How many colleges should I apply to?

1000.

Actually, apply to all of them. Could it hurt?

As many as meet your standards, if they have the major you want, and you can see yourself going there, apply.

Apply to all and add a couple you think you can’t get into, but want to go. I thought I had no shot at my number one, applied, exceled in the interview, wrote a nice essay and was admitted.

I’m going to UA. Agreed with @Deepness and @DrBill. Apply to all colleges that have your major! :) good luck.

Apply to all of them, you’ve got nothing to lose

7 or 8 is a good number.
(Clearly these people saying “all of them” or “as many that have your major” are unaware that each application fee is about $50—$70, unless it’s a public state school which usually costs around $20)

I applied to 7 schools and it was a perfect variety. I had 2 safeties, 2 targets, and 3 reaches. You should always have a couple of each (I’m sure your guidance counselor explained: safety = school you’ll definitely get into, target = school you are qualified to get into, reach = a bit of a stretch, but why not take a shot). Honestly, you really should be able to narrow it down to just a handful. If you research your schools, you’ll find that just because it has your major doesn’t mean it’s the school for you. The type of student body is important, size, location, yearly cost, the quality of life, the quality of academics, teachers, food, living, etc. Find a place where you’ll be comfortable. There’s no reason to waste your money and apply all over the place. Research.

Two “reaches,” four “good chance of being accepted,” and two safeties. (@le inferno spells out the details very accurately.)

You seem to be leaning towards very large universities. That can be hard for a freshman. Have you thought of several smaller college? You do not have to be clear about 1) a major and 2) a career until you have sampled some academic areas.

The other way to go (although I am no longer sure what the policy is with state unis) , isto apply Early Decision and have it settled.

I’m also wondering, why would you apply to a reach school other than the fact that it is one you want? I haven’t really narrowed down colleges by reach/target/safety, but rather what the college has. Is there any benefit other than liking that school? A few of my schools could be considered ‘slight’ reaches, but nothing too our of range. It’s not that I don’t want to try to go to one of those schools; it’s just that it so happens that none of those schools are really what I want.

I have to agree with @le_inferno, she has it down. My college application process went similarly. I had a private college counselor and we worked together figuring out which colleges I should apply to (using the same reach/safety/target system). Since I wasn’t really sure on what my major was going to be, it was much harder to decide which colleges to go to based on a major. I chose colleges that I could see myself attending. For me, I had to look at everything from school size, location (yes, location is not an unimportant joke, it does matter), and what students had to say about it. What really helped with this was a big book of colleges that my college counselor had. It was current for the year of my applications and it all of that information. If you can find something like that, that would be helpful: the Fiske Guide to Colleges, the 361 Best Colleges, those are the books I used. There really isn’t any number to apply to; it varies. I know one person who applied to 2 because those were the only two that he could see himself going to and he knew he would get in to at least one of them. And he did.

@cbloom8

There isn’t any reason to apply to a school that you don’t want to go to. A “reach” school is one that you do want to go to, but it might be harder to get in, but you’re going to apply anyway just for the chance that you might get in.

apply to all of them if you’re truly interested in them all. I only applied to one college but I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I was fortunate enough to get in.

Make sure you apply to a few schools that you or your parents can afford for you to attend. Finances are a little different this year than they were last year.

I applied to the ones that were free and then the ones that I really wanted to I got something in the mail saying that I could apply to the University Pittsburgh for free. I’d never even heard of it, but figured “Hey, why not?”. I got in, and got the best scholarship and program guarantee of all the other schools that I thought I wanted to go to. So, I guess the point is, apply to a lot of the free ones—there is a list somewhere online because I found it last year.

I thought I would stay at home and go to the local college…and now I’m going to a school I had never even considered. We’ll see how well that works out for me :)

But my point is—be open minded. I got in all my schools but realized that 45k a year to go to the University of Michigan is ridiculous. See what offers you can get and apply to a bunch. You never know what will work out. The only problem is that you will end up writing a million essays if you apply to a lot of schools. It was a very very stressful time in my life and I am so glad that it’s over. I have about 25 applicaition essays if you need any! Good luck!

I’m gonna make it short; at the minimum you should have:

1) A reach school – a school you might get into, and one you would want to go to, but you’re not quite up to it’s level

2) A target school- the school that you want to go to more than anything else, and your grades and skills match the schools requirements to get accepted

3) A fall-back school – the school that you rely on if something bad happens (you can’t afford your education, bomb your SATs, don’t get accepted anywhere else) but you could still survive, and you’re nearly 100% sure you’ll get accepted

like most of the OP have sugguested…..... as much as you can
depending on what would you like to major in, if you can afford it (tutition, financial aid wise), and such

and i like @TylerM ‘s answer..

don’t schools charge for you to apply to them?
i know i had to pay a $50 application fee for my university.
if that’s the case for you too, i’d suggest applying to maybe 3 that you REALLY want to go to.

@dazedandconfused i almost went to U of MI b/c i have relatives who in med school there with an apartment. but i couldn’t for basically the same reasons as yours…plus my folks couldn’t afford out-of-state at this time.

well i guess it depends on how much you are willing to spend on apps. aren’t they 50 bucks a shot?
but besides that, there’s no harm at all in applying to all of the ones you are interested in. go for it. (:

No one should go to U of M…. it’s a shit hole :) .......... (go bucks :) )

@sassypink I know your pain :( I had a great offer for my program (pharm) and even with a scholarship it was still too much. I hate that it’s so hard to get into and so expensive for us out-of-staters.

@westy81585 Really.. that’s uncalled for. Academically… I won’t get into it with you… but yeah, at least it has a reasonable time for pharmacy school. I would’ve gone to OSU if they weren’t ridiculous in their 8-year expectations and little-no scholarship money :]

@dazedandconfused We can’t help it that everyone wants to go here and eats up all the scholarship money :)

Go Green! All of that U of M talk I couldn’t resst a cheer for the Spartans. Lots of good advice above. If you can afford out of state, I think sometimes it is easier to get into a good state school if you are out of state because you are going to pay more and they like that.

You listed six I think, and the list looks good to me, depending on where your academic interests lie? I am very glad that I moved to another region of the US for college. I grew up in the NE, and went to school in the midwest.