<p>Every single one of my six interviewers asked where else I applied, and wrote that information down. One even critiqued my choice of schools. Is this the college's insidious way to find out its competition?</p>
<p>yes, and I don't know why? and they bother. Many public schools put down the places where your transcript is going anyway.</p>
<p>I do not like this question either. </p>
<p>At three of my daughter's college auditions, she has had to fill out a form at the site and it asked where else she applied. She wrote down many of her schools but not every single one. At one audition, the adjudicator actually asked her why she did NOT apply to a certain school, which she had applied to but had not written down and so had to answer the question. Hopefully her response showed in a backward way why she picked the program she was auditioning for that day as she was able to contrast the differences. I think of all the things to ask, I don't think this should have been it. She is trying for extremely competitive programs and of course you must apply to several to even get in any, if that. I don't think the schools should be asking this question. Also, one school even asked on the form to not only list where else she applied but in WHAT ORDER of preference. I guess this is more common than I realized!</p>
<p>What do you think the schools do with that information? Do they find out if the "competition" has offered admittance and/or scholarships? Thanks for bringing this up. My D is auditioning at two schools this weekend, so I will let her know to be prepared for this issue if it comes up.</p>
<p>
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rbinaz writes: What do you think the schools do with that information?
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Some schools use it to try and detect if they are your safety, the so-called "Tufts syndrome". If you've applied to 4 other very selective schools and one less-selective, it won't be hard for the less-selective one to guess what they are. Its not unheard of for a school that figures its the safety to reject a student since they don't expect them to enroll and want to keep their yields up.</p>
<p>And financial aid is another area where the list of competition can help/hurt you. If a school can figure out they're the reach, they might be less generous in aid or the grant/loan mix figuring that you'd probably go there anyway. One thing I've heard that people do is list several of each schools known competitors and those slightly ahead of it in demand so the school figures that they'd better come thru with a good aid pkg if they want to pry you away from the other schools.</p>
<p>This information appears in the Fiske's Guide to Colleges under "overlaps" so obviously somebody does bother to compile and tabulate the other choices. I also know that after my son sent in his declines last year, many of the schools sent back a questionnaire asking which school he chose, which other schools he applied to etc....they asked about how he would rank everything from financial aid to facilities.</p>
<p>I guess it's one way for colleges to keep tabs on their competition. It does seem a bit unfair to pop that question during an interview.</p>
<p>The next time my daughter has an interview, I will have her ask the interviewer, in turn, for a list of all the students who are applying to that school. So we can assess the competition.</p>
<p>In an interview they are sometimes trying to decide if you know what you are looking for in a college, are you only applying to small schools in Boston, are you only applying to schools with diversity. are you applying only to top 10 schools, is there a system to your choices so to speak, and also how thouroughly do you know the schools you are applying to. That is the most important. I would suspect that if you know the school very well and ask intelligent informed questions, you may not get asked what other schools.....but then again.</p>
<p>chocoholic, lol wait until admitted students day when they ask you who their competition is, usually the dean will walk around and chat when parents/students and tell you that the ball is now in your court and ask who their competition is.</p>
<p>Great point chocoholic. That is so relevant, because my Columbia University interviewer asked me if anyone else from my high school was applying, and said, "Oh, I was going to ask you that very question!" (In kind of a joking tone, not many people apply to Columbia from my school and I was interested if anyone else had.) He said to me, "I'm not privy to tell you that." Well, 10 minutes later he asked where I else I was applying to school! No fair!!!</p>
<p>I don't like this question either. I don't think it is appropriate for the schools or an interviewer to ask this. I can't imagine this being asked in a job interview.</p>
<p>My son was asked this question at EVERY interview (and he was well-informed about each school he interviewed at and had questions ready for each school evidencing this). When answering the question, he would mention just a few schools, all of which were very similar to the school he was interviewing at. One of his applications even asked what other schools he was applying to - his school counselor said it was perfectly fine to leave this question blank (the school was a safety school and listing his other schools would have highlighted this).</p>
