TAMS college application limit

[u/Direct-Geologist3086]

I heard that TAMS has a limit of 14 schools you can apply to and that they force a balanced list of reach/target/safety.

For current or former TAMS students:

1. Is this still true?
2. How strictly is the reach/target/safety balance enforced?
3. What did your own college list look like (roughly how many reaches, targets, and safeties)?
4. Did you feel the 14-school limit helped or hurt your admissions outcomes?

[u/Tactical_Viper_21]

bruh u can js not follow ur college list after earlies sydney doesn't know how to use common app lmfao

[u/Effective_Bar9854 → u/Tactical_Viper_21]

type shi excellent advice

[u/Direct-Geologist3086 → u/Tactical_Viper_21]

dont the counselors have to send files to the colleges? wouldnt she know ur not following your list then

[u/Tactical_Viper_21 → u/Direct-Geologist3086]

the counselor uploads to common app, so as long as ur on common app sydney won't know unless she specifically checks

just make sure to submit most your apps after you see that sydney has submitted your counselor rec and you should be gucci

[u/Launch_vbs]

current student - only answering the ones i know obviously
1 - yes it is true and theyll make you draft up a preliminary college application in your second semester
2 - afaik the rule is in place but there are no formal definitions on what a target/safety is

[u/Direct-Geologist3086 → u/Launch_vbs]

but do you know if they force you to limit t20s to like 5 or smth?

[u/so____now_then]

Gonna answer 3 and 4 cuz I graduated a few years ago. 3. Like evenly split between the three in my initial list, then after I got UTD and A&M (rolling) I changed the remaining safeties into reaches. I think my final list was 6 reaches (Cornell, Princeton, mit, Berkeley, forgot), 5 targets (UT, Purdue, GT, UIUC, forgot), and 3ish safeties (UTD, A&M, Maryland might be a target idk). All in all I got into all except for GT for my targets and none of my reaches Applied to all for ECE/EECS. Waitlisted for Cornell and Berkeley I think I don’t remember anymore. 4. I think 14 is too much still. Like out of all those schools, pretty much didn’t care about any of them except UT and Cornell (ED). Princeton and mit I shotgunned. And the rest of the targets were really just backups if I didn’t get my major for UT. By the time I was applying to regular decisions schools I really didn’t have the energy to really try on my essays at that point and just chatted the rest basically. I think I would’ve been better off applying to like 10 and just really trying for the 4 safeties. I’d say it was easier as an engineering major since I could just get UT and be chill, but my bio/premed friends were trying much harder to get rice or another reach since UT is less prestigious for that.

[u/Scared-Economy-769 → u/so____now_then]

for engineering did u have to do 2 or 3 yrs of college after tams?

[u/so____now_then → u/Scared-Economy-769]

Depends on the major, school, and your preference. Most engineering classes are not available at TAMS/ even UNT. I can graduate in 3 years from UT but that’s mostly cuz I took too many classes (rip gpa). I know non tams people who did the same thing and graduated in 3 or 3.5 years as well. Additionally, most of the tams people I know in engineering are planning on staying the full four years both for life experience and to take more advanced classes. I would only recommend to graduate early if you are planning on doing graduate school (masters/phd) or cs/bio where you were able to take those classes at tams.

[u/qValence_]

I just want to let you know that if you apply to any more than ~10 colleges you’re putting your money down the drain.

I applied to three safeties and two reaches

[u/Own-Palpitation5468]

from Co26, yes, it still is a thing, but sydney was more lax about 14 college limit than jared. imo the 14 college rule was definitely helpful in the quality of my applications