How many schools shold you apply to? Asking for to many LORs?

[maggiemay]

Hi everyone and thanks for your help,

 

I will be applying to PhD in Biology/Biomedical programs this fall. I am very pessimistic and would love to apply to a ton of schools to be on the safe side. However, I  dont want to ask my PI and other LOR writters for soooo many LORs. So my question is, how many applications is a good number to send out. Like 5...10...15...?

 

I have been told be my professors before that "so and so" student asked them for 16 LORs and how that was WAY to many. I have heard that you shold apply to around 10 to better your chances?

 

FYI, I plan to apply to mainly "normal" schools and perhaps 1 or 2 "prestigous" schools. I always doubt myself so I feel dumb even asking professors for LORs to the ivy league shchools, so we will see how many of those I actually apply to...

 

 

[mop]

I applied to 10 biology PhD programs last fall that were all generally the same level and in hindsight I feel like it was too much. I declined two interview invitations because I realized I didnt actually want to go there. Try to be careful and ask, if this school was the only one you got into, would you be satisfied in going there?

 

so maybe 5-10 schools based on how likely you are to be admitted.

[biotechie]

I applied to six, was offered interviews at four (declined two), and got accepted into both that I attended. I picked my schools based on research and faculty rather than rank, though I still ended up at a school ranked in the top 20.

 

I personally wouldn't go more than 10. I was originally only going to go for five, but I decided to apply to a safety school, which I later found out had some really great stuff going on. I might have considered it if my top choice hadn't blown me away! I would say 5-6 schools is a decent number. You can do one school that is a stretch this way and still apply to schools you know you're going to be able to be happy at. That is extremely important.

[ion_exchanger]

I was told to apply to ten schools as a general rule of thumb. I applied to seven (two programs at the same school), interviewed at three and accepted at three. I believe that, just the same with most things in life, quality is better than quantity. You have to do your research and identify schools that are the best fit for you, increasing the chances that you will be accepted. This includes research interests, average stats of students (even though this is secondary to research experience), and if you could see yourself living in that area. You should apply to a few reaches which match your research interests, and schools where you are a great research fit. The three schools that I was accepted to were ironically my biggest reach, my best fit, and my "safety", even though there is no such thing as a safety grad school. I ended up attending my best fit. I think that around 10 is a good number as well. Your LOR writers expect you to apply to a good number of schools. My direct research mentors wrote all seven of mine, and then I had a couple of people write some and not others. I prioritized based on the school. For example, for my Ivy application, I had my NIH mentors write all of the letters. Consider breaking it up that way. Good luck to you!

[ion_exchanger]

 

FYI, I plan to apply to mainly "normal" schools and perhaps 1 or 2 "prestigous" schools. I always doubt myself so I feel dumb even asking professors for LORs to the ivy league shchools, so we will see how many of those I actually apply to...

 

Also, PLEASE do not feel dumb about asking your LORs for ivy league letters of recommendation. They should be happy to write them and encourage you for fill them out. Initially when I went to my mentors with my list, they asked why I didn't include any ivy league schools, and I ended up adding UPenn per their suggestion. Guess what? I was accepted! Don't sell yourself short. Apply to the ivy schools that match your interest and you could see yourself attending.

[shadowclaw]

I applied to 7 schools, although I had a few more I thought about applying to but decided I didn't really match up with them. Ten seems to be a good number. I read somewhere on the Internet that it's a good idea to apply to a mix of schools: one or two "dream schools" that you don't think you're quite qualified for but would really love to go to, several that you think you would be a good fit at and meet the qualifications, and then one or two "safety schools" that you feel very certain you can get into. It seems like logical advice, but I didn't follow it. I just applied anywhere that had a POI doing research in an area I was interested in. In the end, I suppose I ended up applying to that very mix, but I considered every sort of school, whether it was Ivy League or not. To me, it was less about "can I get into such a high ranking school" and more about "does my research experience and coursework make me a good candidate for this person's lab?"

 

So my advice is: don't be afraid to apply anywhere, even if you perceive yourself as not good enough. If you talk with a POI at a prospective school and you really feel like you would fit into his/her lab, go ahead and apply.

 

As for the number of LORs you are requesting from a professor, I wouldn't worry about it. From what my writers said (and what I've read around this forum), they take a while to write one letter, then make a few modifications to it for each school you apply to. So unless you are applying to many vastly different programs, your writers shouldn't have an issue with writing them, because once you apply to one school, the letter is already written for the rest.