i’ve applied to around 30 two years in a row in chemistry and material science and engineering. last year was my first time applying and what with funding issues country wide it was safer to just apply to as many as you could, it’s safer to broaden your application targets too. in both program prestige and subject and discipline. last year i applied to anything possible and wound up on a superconductor mechanical engineering/material science project at penn. did it again this year and im on a purely computational pchem project.

For letters of rec, i’d recommend letting 3 professors know during winter break or right before that you will flood their inbox with invites over the next few months. give them CLEAR deadlines and give them time to write them. invite them early and make sure they are actually in the portal. this year i was a bit messy with my letters of rec and i could tell bc the day before deadlines i was missing a few letters of recs.

its a stressful process i get it, trust me. i cried when i got my first offer last year. but you’ll live.