I had my son list peer schools to the school that was asking. In other words, we let them know that he was interested in schools that they considered to be their biggest competitors. The schools he listed were all colleges he was planning to apply to so the ‘fudging’ was just in not mentioning the more selective and safety schools. We talked about including one statistical high reach on the list, don’t remember what he decided to do on that.
The college that asked was a Common App school. The question was simply listed in the school supplement area. So you probably won’t avoid it there.
FWIW, he was accepted to that school with a nice merit offer to boot.