Answers

it seems a little risky to me to limit yourself to one option for college education. I'm applying to 8 schools alltogether: 3 dream schools (hopefully I'll get into one!!), 3 good schools that I'm sure I'll get into and that I like a lot, and then 2 safety schools just in case i dont get into any of the others!

You need to have at least one schol that you know you'll be accepted to. If you get rejected from all the schools you apply to, you'd be in a bad situation.

with luvya07. I have a very similar plan for applying to universities and almost all of my friends are doing something similar. I guess it's true that you have to pay an extra 50 bucks or so per place you're applying, but at least the common app makes it so you don't have to fill out a ton of applications!

My English teacher said the same thing. You're not guaranteed to get into the school you're dying to go to, so you should have other schools just in case.

If you really are set on one university, why not apply just to there and like 2 safety schools that you know you will get into? Applying to more schools costs more money, so it might not be worth it to apply to other schools, especially if you know where you want to go.

If I were you then I would apply to the college(s) that you really want to go to first then I would apply to your secondary choices. So if you only have one college in mind then try to get into that one before you apply to your other choices.