<p>I just thought of somtehing about schools that ask you what other schools you've applied for. When they do that, are they seeing if you applied to other schools or just them only. If it's them only, they'll probably not give you funding b/c if the applicant didn't apply to any other schools they'll probably go there with/without funding. Do you guys think this is the intention of those schools?</p>
<p>I think it’s just for statistical purposes.</p>
<p>I listed a few similar programs for each. A friend of mine left these questions all blank. We both fared well.</p>
<p>That information never goes to the department in most cases. It is for the graduate school to keep records for comparison with peer institutions. Don’t overthink this.</p>
<p>I have heard that some programs use that information to decide what kind of offer to make. If they are clearly your “safety school” they might not even want to admit you, as there would be little reason to tie up that spot on someone with no real likelihood of attending. If you are applying to several comparable schools, it lets them know what they need to do to attract you. And so on…</p>
<p>I can’t back that up, the few “ins” I have in graduate admissions never discussed this issue. But that’s my impression.</p>
<p>^^^^ I know that’s what they do if your stats are too high for the school. But I didn’t hear anything about “other school you’re applying” information causes this as well. It’s only for statistic purposes.</p>
<p>Just for the record:</p>
<p>I was accepted by every graduate program I applied to, including the “super safeties.” Even more, all programs below the top 10 (by US News) offered me a competitive fellowship instead or on top of the standard TA funding.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I have heard from professors in admissions that some departments try to gauge the likelihood of a candidate attending - especially if the number of offers they can make is limited for some reason. (Last year Penn’s math department, for example, was mandated by the administration not to make more offers at any point in time than they had open spots in the program because they had overenrolled significantly the year before. In contrast, Columbia made 30+ first-round offers shooting for an incoming class of 12, knowing full well that many admitted students would choose higher-ranked programs.)</p>
<p>I could also imagine that “demonstrated interest” comes into play in programs where students are funded by a specific professor’s research grants, rather than the department or not at all, for the same reason as above.</p>