Swati Rao rushes home from West High School each day to check her mailbox, hoping for a fat envelope welcoming her to college.

So far, Rao has not been disappointed.

She has already been accepted to three schools but is waiting to hear from eight more. In all, Rao applied to 11 schools, spending more than $400 and four months working on her college applications.

"They were all really good schools, and I'm kind of a geek, so I wanted as much opportunity to get into a good school as I could," Rao said. "I increased my chances of getting into a good school by applying to so many."

Rao, a senior at West High, is part of a trend nationally and in Utah as students pitch themselves to a growing number of universities. Whereas the average high school student 10 years ago sent in three or four college applications, some high school seniors now apply to upward of 15 to 20 colleges.

Most students are expecting to hear from out-of-state schools by this weekend, while applications for Utah's state schools are due Saturday.

Rao initially wanted to apply to 22 schools this fall but winnowed down her list after her parents weighed in on the roughly $40-$60 application fee per school. After settling on her top 11, Rao spent most of October and November writing and rewriting her college essays.

"It was just this constant polishing of my essays. I kind of felt like I was polishing a diamond," she said.

Connie Jeanne Larsen, a counselor at West High, said growing anxiety about acceptance rates and the ease of online applications fueled the surge in applications, prompting students to spend countless hours trying to get into the nation's most selective universities.

Larsen, who counsels students in the school's competitive International Baccalaureate program, said it's common for students to apply to more than 10 schools. Even students not in the advanced program are now trying to up their chances of getting into college by casting a wider net, she said.

An annual survey of college freshmen showed that 17.4 percent applied to seven or more colleges in 2005, while in 1967 only 1.8 percent had done so. The survey by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA also showed the portion of students applying to 12 or more colleges increased by 50 percent from 2001.

While some Utah high schools are seeing a spurt in college applications, registrar Donna West at Murray High said the trend hasn't consumed the entire senior class yet. Although she did have one student send out 30 applications, the majority of students are still doing between three and five, she said.