How many is "too many"?

[Triple Tall Cappuccino]

Hello, all!

So I've been having discussions with family members and friends regarding my horrible intelligent decision to apply to a Ph.D. program this year, and I brought up that I am applying to 8. Usually I get the "WOW, that's a lot!" reply. So, I cut it down to (possibly) 6 (it's hard to let go of #7). How many are you all applying to? Is 6/7/8 too many?

Thanks!

[gellert]

If that's too many, then I'm definitely applying to too many. Right now my list is at 15. I'm desperately searching for ways to narrow it down. But I'm thinking that some of the people I like won't be taking students this year, which should cut off at least 4-5. But that still leaves me with 10. ...Dear god.

[Triple Tall Cappuccino]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! It's hard to cut it down, right?!!! I like all of the programs I'm doing... and I believe that the more I apply to, the better chances I have of getting in to at least one! But then again, just the thought of dishing out $800+ in December really makes my wallet tremble.

I originally had 9, then 8, now 6/7ish. I don't think I'll be able to cut it down much more from there.

Gellert, have you contacted all of your POIs?

[gellert]

I've contacted a few of my POIs, but I'm waiting until September to send out the real emails inquiring about whether or not people are accepting students.

[runonsentence]

Eight isn't too many, IMO. I was advised by several faculty in my MA program to do no fewer than 6 or 7. The best thing to do is to achieve a balance between applying to a good variety of programs but not overloading yourself with so many applications that the quality of your app packet suffers.

I ended up applying to 10 last cycle: 3 tier I (reach) schools, 4 tier II (competitive) schools, and 3 tier III ("safety") schools.

[ZeeMore21]

Hello, all!

So I've been having discussions with family members and friends regarding my horrible intelligent decision to apply to a Ph.D. program this year, and I brought up that I am applying to 8. Usually I get the "WOW, that's a lot!" reply. So, I cut it down to (possibly) 6 (it's hard to let go of #7). How many are you all applying to? Is 6/7/8 too many?

Thanks!

Since you are applying to doctoral programs, but if so, I would say that you should add about 4 or 5 more schools to your list. Given how competitive graduate admissions have become, applying to only 6 schools would be a bit risky in my opinion.

[Triple Tall Cappuccino]

Hm... interesting points! Thanks, everyone! I guess I should keep those schools, then!

[Kitkat]

I'm looking at about 9 programs right now, and it is a mix of both MA and PhD programs. With the PhD programs, I have a mix of "reach" schools, some competitive schools and then a small about of "safety" schools, but less in the last category but that is mainly because I am also looking at independent MA programs as well.

[We regret to inform you]

I plan on applying to 10-12 mostly PhD programs, maybe 2 masters programs out of that.

[Eigen]

The advice I was given (and followed) was to pick a few schools you really wanted, that you had a good shot at- and put the time into those applications- personally, I applied to 3. On the other hand, there was an undergraduate last year from my group who applied to somewhere around 15...

I don't think you have too many, and honestly I'd say around 6-8 is probably the sweet spot- it lets you choose 3-4 schools that are solid for you, and then throw in a safety school and a couple of dream schools.

[e i j i]

I am planning on applying to about 6 programs. This was after I made the decision to not focus on applying to my undergraduate institution's program because it doesn't specialize in my research interests.

I will narrow down one less school though, because I've heard that most professors at my school are willing to fill out about only 5 or so recommendations. Each school has a form to send though, so I can see why it would be more annoying than copying the same letter.

[fuzzylogician]

I applied to 8 programs. My professors were happy to help and thought it was generally a good number. It's a lot of work, but still within the manageable range. In hindsight I'd remove one or two schools from my list, but you can never know how well you'll do in an application cycle so it's good to keep as many options open as possible. There's a lot of great advice out there in the forum on how to choose schools (you can search for it); some tips are: choose places with at least two POIs you could work with; don't apply to any school whose offer you would not accept if it was your only choice; location, weather and other factors can and do play a role for some people, so think about these things when you decide. There is no such thing as a "safety" school in grad school applications. It's all about fit, not about some general rankings.

fwiw, here are some more posts to compare your numbers with:

[Strangefox]

I've contacted a few of my POIs, but I'm waiting until September to send out the real emails inquiring about whether or not people are accepting students.

