<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>I will be thankful if someone could answer my question honestly.</p>
<p>I intend to apply for a PhD at Imperial College London. The application form asks me to complete other institutions to which I have applied. I have already applied to the University of Cambridge and UC Berkeley, but I do not have answers yet.</p>
<p>Should I answer this question? Will an honest answer prejudice my application?</p>
<p>I should note that I am neither an American nor UK/EU citizen.</p>
<p>Thanks
Happy New Year
Ron</p>
<p>I can’t see how it would count against you. It’s always best to tell the truth. They probably just want to be able to calculate how many people to let in because someone who applied to one place is definitely going upon acceptance, so they might use all the numbers together to be able to offer the most possible acceptance letters, knowing that some will refuse.</p>
<p>In that scenario, it’s in your and everyone else’s interest to be honest and list other schools, because that means more offers of acceptance.</p>
<p>In fact I’m willing to bet that’s why they ask, and for no other reason. It’s not like they’re jealous.</p>
<p>i had a couple schools ask for that also. i just put down a few other schools i was applying too. I don’t see how this could affect one’s chances and it probably for statistics purposes like the other poster said</p>
<p>Thank you for your answers</p>
<p>That’s standard practice on graduate applications. It’s impossible to tell whether or not this could bias somebody that sits on admissions committee. If all the other programs were inferior, maybe that would color their perception of your candidacy. </p>
<p>But what it really boils down to is that they want to know the institutions that they have the most cross apps with, i.e. their greatest competition. This is even more important to undergrad admissions offices, but grad programs still want to know.</p>