<p>On the Rice Supp, they ask you which other colleges you have/are going to apply to. Is this optional? Can you not answer this question?</p>
<p>There is no reason to not answer it. It will not hurt you. Many of us listed top schools such as Stanford, MIT, Duke, the Ivies, Caltech, WUSTL, Johns Hopkins etc. and still got in.</p>
<p>One way or another, do not lie on the application and only put schools that are ranked worse than Rice. They know that most people apply to similar caliber schools and are expecting it.</p>
<p>I personally wonder why the question is asked. I think it causes many students unnecessary angst and I don’t believe that the school has any legitimate reason for asking, particularly if they are supposedly not using it to evaluate the student in some way.</p>
<p>This is optional, and the reasons behind it are very ambiguous. However, I don’t believe it’ll hurt you at all to answer. After much deliberation, my friends/family and I decided it would be best to provide more information and list the colleges so that you don’t seem like you are withholding something.</p>
<p>I applied to 15 schools, five of which were Ivies, and only a couple of which weren’t among the top LACs / Universities in the nation. Yet I’m here at Rice now, so they obviously didn’t look at my list and say “Oh he’s going to get into another one of those schools and go there instead” or anything like that. They realize that if you are good enough to apply and get into Rice, you will probably be applying to other schools like Emory, Duke, or the Ivies. No need to withhold that from them.</p>
<p>But “what if” Rice is a student’s reach and their list of schools is state schools and maybe one “lesser” private?</p>
<p>@FallenAngel did you list all 15 when applying to Rice or did you just select a few?</p>
<p>No answer really needed… just mumbling out loud.</p>
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<p>I think it is used for analyzing the overlap between colleges among the applicant pool.</p>
<p>^ but is the schools’ curiosity worth the stress caused? Perhaps it could be an anonymous question (pop up survey or some such), or even asked after acceptance, but for it to be on the application is awkward.</p>
<p>I listed all 15. Rice knew I was a QuestBridge Finalist (no application fees to most schools, need a good financial aid package, etc) so I wasn’t concerned about them being turned off by the number of schools I listed.</p>
<p>If Rice is the student’s “reach” school then they might be proud that Rice was selected over another, similar school. Just a thought, not that it’s likely to be true or anything. haha</p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum, my son listed WUSTL, Tulane, + 2 lesser name schools in our state and was admitted. I really don’t think it is a factor in admissions, but would answer honestly.</p>
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<p>If they do use it to verify that applicants are being honest, it is a pretty good question. I personally don’t see it as stressful or a cause for concern. Just like any other part of the application.</p>
<p>For the life of me I can’t understand why this question causes so much stress among applicants every year. It’s optional.</p>