to you and stick to it.
• Include schools with strong programs in your major. Alongside matching schools with your personal preferences, be sure the schools you apply to are a good fit with your chosen major as well, offering faculty and academic resources you're excited to connect with.
• Learn more about specialized programs. Before you decide which schools you most want to apply to, learn about programs you may not be familiar with, such as dual or consecutive degree programs or open curriculum schools that may be marvelous matches for your personal goals, major, and interests.
• Visit your top schools. If you can, visit your top schools. Being on campus is different than looking at photos online. You’ll get a complete picture of what life is like when you can walk the campus and take it all in first-hand. Can't visit? Try a virtual tour.
• Use our university admissions calculator or our enhanced school search automation tools. We’ve created an admissions calculator to help you see your chances of getting into the schools on your list. Or, if you're part of the Crimson network already, ask your strategist about the automated school search software tool embedded in the Crimson App and how it can help you build a better college list, faster than ever.
• Speak with one of our admissions advisors. From determining how many colleges you should apply to and creating your college list to supplemental essay support and extracurricular advising, Crimson helps you with every aspect of the college application process.

Managing Expectations

Taking stock of your own profile, researching and categorizing schools, and finding and selecting the best schools before you’ll ever know the outcome can take an emotional toll… It’s a process that is going to take you down multiple rabbit holes too — introspecting on your own goals and interests, researching school profiles, coordinating college visits… Phew… It’s a lot. How will you keep your sanity!?

Here are some practical tips I share with Crimson students to help them manage their expectations as they decide how many schools to apply to:

• Maintain Perspective: I strongly recommend you take a step back from the process periodically to sift and sort your options. What number of colleges can you realistically apply to? Which ones are most important to apply to? I've heard stories of students panic applying during the last 48 hours of regular decision application rounds — a perfect example of not having a well balanced list from the get go and of not maintaining perspective!
• Work From the Middle Out: Be sure to identify your target schools first. This way you'll have a reliable guide for gauging which schools best fit your safety and reach ranges.
• Working Smart / Avoiding Burnout: Not all schools are equal when it comes to the time and energy you’ll need for their application based on requirements or timelines. Keeping tabs on the amount of effort different applications will require is a smart strategy — to optimize the number of schools you should apply to while also streamlining some of the work you have ahead of you!

Common Pitfalls You Want To Avoid

• Putting Quantity Over Quality: Students who take a scattershot approach, risk putting quantity over quality — submitting poor-quality essays or striving to get admitted to schools that aren’t good matches.
• Cutting Corners: Failing to research each school adequately, you’re likely to end up spending time applying to schools that should never have been on your list to begin with, due to a lack of genuine alignment with some of your goals and interests.
• Ignoring Details: It’s important when selecting schools to apply to you consider not just what the school offers, but what it doesn't offer or requirements it imposes. Can you meet their application deadline? Does the school offer need-based aid (if you need it)? Are you categorizing the school based on the overall acceptance rate or, more realistically, the regular decision acceptance rate — which may be much lower than the overall rate?

Final Thoughts

You asked “how many colleges should I apply to?” You now know the answer will depend on your individual circumstances. But you should congratulate yourself — by taking the time to go through all the expert advice I’ve just shared, you’re leagues ahead of other students.

I’ve certainly covered lots of different scenarios too, with some nuanced tips and insights that go beyond the general information you find elsewhere online, so you can make decisions aligned with your individual circumstances, in the same way Crimson Education emphasizes a personalized approach to admissions counseling.

If you want to fine tune your list and your overall strategy further, consult with Crimson experts. Our counselors have some big advantages they can put to work for applicants, with expert colleagues around the world and lots of admissions experience and data to draw on. All of this helps us boost students’ chances for admissions by 7x compared to other applicants.

Ready to find out more?... It's very easy to schedule a free feedback session and learn more about our personalized approach, our most popular services, and see what it’s like to get some expert tips and advice for your own next steps!

Key Resources & Further Reading

• How to Crush your US College Applications
• College Admissions Calculator
• Free College Admissions Advice from Former Admission Officers
• How To Apply To UK Universities As An International Student
• How Can a College Admissions Counselor Help You with Your College Application?