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How many grad programs to apply to?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, an undergraduate reader asks:

As an undergrad student, I have a question regarding grad school applications. How many grad schools do people usually apply to? And how many should I?

So far, I have found 3 grad schools that seem to fit me, but I suspect 3 are too few, given the low acceptance rate of philosophy grad schools.

These are good questions. One reader submitted the following reply:

I applied for 6, got one offer with scholarship and 5 rejections. I think I didn't apply enough in retrospect. That being said, it's costly to apply for US grad schools (at least when I applied, not sure whether this has changed). I think some programs outside US are free to apply.

Although I entered grad school over 20 years ago now (back when, or so I hear, competition was nowhere near as fierce as it is now), I applied to over 20 programs and got into exactly 2 of them. So, my sense is that applying to only 3 programs is probably nowhere near enough. But again, my experience is really dated here, and it might be good to hear from recent applicants.

How many grad programs did you apply to, and how many did you get into (funded or unfunded)?

Posted in

18 responses to “How many grad programs to apply to?”

  1. Michel

    Most people seem to apply to 15 or 20. That said, their strategy seems to be primarily the shotgun approach rather than one predicates on making a strong case for their fit.
    Back in 2010, I applied to five and was accepted to 3/5–the three best fits, incidentally. This was too few, though. Even then, most applicants were applying to 20+.
    I would advise taking the time to apply to 10 or 15 programs,taking the time to make the case for a close fit.

    Reply
  2. Recent PhD

    Like the reply in the original thread, I applied to 6 and was accepted into 1, and I also do not think it was enough.

    Reply
  3. SLAC Associate

    In the mid 2000s, I applied to something like 2 MA programs and 5 PhD programs, and was accepted by 3 of the PhD programs. But it was a near thing, and my advisor at the program I ultimately attended told me I should’ve applied to several more programs.

    Reply
  4. now on the grad admissions committee

    In 2011, I applied to six or seven and was accepted into one (with funding).
    There was one place I was more likely to be accepted because it had a smaller applicant pool and the people on the committee knew some of my letter writers. This was the place that admitted me. If your main goal is going to grad school, I would identify two such places that are good fits for your research interests. Smaller applicant pool probably matters more than letters – the point is that your application gets looked at. If you are competing with 300 people (and at some places you are), then your application will not get the same attention. This doesn’t mean you are a bad applicant. Nor does it mean the admissions committee is bad at their jobs.
    I think 15 or 20 is a bad idea: stressful and expensive. You may have to track down your letter writers each time (you may not). Transcripts cost money, too. It’s just not worth the time, expense, and emotional investment.

    Reply
  5. admission

    Applying to 3 is too few. If you are selective, perhaps you can aim for 8-12.
    But,if a student looks really good (maybe that applies to the OP),I think they have a good chance of being admitted into most programs.In this case, applying to 3 is not as risky as one might think (if the 3 are not all superstar programs). My personal experience is that we try to admit all great-looking students and there are usually enough spots. But to emphasize, 3 is just unnecessarily selective and risky, regardless of the quality of the applicant.

    Reply
  6. Applicant Helper

    I will tell you what I did and roughly what I was advised to do 6 or 7 years ago at my terminal MA program, which has a lot of success placing people in PhDs.
    I applied to 20 schools. I picked a few schools in each rough tier of rankings that I thought were the best fit for my interests, skewing the list a bit top-heavy. That is, I picked about ~5 top-10 schools strong in my areas, ~5 schools ranked 10-25 strongest in my areas, and so on. Toward the bottom of the list, I started weighting location and quality of life more heavily in making my picks (e.g., I included my undergrad’s unranked PhD program because I loved living there and had a community).
    This was in keeping with the advice I got from my program; most of my peers did something similar, applying to 15-20 schools.
    Depending on what your goals are, it may make sense to make your list even more top-heavy than mine was. The reason for this is of course prestige bias on the academic job market. It can be very hard to get a desirable job coming out of an unranked or poorly ranked program. So if having some shot at that matters a lot to you, then you may want to adjust accordingly.
    I got into like 5 or 6 schools this way–though none of the top ten schools–was waitlisted at a few more, and ended up at the place I regarded as more or less my top choice going into the process. I believe all acceptances included funding–I doubt if I applied anywhere that would not have funded me.

    Reply
  7. MileageMayVary

    Applied in two different cycles. Both times I applied to about 15 programs, give or take a couple. My CGPA and GRE were the same both cycles.
    First cycle was 2012, I was an undergraduate, and I did not know what I was doing so my list of programs was not well selected. The programs I applied to were by and large not a great fit for my research interests (which I was still developing!). I was accepted off waitlist for 1 phd program, received two unfunded offers and one funded MA offer. I accepted the funded MA.
    Second cycle was in 2015, had MA in hand, and applied to about 15 programs but with a better strategy, better letters. I was accepted to 3 programs and waitlisted at 2. I accepted one of the 3 offers based on fit. FWIW I am very happy with the choice I made.
    Program fit is very important and I believe that thinking about fit helped me on my second cycle. I think equally important as the # of programs is also the spread – applying to the top 15 programs is going to yield different results than applying to 5 “reach” programs, 8 ?? programs, and 2 “safe” programs. Good advisors will help keep you realistic about what programs are a reach for you based on your application materials.

