How is the "Other Schools Applying" info used?

[bioquant]

Going through applications and I'm noticing many have a section like, "Please list other graduate schools to which you are applying."  It has been optional on all applications, but I'm wondering how that info is actually used.  Anyone have any insider knowledge?

In the worst case, I imagine scenarios where admissions committees might elect to not make an offer because they anticipate the applicant might get (and take) a better offer from somewhere else.  Not sure what a best case scenario might be.  Perhaps it is merely for internal stats, to estimate what other competing schools their programs are being clustered with.

Also, if anyone wants to share their reasoning why they did or did not fill out this section, or even provided a partial list, that would be interesting to hear.

Edited September 6, 2015 by bioquant
Added additional question to make the topic open to a wider audience

[philstudent1991]

My understanding is that it is used to evaluate who the competition is, and can be useful for departments when they approach administrators for funding. For example, in philosophy Rutgers and Pitt are top ten departments along with places like Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Rutgers and Pitt might use that data to show administrators they are competing with the Ivies for students and thus need better stipends for their grad students and such. I don't think the information is ever used in evaluating an applicant, though of course I can see why one might want to apply strategy to the section. If the school you are applying to is a wild reach among more modest apps, it doesn't seem like you do yourself any favors by reporting that in the app, whereas if the school is right in the range of the rest that might be a good sign to the ad comm that your advisors have given you a list of places where you'd be competitive and their school is one such place. 

[TakeruK]

I didn't put any strategy or "mind games" into answering this question. I don't think this information will help you or hurt you. So what if an applicant is applying to one high ranked school and a lot of lower ranked ones--that high ranked school isn't going to turn away a great applicant because they have "tainted" themselves by applying to lower ranked schools! That's silly!!

I answered honestly. I applied to 8 schools in total and most schools only ask for 4 other names. I chose the 4 names somewhat arbitrarily, but usually in programs that are most related. Generally, I already had 3 out of those 8 schools in mind as my "top choices" so I usually included those three. But really, it was whatever I felt like writing when I got to that question--I can't remember which schools I wrote for which application.

The reason they want this information has nothing to do with your admission decision. It helps them to know who the competition are (as philstudent1991 said). It also helps them determine how many offers to make. For a school that wants to fill 5 spots, for example, and if they normally make 8 offers in the first round, and they find out that all 8 of their top applicants list their main rival school as another choice, they make might another offer or two because they might anticipate losing more candidates that normal to their main rival school this year. And I think it would also help them recruit their top applicants better, if they know who their competition are.

[rising_star]

Like TakeruK, I never strategized while answering that question and just answered honestly. When I applied to MA programs, I honestly didn't think anything of the question. When I applied to PhD programs, I knew that everyone would know where else I was applying based solely on my interests, so I had no qualms about stating where I was applying on my applications. I wanted to work in a very specific subfield of my discipline and there were maybe 10-12 programs in the country that could support my interests so it didn't take much of a genius on the adcom to guess where else I'd apply so, I decided to be forthright about it.

 

Sidebar: If anyone ever gets around to writing a FAQ on applications that we can tag, this question totally belongs there. My bet is it'll come up at least 20 more times this application cycle.