<p>After he was accepted at his ED school and withdrew his other apps, several schools then asked him where he was going. I didn't find the data-gathering at this point in the process at all objectionable.</p>
<p>I agree that it is inappropriate. When my son was applying to colleges, I encouraged him to simply leave the line for that question on the application form blank - and I intend to encourage my daughter to do the same. I will also suggest to her to either refuse to answer or hedge ("I haven't decided yet") or deflect that question if it comes up. (By deflect I mean, answer the question with another question: "Where do you think I should apply?" or, more artfully, "Oh, do you think there are other schools besides McUniversity that offer more undergraduate research opportunities?") </p>
<p>I can't advise anyone to follow this route, because I don't know how it actually might affect the application -- but the bottom line is an interview is supposed to be a way for the college to learn about the applicant, rather than scoping out the competition.</p>
<p>The only positive I see from this, is that you may get wooed with merit scholarships, if they really want you, and you are applying to what they perceive as their competition.. But I am deluding myself. </p>
<p>My D also prepared for this question, before each interview, by having a mental list of similar schools, and always mentioning our State school.</p>
<p>A Princeton interviewer I "know" in another online community has related that he usually asks this question. His rationale for asking is to see whether the applicant understands what echelon of colleges he is applying to. If Princeton is the ONLY highly selective college the applicant mentions, that is bad, because it makes Princeton look like a "lottery ticket" choice, and indicates that the applicants SELF-evaluation is that the applicant is not Ivy-League material. By contrast, the applicant interviewing with this interviewer who indicates an interest in Stanford and Harvard (the other two schools that admitted this interviewer) or some other combination of "top" schools in whatever field the applicant was most interested in would show he or she had done research beforehand and was confident in his or her own ability to perform at a top-level school. </p>
<p>I think these questions are eminently fair. It would sound pretty evasive to me (I do NOT do alumni interviews) to hem and haw about a question that the applicant MUST have considered for the applicant's own purposes--where else to apply. I will advise my son, when the time comes, to simply tell the truth about where else he has applied or will apply when he is in an alumni interview situation (if he ever gets into one). Our state university is an obvious "safety" for him--we have already attended a meeting about its PSEO program last week--and any school to which he applies, should he choose to apply at all, is likely to be the kind of school that has alumni interviews, as our state university does not.</p>
<p>Tokenadult, I think that's exactly WHY the student should not answer -- because of unwarranted conclusions based on stereotypes about where the student should be applying. There are many other issues that go into a students choice of colleges. Whether or not the Ivy is a "lottery ticket" is somethng that the college can assess from the stats ... but for the student, there may be many other factors at work. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that the interviewer is asking that question for a secondary, undisclosed purpose. In a sense, the interviewer is being dishonest, asking a trick question - without disclosing the interviewers purpose, thereby giving the student a chance to explain their reasoning.</p>
<p>I think you should avoid answering this question if at all possible. I agree that these data can be easily collected AFTER decisions have been made. When you are putting effort and money into an application, you deserve to be considered on your merits, not as a pawn in the rankings game.</p>
<p>I agree with Calmom about the unwarranted conclusions based on sterotypes. Because we all have biases even if some of us can put the on the shelf easier than others. Because I know I have shake my head moments when I read about a student on the CC has applied to 6 Ivies when other than the Ivy (athletic confrence) designation, the schools don't really have much in common. It leads me to believe that maybe this person really does not know what they want or maybe because of their grades/sat scores there is an expectation that they attend an IVy (any ivy will do).</p>
<p>I don't believe any of my son's interviewers got a word in edgewise about other schools. They foolishly asked him, 'tell me a little about yourself ...'</p>
<p>Tokenadult, so I should have mentioned Harvard and Princeton? I always left those off because I didn't want them to think i was a prestige-whore</p>
<p>Almost all of my interviewers so far have asked me where else I've applied, and I've discussed other schools with all of them. In fact, many told me that XXXX school was not their top choice originally, but they fell in love after visiting (or after enrolling because they were rejected by YYYY school).</p>