    Reply
  8. Canadian Applicant

    I applied to 9 programs (3 Canadian and 6 American) and got accepted by all Canadian programs and rejected by all American programs. I was advised to apply to 5-6 but I applied to more. In retrospect, applying more was wasteful, both in terms of time and money.

    Reply
  9. Pythian

    I applied to ~30 programs in 2018 (including terminal MAs). I was accepted into one program in the top 20, waitlisted at three others, and accepted into some MAs without funding. I went to the program where I was accepted.
    I think applying very broadly is the best strategy for many, if not most applicants. The program I attended was not one that I would have applied to if I had only applied to, say, six programs. If I did not apply broadly, I probably wouldn’t have been accepted anywhere with funding.
    I did not know enough about any of the particular programs to make a strong case regarding fit (my letter writers were not graduates of the top 20, so they could not help me). I was able to reuse 95% of my materials for each application. Unfortunately, the biggest deterrents to applying broadly are application fees. I wish this wasn’t the case since it deters financially less fortunate students the most, and these students may need more rolls of the dice to get into a good program. I was doing Americorps when I applied, which meant that most of my application fees were waived. Given how chancy the process is, I think applying broadly is probably worth the cost for those who can afford it.

    Reply
  10. we’re still doing this pgr thing

    I just want to chime in and remind people thinking about applications that placement records actually don’t neatly correspond to the “ranking” which I assume the above posters are referring to. In particular, this is a bit of a myth, unless you are only interested in jobs at R1 institutions with PhD programs:
    “Depending on what your goals are, it may make sense to make your list even more top-heavy than mine was. The reason for this is of course prestige bias on the academic job market. It can be very hard to get a desirable job coming out of an unranked or poorly ranked program.”
    My barely-ranked (by the PGR) department would be ranked very differently in a placement ranking (it’s easy to find data about job placement online). Some suggestions: don’t go to a PhD program in philosophy if you don’t think you’ll like teaching college students–that’s the job, no matter how fancy of a place you work. And don’t just blindly follow the notoriously problematic PGR when looking for places to apply. Instead, focus on your own interests/fit with those/climate of the department/finances (how much is that “funding”? is it livable?)/quality of life (can you not see yourself living somewhere one of these programs is for six plus years of your life? if not, cross it off the list), and make sure that the place has good placement into the kinds of jobs YOU are interested in. The jobs my students get are often extremely desirable! PGR ranking doesn’t track placement (and some very highly ranked programs have quite bad job placement).

    Reply
  11. helper

    I was helping students apply to programs 15 to 10 years ago. It was at a state college. I found it hard to help students see how uncompetitive they were. I recall one person – who I did not help – applying to 8 or so top-15 schools, and getting into none. The next year he applied to a few completely non-ranked programs, and got in at least. Good grief … there was a large range of schools he may have had a chance of getting in. Also, one older colleague was telling students to apply to a top-10, when the rest of us knew this was hopeless. But, do not apply to too many. Apply to the right ones.

    Reply
  12. timesaver

    I applied to 5 prgrams and got accepted by 2. As someone interested in studying continental philosophy, I could have maybe stretched myself to 10 US schools. I’m glad I saved the time and money. I didn’t want a PhD so badly that I would be willing to accept anything less than an excellent program fit.

    Reply
  13. I got lucky

    I’m an outlier: I applied to only one program, and I was accepted with funding after being waitlisted. However, I had a very clear idea of what I would do instead of philosophy graduate school if I was not accepted, so that was not my only option for my future at the time.

    Reply
  14. Trevor Hedberg

    I applied to 12 and got into 4. I think I could have managed 15, but I was definitely not going to do 20: costs (in terms of both time and money) would have been too high. Somewhere between 15 and 20 has seemed like the norm for at least the last 10 years.

    Reply
  15. TT Assistant Prof

    The only downsides to applying to a program are financial costs and time spent. Those are significant costs, of course. But you don’t get in trouble or anything for applying to too many programs. This suggests that the best course of action is to apply to as many as you can afford, money and time-wise.
    I applied over two cycles: the first time, a few years out of undergrad, I applied to 12 PhDs and 3 MAs. I got 1 MA and on PhD offer, both with funding. I took the MA. The second cycle I applied to 22 schools. I got into 8, including 1 top 3 school (as PGR-wise), but no other top 10 schools. That’s the school I attended. On one other hand, my writing sample was directly responding to the work of 2 faculty members at that school. Still, I feel like the wide applications were helpful in getting me into a variety of options.

    Reply
  16. AnonymousL

    I applied to grad school in the late 90’s which was a while ago. The first time I sent applications to the top 8 PGR schools and got accepted nowhere. So I worked on my writing sample and applied the next year by going down two slots to the 3-10 PGR schools. I got into one program and was waitlisted at another. My approach was to only apply to the top schools because I reasoned that this would help with job placements later on. It worked out in the end but I wouldn’t advise others to take this route which was a bit narrow.

    Reply
  17. Former Grad

    I applied to 15, I think. I was accepted into several, but only one in my “top tier”.

    Reply
  18. a crazy applicant

    Most people around me applied to around 30 programs last year. I personally applied to 29 phd programs and 4 master’s. I got into 4 phd programs and got 5 waitlists. When I was applying, my professors and friends who applied previously told me to apply to as many schools as I could, so that’s what I did 🙂
    Remember to ask for application fee waivers! These waivers saved me a lot of money 🙂

    Reply

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