<p>
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That antitrust action, in which those colleges were forbidden to meet to discuss individual students, is likely to have a continued chilling effect on any potential disclosure by admission offices as to if or how they might know where else students are applying.
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<p>That's one possible response. The main general response of colleges was to obtain legislative action from Congress permitting meetings among colleges to set GENERAL financial aid policies jointly. </p>
<p>Another possible response, I suppose, to a previous legal action is to take extra care not to do anything that would trigger further legal action, which might include changing office procedures so as not to consider at all the issue of where else an individual applicant is applying. (I acknowledge that colleges are very interested in knowing IN GENERAL where else their applicants apply, and College Board plainly acknowledges that colleges receive AGGREGATE lists of overlap colleges for all of their applicants.) </p>
<p>But one thing I really love to do is to find out what's going on. That's the kind of curiosity I've had for a long time. Hmm, I just thought of a source I should check. As before, I invite anyone who has the inside story of what college admission offices are doing (if anything) about students' applications to other colleges to describe it in detail here, so we can think through the implications that has for worried students. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of this year's applicants.</p>
<p>I think it is highly unlikely that you will find an adcom who will say, "Yes, we aggressively try to find out what other schools our applicants have applied to, so we can manage our yield by rejecting or waitlisting applicants who we believe are unlikely to attend if admitted." However, they MAY do this anyway, either consciously or unconsciously. I agree that there isn't really anything a student can do about this, except refrain from volunteering the information about where he is applying. I also agree that a student should respond to a direct question with the kind of general answers that tokenadult has suggested. Don't lie, though.</p>
<p>I was wondering, in relation to forms like the Common Application or the FAFSA, whether listing colleges to which the information should be sent works like an email cc: line or like an email bcc: line. Anything that is set up electronically for sending forms could, in principle, be set up either way. In other words, do all of the recipients know all the other recipients by default, or do none of the recipients know any of the other recipients by default?</p>
<p>"In other words, do all of the recipients know all the other recipients by default"
Token,
Hello!, that is EXACTLY the problem with the Common App. that I learned about years ago on CC [ which you want proof of] and is the basis for the caveat that I have tried to pass on to students and parents since then. If you can find out the answer then great, but this is a question that posters have repeatedly asked!</p>
<p>"But I am willing to modify my opinion on the basis of more specific information detailing the impact of a college knowing versus a college merely guessing"</p>
<p>I know you love FACTS and you have done a great job on CC posting various lists, reports, etc that are of value to CC readers. Thank you for that. But not everything that goes on in the college admissions process is based strictly on facts. Admissions decisions are not made by computers, they are made by humans, subject to factors such gut feelings, hunches, moods, fatigue, their own history, etc. etc., and it is impossible to measure how much they do or don't factor into decisions that are made. The admissions process will never be transparent and obvious to others, as much as we all would like it to be, because it is also subject to so many additional factors [ DA's, recruited athletes, full freight vrs financial aid applicants, demographics, alumni status, diversity, etc. ] that admission offices don't want the world, and their competition to know about. And as long as there is competition for openings at colleges, the admission process will always be viewed as unfair to some.
And as long as you are a moderator, I think you need to step back, and think before you question posters when they relate an experience or an opinion that you personally disagree with. The purpose of this forum is not so someone can be proved right or wrong, it is for the exchange of information, wisdom, advise and experiences regarding the college application process.</p>
Question
Will institutions know if I have applied to other institutions and if I have chosen Early Decision or Early Action?
Answer
No. each institution can only see its own applications, and they will not know if you have also applied to other colleges.
