I think my CV isn't bad - i have a GPA that's neither perfect nor bad (~3.85 right now) at a slightly-better-than-mediocre university, nearly 4 years of research experience in different jobs, multiple professors and assistant professors have offered to write me letters of reccomendation without me even asking them. I was changing my subfield and only a few schools in the country do what I wanted to do with an appropriate regional focus. Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research. Interesting! I applied to two, and had decided if I didn’t get into them I didn’t care to go anywhere else, and could just go and get a job with my current degree (in CS so it wouldn’t have been hard). Interesting. This go-round, I applied to 1. If you are applying to the more competitive professional-degree programs, then you might want to apply to a few more. PhD programs are long, and highly individualized considering the different types of labs, advisors, etc. Fellow MA students and I are looking at programs with 10-15% acceptance rates and wish to hedge appropriately! :). I worked with one advisor at my undergrad uni and decided to do a masters with him. Also got accepted in both so I was set. I applied to three. I don't think it matters how many you apply too. As many as you can afford and interest you in your research interests. This can be a factor in deciding how many schools to apply to. I probably shouldn't only apply to my 2 or 3 favorites, but could it possibly look bad if I send out, like, 20 applications? If you don't get in, spend the year beefing up your CV and retake the GRE and try again. Did 10 seem like a lot, would you have done more upper if they seemed like good fits? Two of us are also changing fields. I'm not good at trimming down lists - right now I have 4 safety schools, which I know I don't need, but for some reason I can't decide which of the 4 to cut out haha. I went to mine for a career change locally as by husband worked and built a career, while I was not ready to commit to a PhD. I'm applying to 13 PhD programs and 2 backup, worst-case scenario MA programs. $1500 would be a steal for 20 schools if you played your cards right. You may waste $50-$80 on applying to an easy school that you won't end up attending, but if you are dead set on grad school in the next year then having a fall-back is good. Some experts suggest starting with at least 15 to 20 schools, and narrowing that list down to the graduate programs you’ll ultimately apply to. I currently have 5 in the mix, but I think I'm gonna add a couple more. I'd completed a master's in the same department and it didn't seem like I needed to apply to another. 8-10 is probably a better number. :). I was less thinking about more safeties than more top programs because I see about six of the top 10-15 as a good fit but would want 3-4 top 25 and only 1-2 higher. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. PhD programs are long, and highly individualized considering the different types of labs, advisors, etc. Same for me. For reference, I applied to 2 masters programs and 5 undergrad programs (1 was a guarantee admit in-state). Having said that, there are various guidelines that can be useful for anyone looking to approach their graduate school application process from an informed perspective. Anything over 30 might be excessive, but I think under 10 is too low. That is, you have people who are willing to supervise you in areas you are interested in pursuing, in geographic locations you are willing to move to and can reasonably afford to live in. Economics PhD programs, and I ultimately mastered out. I guess I'm just very decisive? then I'm at like 16! Your best bet is to apply to more than one grad school because admission isn’t guaranteed. Before I came to this sub, and I don't know if this is a geographical difference or just a field difference or what, but I'd never heard of anyone applying for more than three. The schools are not conferring with each other to see if you applied elsewhere. I ended up going to my top choice program. Apply to as many as you'd like to. This was actually beneficial because I could really focus on creating good applications for all of them (and didn't go broke applying).