<p>I was wondering if colleges can find out where else you are applying...either through the Common App or where you send your SAT scores or something like that.</p>
<p>I mean assuming you don't just tell them outright of course...</p>
<p>I don't think they can find out the names of the other schools, but it seems to me that there is some number at the top of the ACT or SAT report that shows the number of reports that they've sent out for you. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Not that I know of, unless you apply ED somewhere....</p>
<p>From what I've heard, they can view all the other schools you've filled out on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Why worry about this?</p>
<p>Some ask.</p>
<p>Some of the schools may notice they are not listed high enough on the list and do not want to risk offering you admission and you turn it down which will affect their yield. I think WashU is one that comes to mind but there are others too.</p>
<p>It's time for the FAQ again: </p>
<p>APPLICATIONS TO OTHER COLLEGES </p>
<p>You could quote chapter and verse from the Statement of Principles of Good Practice of the National Association for College Admission Counseling:</p>
<p>
<p>B. Admission, Financial Aid and Testing Policies and Procedures</p>
<p>Postsecondary members agree that they will:</p>
<ol> <li><p>accept full responsibility for admission and financial aid decisions and for proper notification of those decisions to candidates;</p></li> <li><p>not require candidates or the secondary schools to indicate the order of the candidates’ college or university preferences, except under Early Decision plans;
</p></li>
</ol>
<p>and once you have done that, you could say, based on whatever is the truth, "Not wanting this to be construed as a statement of my order of preference, I am applying to"</p>
<p>a) "other colleges that appear to offer some of the same features as your college"</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>b) "a varied list of colleges to ensure that I carefully consider what is the best fit between me and each college"</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>c) "small liberal arts colleges with a focus on undergraduate teaching" (or whatever summary characteristic applies to all colleges on your list)</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>d) "a list of colleges developed according to policies of my high school counseling office"</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>e) "[actual list] but this list should not be taken to be in preference order"</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>f) "a list of colleges that I would rather not mention here, so that we take extra care to follow NACAC principles of good practice."</p>
<p>Your own creativity can probably come up with some more choices. I do NOT see this question on many of the college application forms I have downloaded from the Web this year.</p>
<p>One student mentioned that a college that he was applying to online allowed only fifty characters in its online form for listing other colleges that he was applying to. That would allow for lots of fun possibilities, such as</p>
<p>Q: To what other colleges are you applying? </p>
<p>A: [in online form:] I am applying to other colleges that share some of the great characteristics of your college, for example </p>
<p>To sum up, if you are applying early decision somewhere, OF COURSE that college is your first choice, and you plainly signal to that college that it is your first choice by applying for a binding early decision program. But if you are applying for nonbinding early action, for rolling admission, or for regular action admission, no college should care much where else you are applying, and you are certainly not obligated to tell the college where else you are applying, especially not in a rank-ordered list.</p>
<p>I think they have a pretty good idea of their competitor colleges</p>
<p>E.G.</p>
<p>Someone applying to Harvard is probably also going for Yale/Princeton
MIT and Caltech
and so on</p>
<p>Very interesting....my D had been wondering about this as she's applying to 7 schools, all with pharmacy programs, and I believe 6 of them do ask! Not wanting to look like as "shopper", she is unsure of what to put as she's really serious and willing to go to any/all! She just needs to hedge her bets due to heavy competition and the need for financial aid! Do you think it's okay if she just says something like "several colleges offering accredited PharmD programs" instead of listing them individually?</p>
<p>btw, tokenadult, I love the online thing and hope that she can use it, lol!</p>
<p>Thanks, tokenadult, for having the patience to continually answer the same questions. :)</p>