Why do applications ask to which other programs you're applying?

[kdavid]

Are they trying to get a feel for how insecure and paranoid we are?

 

(FYI: I'm applying to eleven!)

[New England Nat]

There are older threads about this but...

 

It is not some grand conspiracy.  There are internal reasons for the information.  The aggregate data about where their applicants are applying helps programs gauge where they are applying helps them figure out who their peer institutions are.  For example, in helping set stipend and funding levels, a school doesn't want to be far below their peer institutions.  On the individual level, it's a good indicator of how much the student has a sense of their own academic field.  Have they just applied to big names that do not have strengths in the subfield?  Or have they chosen a logical list of places.

 

There are of course outliers.  The state schools aren't going to try and match Princeton's funding.  Nearly everyone applies to Berkley.  But when a department is fighting for their students with an administration the data helps them say "we're competing with X, Y, and Z... you have to give us the resources to make our offer competitive."

 

EDIT:  agggh typos at 4AM.

Edited November 7, 2013 by New England Nat

[TMP]

What NEN said.  It also helps programs figure out if they can be competitive enough to beat out their peers (or above if it's a subfield issue like mine).  For example, a school like the University of Arizona isn't going to try to compete with UCLA in European history but its strength in Middle East history might make them say "we can do this!"  My adviser and her colleague knew that they could trump my other offer by pointing out their relatively strengths and throwing in extra funding that only my subfield gets to make the funding package equally competitive.

[czesc]

Conversely, I've heard that schools will look and see that they're not likely to be as good a match for you as some of the other schools you've listed, judge that you may be likely to get into those schools, and admit someone else for one of the few places they have that would be a better match and likely to attend. 

 

Of course, this can suck for you if you don't get admitted to the "better fit" schools the school that might have admitted you thought you'd prefer to go for, but since the schools can't formally collaborate, that's the way things sometimes go.

[kdavid]

So, based on czesc's input, it seems best to write as few schools as possible?

[New England Nat]

No it's not.  I've had this conversation with czesc before.  What he is describing is incredibly rare and the benefits of letting the programs know what landscape they are playing on are much more common and tangible.