<p>Letsfigureitout....</p>
<p>I had not heard of colleges asking applicants to RANK the schools to which they have applied and I find that action as less than "kosher," to be honest. I have seen some schools ask where else the student applied and I even think that is not a fair question and I have discussed that issue here on this forum in the past (all these same topics come up year after year). </p>
<p>First, to the question about where else you have applied. I don't feel this is the college's business to know. What I think is a much fairer question and one that actually IS important, is to ask the applicant their college criteria in selecting colleges and determine how that criteria matches what they offer. They also should ask the student why they student wants to attend their college and then assess their interest level and knowledge of their school and the fit. I am an alumni interviewer for my alma mater and in fact, just interviewed a candidate yesterday and I did ask her college criteria and I did ask why she wanted this college but I did not ask where else she applied. </p>
<p>If a student is asked where else they applied, I think a reasonable answer is to offer up SOME of the schools they applied to but there is no obligation to divulge all their other schools. My older daughter was NEVER asked this on any of her applications or interviews and so I was taken back when my younger one, who did the BFA process, was asked this on some audition forms. She put down about five of her 8 schools and mentioned ones of the same selectivity or lower, so as not to make it seem that the college was low on her priority list as being not as "prestigious" as others, so to speak. Personally, I found the question in bad taste. Anyway, what happened to her is that at one selective program, in the audition room, during the "interview" portion, they looked at her form and asked, "why isn't someone like you applying to NYU?" and she hadn't put down NYU but was indeed an applicant there and so she had to think on her feet and explained the differences between the two schools (she was well versed on her schools) and why aspects she liked about the school she was at that were appealing to her. She was accepted to that school with scholarship. She ended up at NYU, however. :)</p>
<p>Now, to the question of ranking one's schools.....not sure what I would do in that case as it really turns me off that a school would ask this because students have a right to apply to many schools and to apply to some "safer" bets and to get into those "safer" bets since they may need them if not accepted to the more selective schools on their list. Frankly, I don't know that my own kids could even have ranked their schools and in fact, I was very happy that my daughters did not pine away for one SINGLE favorite "must have" school and had "piles" of most favorite, favorite, least favorite but happy to attend schools. It was a recipe for less disappointment that way. I have a child who is an applicant to highly selective (like BFAs!!) graduate programs at the moment and could not rank her list and has piles of more favored than others, and in fact, hasn't gotten to visit them all yet! So, besides what one "should" put down, I would say that an honest answer for them would not be a ranked list in the first place! If they were to put an honest answer down, it likely would be little "groupings". So, perhaps a student could write, "I haven't visited all of my schools yet and have not ranked them in any order but my preferences are this group as more preferred than this group, but that could change once I see my options and have made final visits. Then, put the school that the student is at in the "preferred group" and list similar schools of type and selectivity in that group and some others in the other group and not necessarily list every school to which they applied and perhaps leave off ones that are perceived as way more selective than the school in question. Like I said, if my kids were forced to do this, an honest answer would be little groups of schools, and not an ordered list anyway. So, that's my gut feeling but again, have not seen this situation before and would frankly not be pleased if a school asked for such a ranking.</p>