<p>The reappearance of this thread is serendipitous for my d - she has an interview scheduled next week at a school that should be one of her safeties. She knows the school well and really likes it. Her stats are comfortably above its 75th percentile SAT and average GPA. Still, this mid-sized LAC has become quite a bit more selective in the past few years, and accepts a hefty percentage of students ED, which my d isn’t considering for this school. So the interview is obviously quite important.</p>
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I think a school is well within its rights to ask “why us?” And even if the most honest answer is the one above, there’s gotta be something else for a student who selected any school as a safety to talk about. I wouldn’t consider it a lapse in honesty if a student avoided the word “safety” when answering, as long as the student then honestly listed his/her reasons for liking the school. (As a school, not a safety.) If the interviewer asks my d this question, she’ll have no problem answering at length. </p>
<p>I do have a problem with asking the student where else he/she has applied. I feel it’s an unfair question that can really only hurt the applicant. My d has done a lot of thinking about how best to answer if this comes up. She’s probably not going to mention the schools on her list with bigger national reputations, nor those that are considered competitors of the school where she’s interviewing.</p>
<p>I consider this kid exceptionally honest. Certainly she’s shown a gazillion times that she can be trusted not to cheat, lie, or steal. But she’s also smart enough not to run herself through with the sword of full disclosure for its own sake. I don’t think that’s lying.</p>