<p>asking what other schools I'm applying to? will it look bad if I'm applying to one (super reach) ivy league, and most of the other schools are fairly similar to Oberlin? most are less selective though. I'm afraid it will seem like Oberlin is second best, however, I definitely don't see it that way.</p>
<p>I don’t know how Oberlin, specifically, uses the information. But in general, there are two things colleges do with that list:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Schools like to know who they’re competing with. This has nothing to do with individual applicants, and everything to do with data collection. It’s interesting to see that, whoa, half of this year’s applicants also applied to Wesleyan!</p></li>
<li><p>Look for “red flags” that indicate an applicant may not understand the school all that well. For example, someone applying to Oberlin, Cambridge, Eastern Washington University, Notre Dame, and Olin College (an exaggerated and total random selection of schools with almost nothing in common) probably has no idea what they want in a college. Someone applying to all the Big Ten schools plus Oberlin probably wouldn’t fit well at a quirky LAC with small athletic programs. Someone applying to LACs and Ivies, or a collection of schools that excel in a specific field like music/neuro/creative writing/environmental studies, would be a more typical Oberlin applicant.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Colleges aren’t naive; they know that all of their applicants are applying to other schools, hopefully with a range of selectivity. They also know that the most selective school on the list isn’t necessarily the top choice - and even if it is, that school may not accept the student or give them enough financial aid. Oberlin definitely won’t say, “Oh, this person is also applying to Brown - let’s reject her, because she’d clearly rather go there!” (By the way, there are so many people at Oberlin who also considered or applied to Brown… the two schools would probably have merged by now if they weren’t so far apart!) You have nothing to worry about, especially if you have a strong “Why Oberlin?” essay :)</p>
<p>thanks so much! I am the student who is also applying to Wesleyan, Brown, and a bunch of LACs! haha your post was very helpful</p>
<p>Meagan, talk to your college counselor about listing other colleges to which you’re applying. There has been a great deal of chat on college counselors’ listservs about whether or not to recommend that students fill it out–that some colleges ARE using this list to see where they might fit in a student’s preferences and/or maybe using it in admissions decisions. I’m not saying there’s an answer one way or the other–just that there has been some discussion. I’m also absolutely NOT suggesting that Oberlin does this. But, I do know that our school college counselor was leaning toward suggesting students NOT provide the whole list.</p>
<p>My daughter opted not to provide a list as she was unsure how the list would be interpreted. And it is really no one’s business but her own. Although she was undecided, she simply wrote “Oberlin is my top choice.”</p>
<p>so they won’t view it negatively if I don’t provide all of the schools?</p>
<p>Meagan, I don’t think so.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, the little box didn’t fit all the schools I was applying to (some had longish names).</p>