</p>
<p>Here's how I found this answer to the OP's question: I went to the Common Application website and followed the Contact link there to the Help Desk page </p>
<p>where there is a link to click to send in a question to the Common Application staff. But when you follow that step, first the website shows you a list of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. One of the questions, which is the same in substance as the OP's question that began this thread, appears with the answer I have quoted in this post. </p>
<p>A lot of other interesting factual questions have come up in this thread. Perhaps relevant websites have already posted answers to those.</p>
<p>Since there is so much uncertainty on whether or not the common app shows all recipient colleges, the simple solution for those who are concerned is TO FILE HARD COPIES BY MAIL EVEN IF USING THE COMMON APP and decline to answer any supp questions. </p>
<p>This might not obviate the info that is discerned via the finaid route, but it certainly would eliminate any concern for those not filing for need based aid, for those for whom that is an option. I assume it is much harder for the colleges to find out from thje finaid info than the common app source anyway.</p>
<p>One thing I can not grasp is why it is in the common apps interest to have this info available to all colleges, particularly as it is the common assumption that this is not the case. As this issue becomes more and more known, I wonder if the common app will lose some of its luster. It seems a more than a little unseemly and disingenuous that the common app would allow the disclosure of this info.</p>
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It seems a more than a little unseemly and disingenuous that the common app would allow the disclosure of this info.
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<p>It looks like you were writing your last reply just as I posted mine. The Common Application does not allow the disclosure of that information. Perhaps it never has, but it certainly doesn't as of the date when the FAQ answer was composed.</p>
<p>A FAFSA representative tells me (this is just someone who randomly answered the Federal Student Aid Information Center number at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243)) that as of now colleges will see to what other colleges a student has sent a FAFSA. She had to ask a colleague to check that information, and initially told me that each college sees only the student's financial data. This might be an indication of a recent policy change. I've posted the telephone number here for anyone who wants to follow up on this.</p>
<p>'This might be an indication of a recent policy change"
So why is the idea that the policy at the CA might also have changed in the past few years so hard for you to believe?</p>
<p>Please remember that every time you request collegeboard to send your SAT scores, they send along all the other colleges that you listed to receive your scores as well. If colleges really want to know where else you applied, they can find out. There is no reason to try to hide the info. The only reason it may be of interest to them is if there are students that are so close in the decision factor that they need more pieces to differentiate them. I'm sure they don't make it part of the "normal" application process, but if they need it they will use it.</p>
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So why is the idea that the policy at the CA might also have changed in the past few years so hard for you to believe?
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<p>I'm picking up that idea from you. I have no idea what the policy was a few years ago--I believe the OP is asking about this year, and that is what I am checking.</p>
<p>"they send along all the other colleges that you listed to receive your scores as well."
They send along all your other SAT scores, but this is the first time I've read they send the list of where your scores were sent to as well. Not surprised though. I wonder is there is information, or a disclaimer on the CB website about that issue.</p>
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Please remember that every time you request collegeboard to send your SAT scores, they send along all the other colleges that you listed to receive your scores as well.
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<p>I think this is incorrect information, as to the individual score reports, but this is the next issue I will check. I have some questions into the College Board on other issues (notably, the issue of "superscoring") but so far have not received a reply.</p>
<p>There was a thread on this a while back. A poster mentioned that a private college counselor had suggested that CB included this info but when the OP called CB "a lot of consulting went on before someone got on the phone and said that the colleges did not receive information about other schools receiving SATs." (post #4 in the linked thread below.)</p>
<p>See my previous posts. I personally called CB and asked them directly. They said YES. Your scores are attached to a receipt and this receipt has the names of every other location that you requested also be sent your scores, during that transaction. When I asked them why they did this and that it was not anyone else's business who else receive those scores, they said that this was the policy they have always used. I suppose the only way to avoid this is to send each college your scores individually. This way the only name on the receipt is there name. this is what they told me!</p>
<p>P.S. remember... Just because your requested your scores be sent to a particular college doesn't mean you ended up applying there. My s sent scores to 2 colleges that he later decided not to apply to.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, I mentioned in an earlier thread (perhaps the one MD_Mom just linked) that sometimes College Board customer service representatives do NOT give correct information by telephone inquiry. I had a very bad case of that happen just more than a year ago when I asked about test scores that had vanished from my son's record of scores. The scores were eventually restored by a senior customer service supervisor whom I reached by email, but not until lower-level employees had told me FIVE TIMES by phone or by email that the scores were "purged" and could not possibly be restored. </p>
<p>So I like to check and double-check on all these issues. I trust best publicly posted webpages, although sometimes those are wrong too.</p>
<p>Well, it will be interesting to see if College Board makes a written response to the question since the phone responses to Guitars101 and Rileydog are in direct contradiction.</p>