What is the number of colleges that you should apply to?

What is the number of colleges that you should apply to?

Depending on the field of your study, the number of colleges you can apply to varies. The first instance for asking an advice is talking to your tutors. They can help you define the number of establishments to apply to and they may also help you with the choice of college appropriate for your field of study. After that, you will be able to make your own conscious choice of where you would prefer to get your degree. Besides the advice from your teacher, there are many other factors to consider.

Types of schools to be included in the list

Safety school is an institution which should accept your application for admission most easily, as your grades appear to be higher than the school’s average grade demands.

Match school is an establishment which more than likely will be able to offer you an admission basing on your grades and the test scores. It is also called a target school.

Reach school is an establishment which can potentially accept you as a student, but if your academic performance is average, the chances of admission are not very high.

Readiness to attend

Creating the list of colleges is not an easy but quite a momentous task and can be quite fateful. You need to approach this assignment with full responsibility. Therefore, all three types of schools need to take place on your list. However, make sure that you are really ready to attend all colleges that you list, be it a low-rated safety school or a top reach one.

Adequate estimation of your abilities

In order to make a decent list of colleges you will eventually apply to, it is very important to look closely at your academic achievements and adequately estimate your abilities. You might have a dream to study at a particular college which may appear to be a reach school. However, if your grades are not the best ones, the likeliness of getting into the highly selective college will be quite low. It does not mean that you should not try applying to it though, as maybe this year, the college of your dream might happen to have the room to admit students with grades that you have.

General recommendations on the number of applications

Many counselors hold the opinion that one application is definitely not enough nowadays. Applying to fifty institutions will not bring any positive outcome either. The general recommendation is such that more effective results will be achieved by applying to five colleges, with the maximum being ten. There is no need to spend time, energy and sometimes money for application fees in order to apply to dozens of colleges which you would not even want to attend.

As a bottom line, you are the one to decide the number of colleges which you can apply to. You can listen to as many pieces of advice as possible, but eventually, you have to make your own decision, even though it is based on what you have heard from your tutors, parents and your peers. You are the one who feels and knows what is better for you.