<p>Claremont McKenna asks the question.</p>
<p>Claremont asks, "Please list the colleges and universities to which you have applied or plan to apply:" not giving much space. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/admission/pdf/commonsupp2007.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/admission/pdf/commonsupp2007.pdf</a> </p>
<p>It's also an ED college.</p>
<p>It's been a couple years, but I remember that information was available to the colleges if they just looked at where the FAFSA report was sent, since up to 6 colleges were listed on one report. (This may have changed; my experience was in 2003).</p>
<p>I know s. was also asked the question in interviews and it seemed to me that it was mainly to gauge whether his choices showed consistency or whether he was all over the map. It would affect the direction an interviewer might take - if a student is only applying to LACs, no need to sell them on that and the discussion could be more on the particular features of the school interviewing. An obvious discussion point for a student applying to both large urban research universities and rural LACs would be: "what are you looking for in a college?" Admissions people reading an application can't ask for a rationale, but they can see if there's consistency among the types of schools. If a student only listed colleges beginning with the letter A, they might conclude the student didn't get very far in the book of 300 Colleges (just kidding). </p>
<p>S. answered the question on applications and in interviews and it seemed to have no affect on outcome.</p>
<p>My son was "all over the map", bc he did apply to LACs and to some public Us that were OOS. It did not impact his admission to any school, and he did list the schools where asked, although he did not list list all of them. He did state that his list was in progress, but at the time he was answering the question his schools were xy&z. I wanted my son all over the map bc he was applying early senior year, and I did not want his choices limited in the spring (not sure if he would prefer medium sized schools or smaller LACs). Also, we did need to compare financial packages.</p>
<p>I would like a definitive answer to the question of whether or not where your FAFSA is sent is available to admissions decision makers. I called one of my son's seven college financial aid offices and simply posed the question. They told me the college names were not shared with the admissions office. I did not pursue this with any other colleges, and didn't feel they were even obligated to tell me the skinny on the subject. It seems to me that financial aide and college admissions decision makers would be interested in how serious a student is about a college. My son was outright asked in his alum interview to rank the place the college was on his list, and the interviewers are often adult alum who are simply curious and can't resist asking.<br>
So do prepare a response in face to face interviews...this question may border on intrusive but people do ask.<br>
And if anyone out there knows that your FAFSA list is shared..please pipe up...I am curious about this.
thanks!</p>
<p>Here's an interesting Google search: </p>
<p>Some noteworthy colleges asking the question assure applicants, "(Your response is for research purposes only and does not. affect any admissions decision.)" Some more obscure colleges violate NACAC principles of good practice by asking for a rank-ordered list.</p>
<p>I meant to add - I remember there was an intriguing article almost two years ago in the Atlantic Monthly (Nov. 2005 annual college issue) called The Best Class Money Can Buy about how colleges make use of sophisticated enrollment management tools and strategies. The article suggested that the College Board and ACT actually tell schools whether you listed them first or farther down the list when you order your scores sent - according to the article, that's used by many schools as one measure of being likely to attend!</p>
<p>"The article suggested that the College Board and ACT actually tell schools whether you listed them first or farther down the list when you order your scores sent - according to the article, that's used by many schools as one measure of being likely to attend!"</p>
<p>Well, that is ridiculous. How can one assume the order of schools given to the college board is some kind of preference? I imagine a lot of people have lists that are alphabetical or in some other order -- east to west, etc. I remember when I was ticking off my daughter's list of schools that I always bounced around the country in my head to list them off -- in a circular route. I'm doing the same with my son now. There is no end to the tea-reading that goes on with these schools it seems.</p>
<p>LOL, I noticed the same thing, Proud Dad. About 94,000 a year, for college. Hmmm.</p>
<p>Thinking about tea-reading, I was just wondering how often this question appears on some apps coupled with the type of question along the lines of "Have you visited our campus, and if yes, whom did you meet while on campus"?" directly designed to uncover "demonstrated interest".</p>
<p>^ I remember 2 years ago, my son had several apps. where he was asked if he visited the campus and the date of his visit. The CDS should reveal whether level of applicant's interest is considered in admission.</p>
<p>For some of the colleges this appears genuinely to be research interest--that is, finding out what the "peer" institutions are for a college trying to go from having a regional draw to having a national draw. For a lot of the colleges, the question may show whether a student is making a consistent ED commitment. The NACAC principles of good practice do allow colleges to ask for an ordering of preference in the context of an ED application (everybody should think that the college to which the student applies ED is the student's first-choice college).</p>
<p>My eldest had this question on one of her college applications a couple of years ago. It was also requested by the local state honors college for a prestigious scholarship that they offer to a limited number of students each year. It didn't affect acceptance to the school. However, it did help them gauge how much money they would need to offer to get the student to attend.</p>
<p>Also the CSS/Profile (not required by all schools for financial aid), asks you to list all the schools to which you are applying so I suspect some schools can get the information that way as well.</p>
<p>Rice asks for this in specific.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you have applied or expect to apply to other colleges or universities this year, please name them.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I do remember a couple of colleges (LACs) sending a post-commitment post card, asking the student where they DID send in their deposit if they'd declined the school. S. felt so good about all the colleges that accepted him he was happy to provide the information.</p>
<p>Thinking about tea-reading, I was just wondering how often this question appears on some apps coupled with the type of question along the lines of "Have you visited our campus, and if yes, whom did you meet while on campus"?" directly designed to uncover "demonstrated interest".</p>
<p>In my opinion, all that uncovers is "how much discretionary time and money do you have to travel and/or how close do you live to our school?" If my son had visited every school he is applying to, he'd have seen a nice chunk of the U.S. It's not practical. It doesn't mean he isn't interested. Besides, you just can't get the same feel for a school in the summer as you can during the year, and most kids can't get away from school during the year, because they are too darn busy doing all the things that are necessary in order to get into college.</p>
<p>I remember they asked about "other colleges to which you've applied" on the Hillsdale application. It is my understanding that they use it for statistical purposes similar to those posted by "lefthandofdog" in post #35. </p>
<p>For a lot of kids applying from this site, there would not be a big enough space on some applications. Some of those kids apply to 15 colleges!</p>
<p>Boston University has it on the supplement.</p>
<p>None of the schools my older kids applied to asked it, but all the schools where they were accepted sent a postcard later asking which school they ended up choosing and why.</p>