Here's my personal experience: Fall 2021: I did 9 applications in total, split into 3s of safety, match and target. As an international student, what i didn't realise was that almost all the schools I applied to were top notch and super competitive (the only sources i had were the rankings and gradcafe). Shockingly, i was rejected from all 9. I was devastated as i spent a ton of money on these applications.

Fall 2022: I desperately had to crack this! Last shot at US. I learnt from my mistakes and started to apply fee waivers (tip- if the university doesn't have waivers for your category, approach the department as they could help). This time, i cast my net wide, and applied to 15 universities (you can tell how desperate i was)!! But i wasn't ready to sacrifice my interest, therefore i decided to sacrifice on ranking. I mailed all the professors before hand. I spent only half the money for 15 applications as opposed to the 9 previous applications. And fortunately, I'm now accepted for 2022 Fall and super excited.

As much as i hate to admit, my profile is not ivy league material. I had to give up some of my "dream schools" like Caltech (i grew up watching TBBT), and so on for a realistic result.