"To which other graduate programs do you intend to apply?"

[smeagoly]

This is an optional question on a couple apps. To fill in or not to fill in? What are your thoughts?

[Tolman's Rat]

I filled in...all three schools to which I've applied have similar research interests and scientific philosophy. I figured that it could signal that I know what I'm looking for and have singled down my programs of choice accordingly.

[Thinker123]

Apart from what Tolmans Rat has said, it´s also a chance to signal that there are other competitors than the school you apply for. It´s not merely that students are looking for the best school, it´s also that schools are looking for the best students. Listing additional (maybe renowned and research matching) institutions may have the positive effect of the respective schools thinking: We´d better take this guy or girl before he unfolds his potential elsewhere.

[piano5115]

I've actually talked to a couple of adcom prof about this question as I was really surprised when a professor asked me this on an early interview. It seems like the consensus is that it's a good idea to be truthful about the answer. Like Thinker123 said this suggest (especially if you have interview invites from the other programs) that you are a really good candidate and that they should be competitive and give you an offer.

I personally was worried about this question because the school that I was interviewed at is somewhere I considered a "safety" school and felt like this question was trying to get a insight into me in where their school ranks in my personal list of schools, like how badly do you actually want to go here? I didn't want to appear snobby nor make it obvious that they were my safety because, as you know, it's all about the "fit" and I didn't want the adcom committee to think "oh she doesn't want to come here, we're obviously just a toss-away safety, we shouldn't waste any money trying to recruit her", which wouldn't even be true because I genuinely really like all the programs I applied to. But ya, according to my professors that just me overthinking it lol. Since faculty usually have an idea of what most top programs are like they're just using this question to gauge how much you know about the field you want to go into (like if you're applying to programs that are drastically different from one another that would be a bit weird) and how competitive you think you are.

ahh that was a really long winded answer, sry! but i hope it helped

[kaputzing]

Listing schools is fine.

It's when they ask you (in say, an interview) where the school ranks on your list that you should be more worried and ... well, perhaps a bit evasive if it's not your top choice (and if you have issues being dishonest). Yes, you're competing for a spot, but they're also competing for you with limited funding; in some departments, when they accept a student who ends up not attending their school, the department loses the money, and it goes back into the school-wide pool of cash. Not only are you sitting there twiddling your thumbs worrying about whether or not they'll accept you, they're sitting there twiddling their thumbs worrying about whether or not you'll accept them!

[TakeruK]

I didn't want the adcom committee to think "oh she doesn't want to come here, we're obviously just a toss-away safety, we shouldn't waste any money trying to recruit her", which wouldn't even be true because I genuinely really like all the programs I applied to. But ya, according to my professors that just me overthinking it lol.

I had thought/worried about the same thing but I decided to not worry about it in the end because I don't think a school is going to turn away a good student because the school thinks that they are not the student's first choice. Even if you are a middle-ranked school that get a lot of applications from top students using them as safeties, why wouldn't you want to snag/recruit a top student?

Yes, you're competing for a spot, but they're also competing for you with limited funding; in some departments, when they accept a student who ends up not attending their school, the department loses the money, and it goes back into the school-wide pool of cash. Not only are you sitting there twiddling your thumbs worrying about whether or not they'll accept you, they're sitting there twiddling their thumbs worrying about whether or not you'll accept them!

Hmmm, that's an interesting point -- I've never thought about it that way before. I think this really depends on how funding is allocated for each school. I don't know how my current school works yet since I'm pretty new, but I know that the Canadian school system doesn't work that way. Students do not cost the department any money unless they accept the offer -- generally the graduate school or the University provides each department with some base level of funding. Then the department uses its own funds to top up this funding in order to make a competitive offer. Based on how much money (and how many current students) the department has, they make a number of offers equal to how much they can fund and put others on a waitlist -- if someone declines, then they can make offers off the waitlist. Sometimes, if there is a student that they really want but they have exceeded the quota, or if it's an international student that costs more money, the department might have a reserve fund put aside for this situation.