<p>While I don’t think it’s any of their business where else you are applying, we didn’t play games. My kids were honest. </p>
<p>If asked at an interview you might hedge and say you haven’t finalized your list. My older son told his Harvard interviewer it wasn’t his first choice, and they still accepted him.</p>
<p>Harvard does not consider “level of applicant’s interest”, and presumably knows that it is often the winner in cross-admit choices, or that if it is not an applicant’s first choice, the applicant’s first choice is probably another reach-for-everyone school that s/he may not be admitted to.</p>
<p>It is more of a concern at schools which consider “level of applicant’s interest” and which presumably do not like seeing that they are being used as a safety.</p>
<p>I think if the kids have a well crafted list of 5-10 colleges there is no reason any admissions officer would even give it a moment’s thought. I know kids that applied to five of the Big 10 schools which is totally believable. An adcom looking at that might smile but I highly doubt they would pass judgement. Or a kid might apply to all unis in metropolitan cities or they might apply to 5 competitive dance programs or 5 colleges with outstanding political science departments (or math or English or fill in the blank)…there is always “something” that binds a student’s choices of where to apply if they have done a good job researching plus most kids will apply to one or two schools close to home be it a flagship or local LAC or regional college. Now that said if you have a student who sprayed buckshot in hopes of hitting something/anything…then perhaps the well crafted blah, blah and a number of other schools is the best response.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting question since the complete list of schools applied to varies across the fall semester. I know a student who was sure she was applying to school “A”, but got down to the last minute and just didn’t. Another student applied near the deadline to school “B” at the behest of her school counselor. </p>
<p>Neither would have had a correct and complete list on other applications.</p>
<p>Funny. One of the reasons I did not apply to Rice was because they have this question in their Supplement. I do not think it is the school business to ask where I applied or plan to apply. If the school thinks that indeed it is their business to ask, then we have a mismatch right there, and for reasons of fit I figure the school is not a good fit for me.</p>
<p>Is there any evidence that schools will reject you if they think you’re using them as a safety, or that they’ll give you a smaller aid package if they think they’re your first-choice school? I’ve heard these ideas before but they really don’t make a lot of sense to me – yield really isn’t that big an issue schools outside the Top 20, and I can’t see them playing roulette by low-balling financial aid for a candidate they’d really like to see attend.</p>
<p>Colleges ask this question because they want to know who they’re competing against and who they’re losing top students to. That’s a fair question, and honest answers are helpful to the school and to future applicants. D1 chose School A over School B, and when I ran into School B’s rep at an event the following year, he asked why she chose A. I really don’t think there are any conspiracies to increase their USNWR ranking or cheat prospective students out of merit aid. They just want to do better at their job.</p>
<p>Hi spdf:</p>
<p>If that is the case than they should ask afterwards. I got quite a few surveys after the applications cycle was over. </p>
<p>I think that asking for this type of information in advance does cause stress and may make some people not to apply there (as it was my case).</p>
<p>A few months ago there was another thread about students who did not apply to a particular school because of cumbersome supplements. That is a very similar situations. It seems to me that schools get all “fancy” and come up with these dream questions and forms. Why don’t they learn that complexity escalates and in a world in which a bunch of smarty colleges come up with their own unique view of things (different from the common app) they lose out to schools with more “standard” applications.</p>
<p>No applicant likes to write 12 different essasys and answer 100 different questions, which is what happens when schools go too creative with their supplements.</p>
<p>Our experience was that the obvious safeties tried to tempt my son with merit aid. Still no problem with telling them where else he had applied.</p>
<p>The problem with asking afterwards is that students may not fill out the forms, especially if they are long. (Harvard’s was ridiculous, but interesting that they really wanted to know why you turned them down.)</p>
<p>Inpersonal, some kids really like those creative supplement questions.</p>
<p>spdf–yes, search these boards for all the evidence you want–kids that applied to a lot of reaches and then a couple safeties and didn’t get into the safety schools and in some cases, didn’t get into ANY schools.</p>
<p>^I haven’t actually seen much of this at all. And I suspect many times it’s kids who think Tufts is a safety. Or who blow off the application and don’t make a case for why this is a good school for them even though it’s clearly a safety.</p>
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<p>What else could “level of applicant’s interest” be for?</p>
<p>I still recall a helpful reply to this question made several years ago…here it is:</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/9094762-post3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/9094762-post3.html</a></p>
<p>My son listed all 10 he was applying to, in alphabetical order. He got accepted to all of them. I’m sure the 2 safety schools knew they were safeties by looking at his qualifications, but he did visit them and I think it was clear why he was interested in them.</p>
<p>spdf,</p>
<p>
[The</a> Economy and College Admissions - Head Count - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/the-changing-state-of-college-admissions/27569]The”>http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/the-changing-state-of-college-admissions/27569)</p>
<p>Indicting similar schools in terms of selectivity, although in fact also applying to reachier schools. And for the “reaches”, not indicating lower “selectivity” school.</p>
<p>sorry, noticed a typo in my reply above. Meant to write “indicating”.</p>
<p>I think it is inappropriate for schools to ask and they do not make it sound optional. I called the one school that asked this question and they told me on the phone that he didn’t have to answer if he didn’t want to. Well where was that little piece of info on the common app. My son only put down the comparable schools. </p>
<p>Along the same lines, if you were applying for a job, would you tell a perspective employer all the other places you applied to work just because they asked you?</p>
<p>Some people send out 100+ applications but if you told the employer that they would think you were desperate and an unattractive candidate.</p>
<p>I feel that if colleges want this information, they can ask accepted students. At this point, they will feel comfortable supplying the information. (obviously it doesn’t gather information from denied candidates, but atleast they can be assured more complete and honest answers).</p>
<p>Hmm, while i said earlier that it’s fine to do whatever you want, I still don’t think this is a big deal. I HAVE been asked in interviews if I’m looking other places and I would volunteer some information around this question. There is nothing wrong with applying to some other colleges and if you’ve done your homework there should be similarities around a number of potential variables.</p>
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<p>My son applied to Rice and answered this question honestly. We were scratching our heads when he was waitlisted there, despite his perfect academic stats and his EC and community leadership record. Upon reflection, other than our state flagship, Rice, at 20%, was the least selective statistically of any of the other schools that he applied to. Maybe it looked like a safety school choice to them?</p>