<p>I know this may be a very stupid question, so I apolgize in advance if this is common knowlege.</p>
<p>I see many references in various posts to the fact that College A knows that you have applied to Colleges B,C & D. Sometimes this statement is made in the context of College A thinking you are using them as a safety and that they are not really a first, or second, choice.</p>
<p>How do colleges know where you have applied??</p>
<p>Usually there is a place on the application where you enter your other schools.</p>
<p>If your school is not need blind and they look at your fafsa, your fafsa will have a listing of all of the schools where you are sending it.</p>
<p>Many colleges ask you on the app to identify other colleges you are applying to, although many do not ask. In relation to binding Early Decision or single choice Early Action, some colleges compare lists of those granted ED or EA with others to assure there has been no violation of the single ED or EA app rule. </p>
<p>Moreover, colleges do not need to be told that you are applying elsewhere because they already know that occurs in the vast of majority cases. For example, if Tufts gets a regular admission application from someone with 4.0 GPA and 2400 SAT, it can pretty much guess that the person is also applying to colleges like HYP.</p>
<p>When people make reference to "Tufts Syndrome", they don't mean that the college knows for sure, but that they can just assume that a very qualified applicant is applying to more prestigious colleges and is probably using them as a safety.</p>
<p>In terms of ED or making sure that applicants do not accept more than one college, the colleges do share information. However, there is not a total nationwide network. Similar colleges group together into consortiums of perhaps 15-30 schools and they share information among themselves. It is enough of a risk to apply to multiple ED schools or to accept multiple colleges since the penalty is so great.</p>
<p>They can get the information off of the FAFSA, but I don't believe that they bother. If nothing else, not everybody has a FAFSA and it wouldn't be available before February in a lot of cases.</p>
<p>A few colleges do ask you to list the colleges that you are also applying to. This is basically none of their business. It would be probably be wise to be judicious in how you fill out this box.</p>
<p>Dufus, can you further explain "judicious"? What am I guarding against?</p>
<p>Sometimes a college that is just outside of the ivy, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech range will recognize that you are using them as a safety, and then deny you because they are sick of being used as a safety by people applying to more prestigious schools. Historically this is called "Tufts Syndrome" because Tufts is a NE college that people applying to the ivies would use as a safety. Very few colleges ask you what other schools you are applying to. However, if they do, you don't want to have them noticing that they are obviously your last choice. Examples of this would be Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Hopkins, and Emory.</p>
<p>Got it. So if my S was applying to Chicago and three ivies, Chicago might feel that way too? Actually, he will apply to Michigan too (instate) which is the real safety.</p>
<p>Uchicago is probably pretty secure about itself anyway and might not really care. Michigan probably does not ask on the app about what other colleges you are applying to. This is really a fairly narrow phenonmena. It is when a 4.0 uw gpa with a 2450 SAT applies to Tufts, Wash U, Emory or a few other schools like that, especially when the applicant has not visited or shown any interest in the school. Few colleges ask about where else you applied. If they do ask, then I guess they care.</p>
<p>It is just the basis of posts in April where somebody will say that they were accepted at Dartmouth, UPenn, Northwestern, and Duke, but waitlisted at Tufts.</p>
<p>So what's the deal on ED applications, where they ask you to contact other colleges and tell them that you are no longer interested. True...I will honor the ED school if I get in, but I still want to know if I made the other schools. I have a stretch in there and want to see if I would have made it, even though it is my second choice.</p>
<p>it sure is nice to know that you would have gotten into your other school when your Ed news comes back positive, but this is unethical.</p>
<p>think of it this way
lets say that you are waitlisted at your first choice school, and you find out (although you could never really find this out) that it is because someone who was already committed to another school left their application in. </p>
<p>It's nice to know, but you're taking someone's spot, so just retract the applications if you get in ED</p>
<p>There is no national network, but colleges combine together into consortiums of 15-25 schools and share info. If you don't follow the rules, remember that you signed something saying that you know that they can pull your acceptance.</p>
<p>i got into Rice, Duke, Cornell, and Northwestern and Chicago</p>
<p>I was waitlisted at Tufts and Wash U</p>
<p>^^^
WUStL waitlisted a ton of people last year. I'm not sure why.</p>
<p>
[quote]
i got into Rice, Duke, Cornell, and Northwestern and Chicago</p>
<p>I was waitlisted at Tufts and Wash U
[/quote]
</p>
<p>i think you should also consider the fact that wash u is an excellent school on par with the ivies and that maybe you just weren't the right student for them. this is instead of implying that wash u is a secondary school to the ivies.</p>
<p>it is, ahahahhah</p>
<p>do i detect sarcasm?</p>
<p>brassmonkey......your right.
I do plan on retracting the apps if I make the ED.
Would still love to know what if.....but there really is no need if I get in.</p>
<p>Good point, that being selfish could cause someone else to be on a waitlist who may be counting on the school as their first choice.</p>
<p>They so know. "Even the trees have ears"-narnia</p>
<p>I go to Brown, and i got into WUSTL and Emory, which were my safeties, guess sometimes they actually do waitlist you for not being qualified.</p>