Why do schools ask about other schools to which you are applying?

[rmo_3000]

Greetings to all,

 

I'm just curious why graduate schools ask about other schools to which I am applying? I'm assuming it is for statistical purposes or something. Also, for my 'reach' school, would it make any sense to include better schools than the ones I am actually applying to in order to 'boost my candidacy?

Perhaps someone could clarify this for me. 

 

Thanks

[Monochrome Spring]

I think (and I could be wrong) that schools like to get an idea of what other programs their students are applying to. It gives them a good comparison of how they might want to recruit different students applying to other programs. I think it's the same for when programs you reject ask you where you accepted. They want to know the competition.

[bsharpe269]

It also tells them how well you did your research on grad schools. For example, some of the schools that are really strong in my subfield are Stanford, Rice, Maryland, WashU etc. My SOP will detail my research interests so the professors who I am trying to work with in my subfield will expect me to list of the other schools strong in my area.

 

If they ask me this and I answer Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc then this tells them that my passion in not in my research but that I am actually just going after prestige. I think your answer to the question says a lot about your reason for going to grad school.

[fuzzylogician]

They want to know who their competition is. 

 

It also gives them some idea of where you think the other good matches for your research interests are, which will give them an idea of how well you understand your field. Because of that, I would recommend against choosing ill-fitting programs that "sound good" on paper, or ones that are very different than the school who you are submitting the list to (in terms of prestige, methodology, theoretical focus, etc.) That runs the risk of making you seem you like haven't thought your options through or you don't really understand the nature of the different graduate programs. I'd say your list should contain some obvious choices that anyone reading your SOP and who knows what your research interests are would guess that you're applying to or would recommend that you should. (That should be how you construct your list, too! So you shouldn't have to make things up or misrepresent the truth.)