The clock reads 1 a.m. It’s winter break, and senior Rishi Salvi forces himself to sit at his desk and write. As an attempt to find the motivation to work, he scrolls and scrolls — not on social media, but on his Notes app that includes an endless list of 44 college essays that he has to carefully craft, totaling 10,000 words across 30 different colleges.
Salvi says that a major reason he mass applied was the fear of missing out. Applying to as many colleges as he could gave Salvi peace of mind that he did all that he could to be accepted to a prestigious university.
“Going into the college admissions process, I had a flawed mentality, thinking that by not applying to colleges I had a chance of getting into, I was missing out,” Salvi said. “You see all these other people getting into XYZ college, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe if I applied, I could have gotten in. But then think, because you didn’t apply, you lost out on that opportunity.”
MVHS College and Career counselor Rogelio Calderon explains that the mindset of adding colleges to an application list is similar to that of buying a lottery ticket: the more purchases a student makes, the higher their chance of “winning,” or being accepted into a selective college. However, he warns that adding a college to the application list often results in a drastic increase in workload and stress.
“For students mass applying, know what you’re getting into,” Calderon said. “When you say, ‘I’m applying to 20 schools’, it’s not just 20 schools. It’s 20 schools plus three or four essays per top school, which easily adds up to 60 or 80 essays. You should know that it’s not just as easy as numbers, but there is also a complexity in applying to schools.”
Calderon adds that when considering schools to apply to, it is crucial for students to research whether or not the school is a good fit for them, rather than simply checking its ranking. He says factors for research should include the college’s location, majors, campus size, social life and extracurricular activities.
“Oftentimes, students think of it like, ‘Am I a great fit for the campus?’” Calderon said. “But I think if you turn it around and think of it as, ‘Is this campus a great fit for me?’ That really gets you to think about doing the research more intentionally.”
Victoria Gonzalez, an admissions officer at the University of San Francisco, shares Calderon’s sentiments about researching schools before applying, but also believes that it’s important to apply to a variety of schools to give students multiple possible options. Gonzalez advises students to apply to nine colleges, which consists of three target schools, three safety schools, and 3 reach schools. However, she warns applicants against overburdening themselves.
“There’s probably going to be a lot going on when you apply to colleges and you don’t want to overwork yourself,” Gonzalez said. “So, I recommend finding a balance between variety and workload. To ensure the quality of your applications don’t decrease.”
According to a study conducted by Forbes, the number of college applicants have increased by 6%, with 2026 representing the highest number of applicants to University of California schools, being 251,907 students. Furthermore, CommonApp finds that the average number of colleges an applicant applies to is 6.8 in the 2024-2025 season of college applications. Additionally, public institution applications increased by 13%, compared to a 3% growth in private institutions. This represents an overall positive growth in the number of applicants and applications.
Salvi advises future students to start reflecting early on crucial moments that can be utilized for college essays. Furthermore, he believes past experiences with summer program applications are helpful in understanding the overall structure of an application. Calderon adds that understanding extracurricular commitments is a critical aspect of planning ahead. Salvi agrees, noting that due to him failing to consider the massive amount of work required for college applications, he was forced to quit cross country, a sport that has been a part of him for his entire high school life.
“Even if you can apply to a lot of schools, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should,” Calderon said. “It’s really about ensuring that you’re invested in this process. And other than that, as long as the student is sort of doing that and carefully planning, there’s nothing essentially stopping you from mass applying.”
Through the process of completing 44 essays and multiple sleepless nights, Salvi began to reflect deeply on his high school experience, and gained a better understanding of himself, and what made the last few years so memorable for him. Reflecting back, he urges rising MVHS seniors to not let external factors such as peer pressure impact the college decision application process, and to keep calm throughout.
“Not all schools are good for you,” Salvi said. “You have to prioritize yourself over the prestige of the school that you go to. If you’re able to apply yourself to the material, you’re going to be successful no matter where you end up.”