Why wait until September?

And why emails that you've sent before were not "real"?

[Strangefox]

Hello, all!

So I've been having discussions with family members and friends regarding my horrible intelligent decision to apply to a Ph.D. program this year, and I brought up that I am applying to 8. Usually I get the "WOW, that's a lot!" reply. So, I cut it down to (possibly) 6 (it's hard to let go of #7). How many are you all applying to? Is 6/7/8 too many?

Thanks!

I think that 6-8 schools is a good number. Fuzzy's advice is great - I second all of that.

Have you already contacted POIs at all schools you are planning to apply to? If you do that, it may help you to shorten your list (may be it will turn out that some profs whose academic interests seem a good fit to yours are not interested - or won't be taking grad students next year).

Anyway - good luck!

Edited August 1, 2011 by Strangefox

[Strangefox]

I will narrow down one less school though, because I've heard that most professors at my school are willing to fill out about only 5 or so recommendations. Each school has a form to send though, so I can see why it would be more annoying than copying the same letter.

That seems odd... And unfair! However, I don't know your discipline, may be it a norm to apply to five schools in your field. But I know of people (from these forums) who applied to 10, even 15 schools and when they could justify their choice to profs, these were happy to send LORs to all these places (or may be not too happy but they did it ).

[rising_star]

Since you are applying to doctoral programs, but if so, I would say that you should add about 4 or 5 more schools to your list. Given how competitive graduate admissions have become, applying to only 6 schools would be a bit risky in my opinion.

I think this is really discipline-specific. In my discipline, it would be outrageous to apply to 10 or 11 schools. I applied to 7 for my PhD, which was too many. Most of the people I knew were putting in 5 or fewer applications.

FWIW, you shouldn't just increase the number of schools because you want to get in. It's not worth it to apply to 10 schools if only five of those are schools you'd be willing to attend. If there's no one to supervise your work, little support for your research interests, and/or you aren't thrilled about the location, don't spend the $100 it'll cost you to apply to that school.

I don't think you have too many, and honestly I'd say around 6-8 is probably the sweet spot- it lets you choose 3-4 schools that are solid for you, and then throw in a safety school and a couple of dream schools.

This is good advice. I would say, though, that your dream schools may not be as unrealistic as you think. Grad school is about fit more than it is about numbers so, if you can get the right fit, you can get in without 1500 GRE and 3.9 GPA.

I applied to 8 programs. My professors were happy to help and thought it was generally a good number. It's a lot of work, but still within the manageable range. In hindsight I'd remove one or two schools from my list, but you can never know how well you'll do in an application cycle so it's good to keep as many options open as possible.

Yea, I feel the same way about the seven programs I applied to. I really shouldn't have applied to three of those schools. One was an unfortunate circumstance where I'd been in contact with the POI but didn't know him well enough for him to tell me that he was sort of on the market. In March, he accepted a job elsewhere (at a school I didn't apply to despite it having good faculty for my interests because of its location), which meant there was no way I was going to go to that school. The other two were good fits on paper but the atmosphere did not match my personality at all when I visited. There's a fourth school that I probably shouldn't have applied to due to weather... In other words, I should've only applied to 4 schools instead of 7.

Why wait until September?

Waiting until September means you're waiting for professors to be back in town and at work, and for them to have a solid sense of how many students they have.

[aspiringhistorian]

I might be a little biased, but I think you should apply to as many as you're comfortable with. It's not about who you talk to about your applications, it's about your admission! My advice would be to make sure that you'd be happy going to any one of the programs on your list (and than you mind the cost of just applying and everything everyone has already mentioned), but other than that... do whatever you like.

