"List the other programs you're applying to"

[Sparky]

So some of the online applications want you to fill in the names of the other programs to which you're sending applications.

Is this just for statistical purposes? I mean, there is no way that, say, Yale (I'm not applying there) would say, "Oh, she's not applying anywhere else, so we better accept her." Or is it a sort of check-up on "is this person serious about this subject, or is he just applying to our program in Comic Book Collecting for the heckuvit?"

What are you all doing for this?

(Admittedly, this is a problem for me mostly because I'm still not sure where all I'm applying...)

[johndiligent]

So some of the online applications want you to fill in the names of the other programs to which you're sending applications.

Is this just for statistical purposes? I mean, there is no way that, say, Yale (I'm not applying there) would say, "Oh, she's not applying anywhere else, so we better accept her." Or is it a sort of check-up on "is this person serious about this subject, or is he just applying to our program in Comic Book Collecting for the heckuvit?"

What are you all doing for this?

(Admittedly, this is a problem for me mostly because I'm still not sure where all I'm applying...)

People ask this all the time, and the consensus seems to be that the school wants the info more for statistical purposes. That way, Yale gets an idea of which programmes you consider essentially in the same league as theirs, which ones are offering similar programmes, and that way they can market themselves better.

That said, your adcomm is also going to get a copy of your application form. And we do hear a lot of horror stories from excellent applicants who were rejected by all of their schools because the mid and bottom tier schools were certain that they would get in somewhere else, and thus didn't offer them a place. So bearing that in mind, it might be safer to just leave the space blank.

[kahlan_amnell]

And we do hear a lot of horror stories from excellent applicants who were rejected by all of their schools because the mid and bottom tier schools were certain that they would get in somewhere else, and thus didn't offer them a place. So bearing that in mind, it might be safer to just leave the space blank.

That is exactly why I left that space blank on a lot of applications when I was applying for my MA and later for my PhD. Or in online ones where you have to write something, I've written "I would prefer not to share than information."

Edited November 16, 2009 by kahlan_amnell