How many schools to apply to?

[tinaphore]

What's the average number of schools people apply to?

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[alferec]

I personally applied to five, which I think should be good enough...but then again it may depend on your situation e.g. your OATs and GPA...so for example if your score (esp. your total science) is below a 320 you might want to try for more than five schools.

 

[ucbsowarrior]

I personally applied to five, which I think should be good enough...but then again it may depend on your situation e.g. your OATs and GPA...so for example if your score (esp. your total science) is below a 320 you might want to try for more than five schools.

I would say this is not a very good question by the orginal poster of this thread. Why? Because it depends on case by case. Once you assess the type of candidate you are relative to the norms of the prev. admitted students you can guestimate how you'll rank w/in the class.

Then you should decide where you want to go - make 1 list.
Then you should predict where you'll be accepted - make list 2.

Compare the two list, decide what you like the best and what schools you have the best chances of being accepted at - and deploy an application to 3 schools that come out on the top of your lists in Sept / Oct. If you don't hear from anyone by late november, than apply to another 3 schools that are second tier on your list, if you don't hear from anyone by feb apply to another three...if you don't hear from anyone by may and are not near the top of any waiting list, prepare to reapply for the following year.

If money and time is of no concern than apply to all the schools at once. I once had a friend who did this and he was accepted to all 16 schools - so if he followed my methodology - he would've saved a heck of a lot of money, time, ink and trees....I just think it's easier to focus on doing three applications real well as opposed to 10 or 16....albiet the ability to incorporate parts of one application into one another.

After reading many post on this forum by pre-od students I can ascertain that some of you will be accepted, but the majority of you will not if your thought processes on the forums is of any correlation to your over all ability to analyze and assess matters.

Even if you make it, you'll never thrive in a competitive market.

Being a successful od in no-mans land is not a measure of success...it's like beating up little children...nothing too great!

ucbsowarrior - kir