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How many grad schools should I apply to?

By admin on August 24, 2011

I am applying for computer science graduate school. How many schools should I apply to?
I am confused. High application fees discourage me but I don’t want to miss a chance.
How many schools do people generally apply to?

Posted in | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Responses

2 responses to “How many grad schools should I apply to?”

  1. s2k
    s2k
    August 24, 2011 at 7:17 pm |

    Apply to at least five. It doesn’t matter if the high fees discourage you, trust me. Why? Because the fees won’t bother you once your rejected to the only two graduate schools you thought of applying.

    My main point? It’s always better to be safer than sorry. To answer your questions, usually students apply to 3-6 graduate schools for their Master’s/pHD program. If your speaking of professional schools such as medical, dental, law, business, many students normally apply to 6. With the competition in the United States involving international, foreign exchange, and students who are extremely motivated, you definitely do not want to take that walking chance of only applying to such a few institutions. My safest bet is to apply to 3 schools you for sure know are most likely to get into and two dream schools. So since your a computer science major, let me provide suggestions…

    Dream Schools: UC Berkeley, M.I.T.
    Comfortable Schools: UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Connecticut

    OR

    Dream Schools: Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon
    Comfortable Schools: University of Texas, University of Washington, University of Florida

    I know some fellow students who have applied to 15 different graduate schools. It sucks being rejected to schools, but its always best when you have alternative back-up plans in hand. Good luck and I wish you well.

  2. Bent Snowman
    Bent Snowman
    August 24, 2011 at 7:51 pm |

    I applied to 4 schools and got into 3 of them. In retrospect, that was pretty arrogant, and unsafe of me (none of them were “safety” schools). I very well could have screwed myself. I would say apply to 6 or so. You are right, do not miss a chance, and the high application fees are unsettling, but asi es la vida. You would rather spend the money and get in, rather than not spend it and not get into the places you do end up applying to, I would guess.

    Even though I said I was arrogant in applying to only four schools, and none of them being safe ones, all my friends did that too. As far as I know, 4 schools or so is how many schools people apply to (given my circle of friends), but you might want to play it wiser than us.