Last year I applied to 18 schools, only the top programs, and no acceptances. This year, slightly humbled, I applied to 4 mid teir schools and 1 top, and was accepted by 3. Given that my application was much better this year, I would have applied to more top schools. I'm thrilled to have good options, but will always wonder if I might have gotten into some schools I didn't even try for this year. It's hard to gauge how strong one's application is apart from the process, but since I've had schools court me this year, I wonder if maybe I'd have been accepted to more had I tried. Part of the game I guess. Still, having only been rejected, I didn't know that my application this year was substantially better, and perhaps competitive in 'dream' schools... Guess I'll never know