<p>In some of my applications, I come across this question, and I'm stumped. </p>
<p>A few of my schools are very selective, so I'm afraid that putting them down will discourage the adcoms and make them think I'm not that interested. But I am. I visit their reps whenever they visit my school or attend college fairs, not to mention I'm signed on their mailing lists. </p>
<p>So do I leave my more selective schools out? Or is it okay to list them anyways?</p>
<p>Check to see if “level of applicant’s interest” is considered by these schools (check section C7 of their common data sets). If it is, try to find out (perhaps on the school-specific forum) what each school considers as boosting your interest in it.</p>
<p>Your safety school(s) should not be schools which consider “level of applicant’s interest”.</p>
<p>Questions like this are unethical. You deserve to be judged based on your app, not on the adcom’s guessing at why you might be applying to some other schools. So feel NO obligation to give your complete list, or even an accurate list. Use the question to your advantage. (1) Look up some of their close competitors and list 2 of them, along with a safety since everyone expects to see this. (2) Be sure to list a slightly more desireable school. (3) Leave out the very selective schools.</p>
<p>Here are the reasons. For (1), some schools are believed to reject you if they think you’ll get into more prestigious schools that you’ve applied to in order to keep their yield up. Google “tufts syndrome” for more info, although Tufts denies they do it these days. So don’t list those very selective schools! For (2), this is for financial aid. If they recognize they’re the most prestigious school on your list, they may very well reason that you’ll dig a little deeper in your pocket to attend and may give you a downgraded FA package. By contrast, if they think you’ll get into their slightly better ranked competitor they may try to sway you with a better FA package.</p>
<p>Agree with advice given. No need for full disclosure on your part. Perhaps list a couple more selective schools, a couple same range as school asking question, and a couple less selective schools.</p>
<p>Don’t lie, but you don’t have to include the the full list.</p>
<p>Agree that you aren’t obliged to provide a complete list - after all, you may change your mind after you submit the common app and decide to add schools or not complete the app for others.</p>
<p>I think the reason they are asking is not to weed you out, but rather to see against which schools they are competing: They want to know how well they are positioning themselves vis-a-vis the competition. Pure marketing. Of course, if they are obviously a safety school, that’s not a great message either. For that reason, I’d suggest listing the comparable and safety schools and limit or eliminate the reaches.</p>
<p>Personally I don’t think this information affect admission chances anyway.</p>