Application station, part 4, how many schools to apply to.

I’ve gotten quite a few requests for more information about applications, so I am going to make a series of posts that fill in the blanks of my previous post found here. This post will be about determining how many schools to apply to.

Find out how much you can spend on applications. Ask your parents what they can contribute and determine what you can afford. You may want to check on other relatives or people who might be able to offer you even small amounts to put toward your application process. Make a log and determine how much you have total to use for application fees, printing fees, and mailing fees.

Now, take your list of potential colleges and look up how much their application fees are. Note it next to each college or university on your list. Add them up, and see whether you have enough money or not. If not, you will need to trim your list down. Chances are that you have a one or two on your list that you can readily identify as your least favorites. Be careful not to leave yourself with a list in which your unlikely or hopeful schools are over represented. In other words, if you can only afford to apply to five schools, only one (or none) should be hopefuls rather than practical choices.

When you are trimming the list down, read through the entrance requirements and average numbers for first year entrants again. Choose the ones that are best suited. Be fair to yourself, if you are already struggling to pay for things, don’t mortgage your future willy-nilly when ultimately you could apply to 20 schools, but you’ll only be attending one.

If you have the money for all this but are stressing out, let us know. We can research and locate a list of schools that suit your needs and do a great deal of the organizing and processing for you.