my "other" school wants to know where i'm headed to, instead

[Jordan+AirForce1]

so i've picked a school out of a few that accepted me, and i sent an email declining the offer to other schools.

One of the schools emailed me personally and asked me directly where i'm headed to. In my first reply, I've written a polite response explaining that I picked another school that I felt had a better fit for me, without specifically mentioning the name. Then the director e-mailed me back and again asked where I was headed to.

Is this conventional? Should I just tell them?

I just feel that it's not necessary to tell them, I dont feel I need to tell them, so I'm kinda hesitant.

[Joel418]

You're certainly not under any obligation to tell them. Most likely, they want to know for their own record-keeping and to market themselves better to students who choose College Type A over College Type B (especially if they are College Type . I don't think they intend to do you any harm with this information; they just want to be as competitive as possible next year.

[cardnav]

Although you don't want to burn bridges, you probably could just leave the message unanswered. I doubt they will hound you trying to find out the answer.

[noojens]

so i've picked a school out of a few that accepted me, and i sent an email declining the offer to other schools.

One of the schools emailed me personally and asked me directly where i'm headed to. In my first reply, I've written a polite response explaining that I picked another school that I felt had a better fit for me, without specifically mentioning the name. Then the director e-mailed me back and again asked where I was headed to.

Is this conventional? Should I just tell them?

I just feel that it's not necessary to tell them, I dont feel I need to tell them, so I'm kinda hesitant.

You're certainly not obligated to tell them -- but, out of curiosity, why wouldn't you? Seems like common courtesy to me.

[Stories]

The schools are just curious about what other schools their admitted students were considering if they're curious. Two of the schools I sent declines to were just curious to know what school I was going to, and they encouraged and backed up my choice to attend there (especially with the fellowship I was awarded).

What Joel said, they just want to know how they can position themselves to lure more students in the future.

[liszt85]

I agree with the above poster. I have given this information to all the universities that asked for it. They all wrote back to me wishing me luck for studies at the university I'd chosen to attend.

[europegrad]

Same with me, they were courteous an added a "in case you are comfortable to share this information, which can be very helpful to us". I didn't have any problem telling them.

[Minnesotan]

Proceed with caution. Academia is a small world. I let those emails hang when I received them, mainly because I felt there was no reason I needed to share my acceptance/rejection information with other schools. It's not very discrete, like asking someone how much money they make.

Coupled with the "What other schools did you apply to?" question on the application form, each department you reply to can piece together every decision for and against you this season.

[rising_star]

I told my potential advisor at every school I turned down where I decided to go. Why? Because my subfield is big but not that big and I knew I'd be seeing all these people again. Plus, they all know my advisor. At any rate, my hunch that I'd see them (as in they'd find out anyway) proved right when I applied for a research scholarship for summer funding and the contact person for the award was someone I'd met with last year when visiting programs I got into. Could have been awkward but it wasn't because I was super professional in my correspondence, let them know I enjoyed my visit but wouldn't be accepting the offer, and was wished the best of luck by them all.