Even though students from an early age decide their profession as per their interest.
No matter how determined they remain throughout their high school, about their field of interest, but at the point, while applying to colleges when they want to pursue the right direction for them, they fall into a state of bewilderment.
As they are confused in selecting the right choices from the list of colleges and are daunted about the selection. Students remain concerned about colleges to get the best possible they can. Nowadays, the hype of getting into a good college has become a trend and the competition has become tough and students tend to look for the best, even though sometimes for the colleges, that are beyond their capacity.
Many factors like your test scores, your time of preparation, admission charges and other things matter a lot. Therefore, to minimize their fear, they pick up many colleges to apply for, so as they can remain on a safe side but sometimes due to their avidity of applying to many universities fail them to focus and give considerable time to the applications, and they lose!
So, here is a strategic approach that students should consider and that can help them to decide and answer their question: how many colleges should I apply to?, or what factors you should consider while applying to any college? Read more about https://collegeapps.com/how-many-colleges-should-i-apply-to/
Time matters a lot
For researching colleges and enlisting them, you need a great deal of time for scrutiny. As it is not the matter of enlisting them, but rather to look for each college separately in order to see for the pros and cons. For example: if this college is reputable? Or is its fee structure affordable? Or how many years would it take to complete your course? Or what are the requirements of getting admission? and a couple more questions. For getting the details, you need time. And if you won’t give enough time, then you might not know much about institutes you apply for and might not even focus well on fulfilling their requirements. As applications of schools require a lot more consistent focus and clarity, which can be achieved by giving it considerable time. In case, if you don’t bother give time to every application, and if you fill it up roughly, in haste, you might not get admission to good school at all!
So, the tip here is, choose good schools as per your capacity and interest. Think about a time you have, and see the deadlines and then began to fill up application forms. As it isn’t a matter of applying to a plethora of colleges, but rather a matter of getting an admission, which can only be achieved once you are focused and time-oriented.
No. of colleges is never constant
If you’ve prepared your mindset for any specific college or colleges, and you are satisfied with all the requirements and you think the application is doable within the due time, then your chances for applying to more schools are increased, as you’ll have an already prepared stuff and since you can accomplish those applications, then you can look through some other as well, as it is quite often that the requirements are usual for many colleges. So, the point is – your proactivity would make you experienced in the application course and in lesser time you can approach some more universities too. So, the number of colleges to apply to is not fixed! But on average, you should apply to at least 7 to 10 colleges, you can apply more, but this is the least figure.
Filter colleges
Getting admission is not about following your school friends and trying to stay with them in your college years. But, your core purpose before applying anywhere should be your own interest in the field and the concerned college. You are not bound to look for every college, even those that you don’t even want to enter! So in this case, don’t confuse yourself in a cluster of colleges rather filter the institutes and make a priority list. Look for good schools and enlist their names. Further, the field you have chosen, you should search more about it, as to know which college is best in this particular field. Once you’ve filtered some good colleges, you should set a time-frame in which you would complete their requirements.
How much can you afford?
The most important thing is “ the Fee” of the college. There you’ll encounter admission fee, term-based or annual fee, and if you’re looking for a dorm or hostel, they’ll have additional charges. All the expenses should come under your budget. Otherwise, it’s useless to apply for such an unaffordable college, where you might reach to receive the admission but you’re unable to pay! But in this case, sometimes there are plenty of opportunities, that help students to cover their fees. So, here is another approach – “look for scholarships” – along with your search for colleges, you must look for good scholarship opportunities that would get you into a good school with off-fee.
Try not to wait till deadlines
The majority of the students apply in the last moment of the closing date – which is simply insane! A complete and proper admission process is based on a well-prepared application, which is not possible to make in the last few days! Because you are heading for your higher studies, your serious attitude matters a lot. And that seriousness and concern can be only seen once you’ve prepared all your documents, test requirements (like GRE, GMAT and etc), essays (in some cases), and other formalities before time. Taking your decisions early as possible, following proper guidelines and a complete impeccable application would highly be appreciated and is welcomed with great chances of selection.
Nevertheless, many students do not think out of the box and decide only to apply to the local universities. They are advised to look schools out of their states as lots of opportunities are waiting for them and as mentioned earlier, if everything is premediated, you get to have bigger chances of getting admissions.
Stay focused and start looking for colleges. Good luck!
