<p>are they trying to figure out your chances of being accepted elsewhere or interested in whether you are interested in schools in the same conference, i.e., the school's competition?</p>
<p>Just as you want to know where you stand on their recruit list - they want to know where they stand. If a kid tells the coach at WashU (and nothing aganist WashU - great school), they’re also looking at Stanford and Princeton, the WashU coach is probably not going to fall in love with you because you’ll only break his heart if Stanford accepts you.</p>
<p>Also, coaches tend to know each others programs, needs, etc. - he might also be able to get a feel for your chances at the competing schools and that may dictate how he plays his cards with you. Think of it this way, if you are selling cars, you want to know which other cars the customer is considering and tailor your pitch accordingly</p>
<p>At any rate, it’s not just an innocent conversation starter.</p>
<p>That’s actually a great strategic discussion topic. So if a coach asks you to rank your top 5 schools in order of preferences (including their school) on an info form they ask you to fill out. What would be the best way to go about completing it?</p>
<p>As in any competitive situation, you have to evaluate your rivals. The coaches are sizing up your knowledge of the situation, and their chances and positioning with the other schools. </p>
<p>This one question turned my oldest son’s recruiting strategy and effort totally around by accident. Parents and son were sitting in a D1 head coaches office anticipating an offer. The **“what other schools are you considering, or have offered you” **question comes up. My son responds with some D1 schools and some D1 Ivy schools. The coach (without skipping a beat) starts telling my son that Ivy schools only play about 42 baseball games in a season, there is little travel, two doubleheaders on the weekend, and it gets really cold in the Spring in the northeast. I could see the lightbulbs go on over my wifes head and my son’s head. We told the coach we’d consider his offer, and get back to him. We get to the car in the parking lot and start laughing. We had an hour drive that was a lively discussion about why the Ivy conference may be the best fit for his situation. As soon as my son got home he called all the Ivy coaches that had previously contacted him to tell them of his sincere interest. This is a true story. You just can’t make this stuff up. We can’t thank that coach enough for asking that question.</p>
<p>They are also listening to the “music” in your response–if there is some special enthusiasm in your voice for another college that might make her or him feel that you are really hoping for the other college to come through–so be as neutral with your voice/face as you can when you list them–if you do it verbally.</p>
<p>Coaches did the same for our K1…asking where–and I think it is to fish about academic fit and what pool our kid was fishing in…</p>
<p>Same with recent trip with K2…and often the other schools are always the ones the coaches are competing with for recruits. I did ask one coach who their biggest “competition was” and got a direct answer.</p>
<p>My DD responded to this question on some questionnaire requests that were sent to her when she was so young. At that time she certainly wasn’t stating these schools based on any real investigation or research. How damaging might that be?</p>
<p>I’ve also noticed that some schools ask “what other 5 schools are you interested in” while others ask “what other schools do you have “offers” from” </p>
<p>In more recent questionnaire requests, I always assumed that at least part of this question was linked to the NCAA 5 Official visit rule. Maybe not</p>