Can admissions see how many schools your student is applying/has applied to?

Parents Forum
1

I’ve heard conflicting opinions … my student is resisting “casting a wide net” (he’s applying CS) for fear he’ll appear less sincere in his interest if he applies to more than 10 schools.

2

No they can’t.

Tagging @Mwfan1921 for authoritative confirmation.

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3

Agreed! Colleges can not see other schools that a student has applied to…not in the common app, not in FAFSA.

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4

I’m not @Mwfan1921 , but I can provide the definitive answer, which is no

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5

Thank you!!

6

In the past, some colleges asked what other colleges you applied to. I don’t think this is on the common application, but if so, I’d just leave it blank.

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7

Yes!

Back in the dark ages when I applied to schools with paper applications, I was ALWAYS asked what other schools I was applying to.

And I always answered honestly.

Big mistake.

I was a very strong applicant. So I got into 2 of my top 3 schools.

But I also got rejected from 2 of my 3 safety schools. Including my state flagship.

I sincerely hope that schools no longer ask this question. It is, frankly, none of their business.

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8

Obviously, they were not actually safeties (whether due to yield protection or otherwise).

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9

Yes. By “numbers” they surely were safeties. By yield protection, they were not.

Which calls into question what a safety really is.

The good news is that only a minority of schools practice yield protection. These days, with study, you can often see who they are. I encourage my D26 to avoid such schools.

10

Yield management in the paper era

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11
  1. Assured admission.
  2. Assured affordability.
  3. Suitable for student’s educational goals and other needs.
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12

Yes, but transparency into these things is the key.

Transparency today is better than it was in 1997, which is the good thing.

13

I don’t doubt the experts here, but a few years ago I was working in IT at a university, and one of the data items available from the FAFSA was the school’s “position”. (Like, you could send the FAFSA to, maybe, 10 institutions, and they could see if they were #1, #10, or whatever. Can anyone confirm that I’m remembering correctly, and that it’s changed since then?

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14

Schools can no longer see where a student sent their FAFSA, that was eliminated around 2015/16.

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15

It has changed, and schools can no longer see your list.

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