Hey there! My recommendation is this. Don’t worry so much about how many places you want to apply to. Instead, focus on what you want to pursue. Then follow that up with by researching which schools offer that program.
I’ll use my example. I’m an Art with an Emphasis in Multimedia. I’m in California, and want to stay in California. So I look up schools that show information on what majors (remember majors is your choice/field of study and can be changed anytime you feel like) are offered. In my situation I have a website I can go to called, Assist.Org It helps me see what is offered in California throughout all colleges here. And there are only a couple UC’s (A University of California) and CSU’s (California State University) that offer Art & Multimedia as a degree, and some even only offer it as a certificate and of course some don’t even offer it, as their schools are just more oriented toward a certain something else.
I’ve read differences and similarities between CSU’s and UC’s. The networking within UC system looks more prestigious on a resume. But what looks more impressive on a resume than a UC degree is anyone with a bulk of high quality works in their resume. So it all goes down on how hard you want to work towards your field. UC’s are more expensive, they claim to be more investigative and also run on the “college quarter system.” CSU’s have a Spring, Summer and Fall semester.
Tell the student to learn to love math now or it will be a huge deterrent in college. Tell them that math helps with the “getting things in logical order” of the brain. I’m only mentioning this because I was young and naive and always questioned why I needed math only to accumulate massive debt. Plus knocking it out sooner than later was something I did not do. It is holding me back by 3 semesters. But guess what? I also know no one will really look at me in the job field with out a degree in the art industry. So that’s why I push forward. Good luck!