I know that I might personally be hovering on the "too many" side of the spectrum myself, but I wouldn't feel comfortable applying to just four schools and leaving it at that. It's all up to the applicant, I think.

[natsteel]

fuzzy is spot on. When I asked my mentors how many schools I should apply to ideally, they said 10. I ended up applying to 11: 5 tier I's, 4 tier II's, and 2 tier III's. I always think that, in my field at least, 8-10 is pretty much normal.

If you plan on applying to 10 schools, you should have a preliminary list of a few more than that because, when you begin contacting POIs in September, some will not be accepting students, and some departments may have other issues of which you are unaware (i.e., funding, esp. for state schools) which might limit their decision making. I ended up dropping 3-4 off my list after making contact with all my POIs.

[Strangefox]

Waiting until September means you're waiting for professors to be back in town and at work, and for them to have a solid sense of how many students they have.

Well, I guess it depends on a discipline. Last year I contacted most profs in the summer because I wanted to have a list of schools to apply to by the end of August when I was to take GRE.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Strangefox

[sandyvanb]

Right now I have nine on my list. The faculty members at my university said to apply to as many as you can afford. I want to start applying in October and wrap up the process before Thanksgiving. I'm trying to spread out the application fees and be able to enjoy my holidays. I think that family members who are not in academia have no idea how the process works.

Edited August 1, 2011 by sandyvanb

[Karajan]

I'm applying to 15. There are a lot of great schools, and I don't feel comfortable applying only to top schools, so I have an A list and a B list...

[Triple Tall Cappuccino]

Ah, you guys are all awesome. Thanks so much!

And yes, I've successfully contacted POIs in every school! I think I have my list pretty much set. I also asked one of my professors, and she said that she was planning on writing that many letters to begin with. So... yeah. I feel much better. I'll find something else to obsess and fret over in a few minutes.

And thanks for the links to the other posts. I was trying to look for them, but for some reason, my search function on the forum kept timing out.

Oh, and FYI for everyone: I emailed my LORs letting them know that I narrowed down my schools, and made a list for them, as well as attached it with the usual (CV, plans, etc). 2 professors replied with how grateful they were to receive this prior to the chaos of the beginning of fall semester, and prior to the last-minute LOR rush in November. I know every person is different, but see if you can send your info to your potential LORs!

[Karajan]

Ah, you guys are all awesome. Thanks so much!

And yes, I've successfully contacted POIs in every school! I think I have my list pretty much set. I also asked one of my professors, and she said that she was planning on writing that many letters to begin with. So... yeah. I feel much better. I'll find something else to obsess and fret over in a few minutes.

And thanks for the links to the other posts. I was trying to look for them, but for some reason, my search function on the forum kept timing out.

Oh, and FYI for everyone: I emailed my LORs letting them know that I narrowed down my schools, and made a list for them, as well as attached it with the usual (CV, plans, etc). 2 professors replied with how grateful they were to receive this prior to the chaos of the beginning of fall semester, and prior to the last-minute LOR rush in November. I know every person is different, but see if you can send your info to your potential LORs!

That is really good to know! Thanks. I think I will do the same come September, as I think many of my profs might be away at the moment. I've gotten something similar together on my computer -- CVs, personal statement, list of schools/deadlines, writing samples, grades, etc. I put everything together into a single pdf to make thing easier for them.

[juilletmercredi]

It depends on your field. In some fields 8 may be too many. In my field, 8 is not that many; that's actually on the low end. It is not uncommon for social and clinical psychology hopefuls to apply to 10-15 schools; I think most apply to about 10 in those subfields. They're quite competitive. There are usually fewer applications in cognitive and experimental.

I think 8 PhD programs is reasonable.

[Sigaba]

FWIW, I went through the graduate application process twice. I applied to two schools each time. I went one for two each time. (Four different schools.)

While there were many rational calculations behind this approach--most prominently, figuring out how to leverage my strengths as a history major and to minimize the importance of my weaknesses (I don't do as well on standardized tests as I'd like)--it also boiled down to some zany non-linear thoughts.