SOC 09 number of schools should I apply to?

[rad12519]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone had an idea on the average number of schools I should apply to. I have narrowed it down to 14 schools. Is that too much? I don't want to overwhelm the folks who are writing my LOR's. Let me know!!!!!

[rae]

Right now, I am applying to 7 schools and a friend of mine is applying to 20. I've heard that you should apply to somewhere around 10 schools. The schools that made my list are those that have at least two faculty members that are performing research similar to what I want to do.

[solefolia]

Apply to as many programs as there are that have faculty that fit your interests. Whether that's 4 or 15 depends on how many good fits you find.

As far as applying to 14, that seems like quite a bit, but I know there are plenty of people who have done that successfully. It takes a lot organization, money, and some willing LoR writers. When you go to ask if they'll write letters, I'd be sure to mention that you're applying to 14 programs and not drop them all on them after they agree.

[USF_Rockstar]

I think I might apply to about 6 or 7. Maybe more, its just that I hate asking favors from people and don't want to over burden my recommenders... If I can get about 5 recommenders then I might apply to a few more schools since each person would have less schools to write for.

[misterpat]

Probably no less than 6 programs. I always think that people who apply to more than 12-14 are totally overdoing it. They could have probably saved some money by picking schools where they fit a little bit better. Just remember to apply to a few tiers of schools. If you apply to Chicago, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton, Michigan, Columbia, Northwestern and Wisconsin and Yale, then you can't justifiably say "10 schools should have been enough to get in somewhere!" if you go 0/10.

I've heard that Georgia is a great second tier school, and that it's underrated so maybe admissions won't be too bad.

[torakichi]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone had an idea on the average number of schools I should apply to. I have narrowed it down to 14 schools. Is that too much? I don't want to overwhelm the folks who are writing my LOR's. Let me know!!!!!

It seems to me that you need at least 5/6 recommenders to manage that many applications. Asking a professor to take care of more than 7 recommendations sounds a bit overwhelming to me, if you want focused recommendation letters tailored as specifically as possible to each program.