Choosing Targets
There are so many different decisions involved that there's no simple, systematic way to make the choice. In the end, choosing your targets will mean thinking through all of the factors involved and seeing what feels right to you when the dust clears. Adding a little method to your madness can help clarify your thinking, however.

Here are a few simple steps that you can use to make a list of desirable graduate schools and narrow it down:

1. Make a list of universities that offer the program you're interested in.
2. Eliminate any school not academically strong enough to permit you to achieve your career goals or that is unacceptable due to practical considerations.
3. Divide the remaining schools into three groups: schools you're pretty sure to get into; schools you have a fighting chance to get into; and schools you'll get into only if touched by the hand of God.
4. Choose two schools from the "pretty sure" group, two schools from the "fighting chance" group, and one school from the "hand of God" group. This is your target list.
5. If you have the time and money, select additional schools from your "fighting chance" category. Think carefully, however, before deciding to apply to fewer than five universities. Going through the application process is difficult and stressful, and if you apply to fewer than five schools, you risk short-changing yourself.

These steps are more easily said than done. There's a great deal of research and planning involved in choosing your target schools. In many respects, it's the most important phase of the application process. Allow yourself enough time to do a good job of all this research and planning, so that you're sure of your choices when it's time to start your applications.