<p>Say your first choice is Harvard. Do you think you would:</p>
<p>a) Be accepted
b) Have an increased chance of being accepted
c) Have no effect
d) Have a decreased chance of being accepted
e) Be rejected</p>
<p>if you told the Admissions Counselor at Harvard that you got into Yale or Princeton? (Or replace Harvard with University "X" and Yale/Princeton with University "Y", where "Y" is a university just below the level/close competitor of "X")</p>
<p>HYP inherently knows their best candidates are also extremely likely to be viable at their peers, right? They are under no illusion that their best candidates didn’t apply to one or both of the others. </p>
<p>They are perfectly fine in going down their own road however, confident in their own ability to sift through and admit or reject whomever they please, without regard to what the other two schools will or won’t do.</p>
<p>My answer is C – no effect. Final Answer, Regis.</p>
<p>I think that it makes a positive difference, albeit, for the most selective colleges often small, to let a college know that you are their top choice. Letting your counselor know that a college is your top choice can therefore help your application at that college. Sometimes counselors have an inside track in certain colleges, and they may be asked directly by the admissions committee what their opinion is of a particular candidate both academically, and also in terms of their level of interest in the college.</p>