How many schools are you applying to this year?

[kaswing]

I've had a motivated couple of days! Applied for 4 programs in two days, bringing my submitted total to 5. 

I had 7 "for sure"s and 3 "maybe"s, but I'm starting to wonder about a few of them. I don't want to apply to too few, though: wanted to get a sense of how many you were applying to and why, if you want to share. 

I'm sure this goes without saying, but I would REALLY prefer to not have to do this again.  Feeling nervous already, of course: shit's getting real!

[FinallyAccepted]

I'm sure it will depend on which area of psych people are applying for.  For some of the most popular subfields, space is limited, so applying to more schools might just increase very small odds.  I actually AM one of those people who applied last year, but didn't make it in.  I applied to 9 last year.  I applied to 11 this year.  I'm applying to all social psych programs.

[psych face]

I think I applied to so many just because I never want to do it again, like what was said above.

Side note

Shana.teacher : I find it interesting how different school choices are even within the same emphasis - I applied to ten schools and we don't have any in common.

[Gvh]

Who is applying to 13 programs?! That's crazy. You must need a personal assistant to keep up with everything!

Edited November 21, 2014 by Gvh

[BuzzinAround]

Who is applying to 13 programs?! That's crazy. You must need a personal assistant to keep up with everything!

 

Not to mention, recommenders have trouble keeping track of where they've sent/uploaded the letter when you're applying to THAT many schools.

[kaswing]

Haha, I'm surprised to hear that! I'm certainly not applying to that many schools (7, I think), but searching around in these and other forums, it's not that uncommon to see someone applying to 15.

[KW58D]

I am applying to 15, was 16, but I nixed one of the apps in the eleventh hour. I chiseled that 16 down from about 30 possibles.

[MsAmira]

I'm applying to 7  

[SisterlockedPhD2Be]

I am applying to 11 

[kara.spinney]

Not to mention, recommenders have trouble keeping track of where they've sent/uploaded the letter when you're applying to THAT many schools.

I did have this problem. I applied to 10 schools and found that one of my recommenders seemed consistently lost regarding where he sent a reference and where he didn't. I felt like I had to chase him a lot...I wanted to apply to more schools, but decided against it after struggling just to get my references in to the 10 schools I started with.

[BuzzinAround]

I did have this problem. I applied to 10 schools and found that one of my recommenders seemed consistently lost regarding where he sent a reference and where he didn't. I felt like I had to chase him a lot...I wanted to apply to more schools, but decided against it after struggling just to get my references in to the 10 schools I started with.

 

My recommenders had trouble keeping track of letters for 7 schools, so I can't imagine what it's like helping them keep track of letters for 10 or 15 schools.

[essequamvideri]

10+ is honestly excessive; I don't understand how you would have time to write a decent personalized statement of purpose to that many programs anyways.

[FinallyAccepted]

10+ is honestly excessive; I don't understand how you would have time to write a decent personalized statement of purpose to that many programs anyways.

 

May I ask, what is your field of graduate study?

[kara.spinney]

I don't think that 10+ applications is uncommon for clinical psychology applicants.

[when]

I applied to two last year and thank goodness I got admitted because it was enough hard work applying for two! I admire those who apply to many more.

And the reason it was so limited was because I'm tethered to one city.

Edited December 4, 2014 by DeltaSkelta

[constant_wanderer]

I'm applying to 13 schools + a scholarship. Once you've got the gist of it, it's not too hard. And I'm also very lucky to have folks ready to write so many LOR.

[Ilspflouz]

I'm applying to 13 schools also. :-) Tailoring the SOP's has been the hardest part for me. The recommendations were difficult to keep track of, but I made a spreadsheet to keep track of who submitted what and where which made it significantly easier.

Good luck everyone!

[0daughterbeloved]

Not to mention, recommenders have trouble keeping track of where they've sent/uploaded the letter when you're applying to THAT many schools.

It's a lot but that's how many I did. I have a beautiful spreadsheet as a result. If nothing else, that's my prize but, I'd rather get admission and have my color-coded spreadsheet!

[new here]

Hi everyone, 

 

Based on everyone's posts, it seems like a lot of people have very different ideas about how many schools one should apply to. My question is: what is an appropriate number of schools to apply to when you only have about a month? Would it be completely ridiculous if I  asked my professors to send their letters to 14 different schools, if applications are due in 4-6 weeks? (Most of my deadlines are January 15th or later, but three of my apps are due in the first week of January - which is very soon!)

 

Thanks!

Edited December 9, 2014 by new here

[psych face]

Hi everyone, 

 

Based on everyone's posts, it seems like a lot of people have very different ideas about how many schools one should apply to. My question is: what is an appropriate number of schools to apply to when you only have about a month? Would it be completely ridiculous if I  asked my professors to send their letters to 14 different schools, if applications are due in 4-6 weeks? (Most of my deadlines are January 15th or later, but three of my apps are due in the first week of January - which is very soon!)

 

Thanks!

 

4-6 weeks is about how long some of my professors took, or more, so I would get cracking pronto if you really are going for it this round. Do as many as you can, what the hell right?

[0daughterbeloved]

Hi everyone, 

 

Based on everyone's posts, it seems like a lot of people have very different ideas about how many schools one should apply to. My question is: what is an appropriate number of schools to apply to when you only have about a month? Would it be completely ridiculous if I  asked my professors to send their letters to 14 different schools, if applications are due in 4-6 weeks? (Most of my deadlines are January 15th or later, but three of my apps are due in the first week of January - which is very soon!)

 

Thanks!

I started out with 4 schools and my advisor (Recommender) told me I should be going for 12-15 for a clinical Ph.D. Often they can write one letter and just send it out to all your schools. I call one of my professors Ninja Ref. Sometimes it seemed like I would click send to provide his email address as a recommender and my email would alter that the recommendation was received.

All in all, your profs know the process and if they agree to write for you they are agreeing to the whole process. The question for you is what is the competition like in your field and how much do you want to spend on applying. Each app plus transcripts and GRE costs a few pretty pennies!

[herroneuro]

I am applying to 14 or 15...still on the fence about one. Having a hard time deciding which POI to choose as I am pretty sure the place is super elite and won't consider 2nd order rankings.

[Applemiu]

I started out with 4 schools and my advisor (Recommender) told me I should be going for 12-15 for a clinical Ph.D. 

 

I started with 6 and my advisor (Recommender) suggested to go at least for 7/8. I am at 9 right now (and I will stop there).

[museum_geek]

I'm applying to 11 schools, have 7 apps in so far and it hasn't been overly stressful.  I asked all of letter writers beforehand how many letters were too many (I was looking at ~15 schools at that point), and none of them had a problem submitting LORs to a dozen or more schools.  It's not like they're writing new letters for each school they submit to; if anything they will tweak the letter a tiny bit for certain programs, but that's it.

[amrdoyle]

Wow, congrats to you all. I applied for three programs. Really, I struggled to find programs that fit my interests well and also had funding and space available for a new student. I thought about applying to more programs but ultimately decided that if I didn't love the program, it wasn't worth attending so why bother applying just to say I got in somewhere. Fingers crossed for these three!

Edited December 11, 2014 by amrdoyle