Answering the "How Many Schools to Apply to" Question:

[chalkduster]

Got bored (or just procrastinating) and decided to look through the PTCAS 2016-2017 stats. In terms of how many schools people applied to:

Mode: 4
Mean: 6.2
Median: 5

In terms of how many total schools applied to versus what percent of those people who decided to apply to that number of schools got an offer at AT LEAST ONE school:

1 school 51%
2 schools 34%
3 schools 43%
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4 schools 48%
5 schools 50%
6 schools 54%
7 schools 57%
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8-14 schools 57%-59%

Interestingly, your chances of getting into at least one school increases until 7 applications. 8-14 applications continue to yield about a 57-59% chance of getting in. The higher percent for 1 school is probably due to early decision applicants. Looks like the happy medium reflects the central tendency measures listed above. I know I'm applying to 4/5 schools this cycle.. so I guess I fit this and got a 50% chance haha.

Of course, these are just numbers, and you should take your own circumstances into consideration. Had fun with this for just 15 minutes or so, so if you see any errors feel free to point them out.

Edit: also! PT schools have gotten more and more competitive as the years have gone by... so I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers were boosted a lil more for the current cycle. (ie. ideal range is 5-8 instead of 4-7)

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[Frightened_Rabbit]

I've applied to 7. Will possibly apply to two more, but I'm a little burnt out from all of the essays and what not

 

[lincoln24]

I applied to 6 last round, got an interview at 3 and accepted into 2. Most of my friends in my class applied to about 5

 

[chalkduster]

I've applied to 7. Will possibly apply to two more, but I'm a little burnt out from all of the essays and what not

Yeah I totally feel ya. Some schools don't require additional essays, and it's so great

Another thought- I think as you get to too big of a number of schools (ie. 14+) , the quality of those essays goes down, which might account for the leveling out of acceptance %, and eventual decrease.

Another explanation is that those people applying to 14+ schools have lower stats and know they need to cast a bigger net, and therefore they have about a similar, 57ish% acceptance rate when compared to those people with 5-7 schools. If that makes any sense.

 

[MBPB]

Nice post, thanks for compiling this!