Deciding how many law schools to apply to is an important early step in the application process. Since application requirements are generally similar across all law schools, an applicant can apply to many schools without devoting much extra time to each additional application.

Every applicant’s circumstance is different, but most fit into one of three categories: applicants with geographic constraints, applicants with a clear idea of the type of law they want to specialize in and applicants who want to gain admission to the best law school they can.

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Here’s how applicants in each group should settle on a number of schools to apply to.

For applicants without location and specialty considerations, I advise casting a wide net. Since it is difficult to predict application results, applying to many schools ensures that an applicant will be sure to be admitted to at least a few schools and doesn’t fail to submit applications to schools that he or she would have been accepted to.

As a rule of thumb, I recommend that applicants apply to approximately 15 schools, distributing them evenly among reach schools, target schools and safety schools. These three groups are based on an applicant’s LSAT score and GPA.

Reach schools are schools for which either an applicant’s LSAT and GPA, or both, are below the median LSAT and GPA ranges for admitted students. Target schools are schools for which an applicant’s LSAT and GPA are both close to the schools’ median numbers. Safety schools are schools for which an applicant’s LSAT and GPA are above the schools’ median numbers.

Applying to approximately five schools from each of these groups is the safest route and ensures that the applicant will have some choice, even during a tough year for law school admissions.

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Some applicants enter the admissions process with a clear sense of where they would like to live during law school, where they would like to practice law after law school or both. These factors tend to limit the number of schools that such an applicant can apply to, as even the largest metropolitan areas in the U .S . do not have more than a handful of schools.

For such applicants, I encourage them to apply to all schools in their target region that they would consider attending so that they are sure to be accepted somewhere even in the worst case scenario. One applicant I worked with, for example, was committed to going to law school in New York or Los Angeles.

Although her LSAT and GPA suggested that she would get into many of the top schools in both those cities, I advised her to apply to lower-ranked schools in those cities as well. Fortunately, she was accepted at one of her top choices in New York, so she did not need to employ the added security of applying to lower-ranked schools.

Applicants who know where they want to practice law after law school will also likely be limited geographically. Such applicants should apply to schools whose graduates are competitive in job markets nationally or to schools whose graduates practice law in the applicant’s target region. In both cases, I recommend that applicants apply to as many schools as fit their criteria, but this number is often less than ten.

[Get tips on crafting a successful application to a top law school.]

Other applicants enter the application process with a strong sense of what type of law they want to practice. For such applicants, school quality and ranking is an important consideration but often does not create a complete list, as many schools that do not have high overall rankings can have excellent programs for certain areas of law.

Just as for the generic applicant, fifteen schools is a good rule of thumb, but the distribution is a bit different. For example, a strong applicant interested in environmental law should apply to approximately ten schools distributed among the reach, target and safety groups described above, then an at additional three to five schools whose environmental law programs are particularly strong, such as Lewis and Clark College at Northwestern University, Vermont Law School, and Pace University Law School.

Which schools are you planning to apply to? Let me know in the comments, email me or tweet me.

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How to Apply to the Right Number of Law Schools originally appeared on usnews.com