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<p>It’s a very common situation to not be sure you want to go to a conservatory. So it shouldn’t be an issue.</p>
<p>No wonder the hs seniors post some intricate, desperate questions and are so convinced adcoms will reject them because they said they were on some team in 11th, but didn’t explain they sat out 3 games because of a sprained ankle. </p>
<p>Just answer in the manner you feel is best. How do you really think adcoms review this question? “He only named 3; he’s got to be lying.” Or, “He named Harvard. That means we’re his safety” -?</p>
<p>^So you’re saying that managing yield is not the reason colleges ask this question? </p>
<p>For instance, an applicant to Washington St. Louis would not be disadvantaged by listing 3 of 4 ivy leagues under the “other colleges you are applying to” question.
Or an applicant to Yale may not be impacted by listing Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford as other colleges they are applying to.</p>
<p>If it doesn’t matter what you put down, then why are people on this thread so averse to answering this question?</p>
<p>Without any real evidence, I do think it’s about yield protection. On the other hand, I don’t think Yale is asking this question. I think Yale expects it applicants are also applying to Harvard and Princeton and Columbia and Stanford. And Yale doesn’t particularly need to protect its yield since it has a yield that is the envy of most other private colleges and universities.</p>
<p>In my limited experience it’s been the colleges ranked number 50 through 100 that were more likely to ask this question. I think a lot of them are trying to detect (and not to reward) applicants who are using them as safety schools.</p>
<p>JMO, as I said before.</p>
<p>And IMO, not especially wise on the colleges’ part. My kid now happily attends the university I always thought of as her safety, despite having been admitted to the higher ranked university that I assumed was her first choice when she was applying. The supposed safety kind of wooed her and won her over, and we’re all very happy about it.</p>
<p>Decent points here: [Colleges</a> that want to know where else you’ve applied - Washington DC College admissions | Examiner.com](<a href=“http://www.examiner.com/article/colleges-that-want-to-know-where-else-you-ve-applied]Colleges”>http://www.examiner.com/article/colleges-that-want-to-know-where-else-you-ve-applied)</p>
<p>“I think a lot of them are trying to detect (and not to reward) applicants who are using them as safety schools.”</p>
<p>A look at Naviance might confirm this theory: Are these kids being rejected by safeties and accepted by peers?</p>
<p>It’s hard for be to believe that colleges are so thick that they don’t realize that this question is being gamed to death and that in many, many cases they are not getting the straight answer. Perhaps knowing what your applicants want you to think they think about your peers rivals is of marketing interest.</p>
<p>^ Good point. Don’t think for a moment that adcoms are being fooled; they have much more experience than applicants.</p>
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<p>Almost all the colleges I applied to were in the top 15, and from my recollection they all asked it. </p>
<p>Things may be different now. If it’s on the common app and it’s not a required question, then this discussion is purely hypothetical.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see if asking of this question correlates to whether “level of applicant’s interest” is considered by the college for admissions.</p>
<p>Yield protection is far more than the kid also applying to Harvard. First off, the kid may not be qualified for H, nor the school now reviewing him. Or he could be qualified for School B but not all that compelling. Second, whether or not School B likes you is far more than where else you apply. (Though listing 24 other schools may make them wonder just what you ARE thinking, how you judge.) And, there are so many ways kids show they really aren’t interested in one school versus another. Eg, telling a Midwest school you really love the East, or a city school how much a rural setting will empower you. Lots of ways they say it or drop big hints. </p>
<p>This one question is not a showstopper. Imo.</p>
<p>Collegealum, but you applied long ago, right?</p>
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<p>That is very different from how things are here. Colleges in my state have/have had submission dates that are/were all over the place: October 15, October 30, November 15 for first deadline; December 15, January 15, February 15 for second deadline, etc. I know lots of students who haven’t finalized their lists at the time they start applying to colleges. However, I also don’t know of any college in my state that asks what other colleges the applicant is applying to, so for most students I know this is only a hypothetical issue anyway.</p>
<p>D applied last year and to the best of my memory, none of the 8 schools that she applied to (all top 20) asked about other schools during the application process. </p>
<p>However, the 5 schools that admitted her but she declined wanted to know after-the-fact which schools she applied to, which she selected and why.</p>
<p>(But, of course, there is some risk in saying, in December, that it’s all up in the air.)</p>
<p>I keep saying- and this is just ime- that “level of interest” is more than saying it or whether you also apply to a peer college, how many times you visited or contacted a rep. Some schools do track visits, but ime, it’s how you show you know this school, what it offers you, how you carefully matched yourself. Eg, a kid who names something that we don’t offer- leaves the impression he didn’t care to make the match in real terms. A kid who answers Why Us? with a generic. It goes on.</p>
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<p>That’s quite common. And IMO totally fair. “Why did we lose out on you?” is a totally different question from, “Where else are you applying? We’d like to know now so we can try to predict whether we’re going to lose out on you eventually, and act unilaterally in our own interest.”</p>
<p>The latter may well be how colleges and universities operate IRL, but I don’t see why applicants need to facilitate that.</p>