Do AdComs At Different Universities Discuss Mutual Applicants?

[ReadytoStart]

I have always wondered this. Like for example say you apply to University A and get in, would University A share this information with other schools they know you applied to? Conversely, if University A finds something suspicious in your profile would they warn other schools you applied to? Completely unethical I know, but I wonder how much conversation occurs across school lines about our applications.

Any "insider" information on this topic would be greatly appreciated!

[bassdude]

Are you just curious or are you trying to cover your tail?

[ReadytoStart]

Are you just curious or are you trying to cover your tail?

Just curious no need to cover anything. If that was the case I wouldn't even post this question. I always wondered this, because I believe adcoms are very close with each other (confs, benchmarking studies..etc). I am just wondering if backdoor conversations occur occasionally with each other about common applicants...

[Summit_Bid]

I don't think they do. They have too many applicants and other stuff to worry about so they wouldn't go through all that. I once heard an adcom say they they just want to know to see who their competition is. Schools compete with each other too. If everyone starts applying to Yale, Harvard is gonna start thinking, "What can we do to get everyone to apply here". Schools like to brag about how many people apply to their school so really this question is all about them--not the applicant.

[bassdude]

I just wanted to check I've known some pretty stupid people in my time and more than one pops in my head who would cheat on their application and then come to such a site asking about whether adcoms have interschool communication. These same stupid people also would have waited this til now and posted on a public site which adcoms surf, and they probably also would have confessed that they were in fact trying to cover their tails. Then again, all of these people would not be applying to grad schools...

[rising_star]

Pretty sure they can't formally do this due to FERPA.

However, profs talk to their friends at other universities, esp if one of those profs wrote a recommendation letter for you.

[artschoolhopeful]

This is an excerpt from a post in art history that mew27 put up for the 2008 cycle:

"it's amazing and very aggravating how shady the whole admission process can be. there's a lot of under-the-table stuff going on that i was completely unaware of. my advisor called me in one day recently because he 'had something very important to talk about.' apparently what happened is that a professor from school X had called him over the weekend and expressed great interest in my application. he really wanted to work with me, but so did professor so-and-so at school Y. so what happens? between the 3 of them - the two professors and my advisor - they work out a "deal" as to which one i'll get into. both schools can't accept me because it lowers their chances that i'll go to either one of them, but if i only get into one, i'll probably go there (god knows we can't ruin their matriculation rates). so i ask my advisor whether i get any say in the matter/get to decide which school i want more, and he tells me no. the "deal" has already been worked out, and i'm not supposed to know anything about it. he just wanted to tell me so i wouldn't feel bad when i get rejected from school Y. i thought this was unbelievably shady - here they are treating applicants like freakin' business deals.

so anyway, i shouldn't be ranting, but hopefully it makes some of you guys feel better knowing that there's a LOT of fishy crap going on here. everything is so political..."

Anyway, I do not know if whether or not this scenario was true, but in my opinion, it does kind of make sense if you're applying to "top" tier programs, ya know?

[American in Beijing]

This is an excerpt from a post in art history that mew27 put up for the 2008 cycle:

"it's amazing and very aggravating how shady the whole admission process can be. there's a lot of under-the-table stuff going on that i was completely unaware of. my advisor called me in one day recently because he 'had something very important to talk about.' apparently what happened is that a professor from school X had called him over the weekend and expressed great interest in my application. he really wanted to work with me, but so did professor so-and-so at school Y. so what happens? between the 3 of them - the two professors and my advisor - they work out a "deal" as to which one i'll get into. both schools can't accept me because it lowers their chances that i'll go to either one of them, but if i only get into one, i'll probably go there (god knows we can't ruin their matriculation rates). so i ask my advisor whether i get any say in the matter/get to decide which school i want more, and he tells me no. the "deal" has already been worked out, and i'm not supposed to know anything about it. he just wanted to tell me so i wouldn't feel bad when i get rejected from school Y. i thought this was unbelievably shady - here they are treating applicants like freakin' business deals.

so anyway, i shouldn't be ranting, but hopefully it makes some of you guys feel better knowing that there's a LOT of fishy crap going on here. everything is so political..."

Anyway, I do not know if whether or not this scenario was true, but in my opinion, it does kind of make sense if you're applying to "top" tier programs, ya know?

That's so crazy! I didn't realize there were so many back deals going on. Although I guess if I were this student, I would feel quite flattered (after, of course, being annoyed that I had to just take which school ended up winning out). Her application was worth a back door business deal!

[eucalyptus]

I know for sure that some of my POIs have been talking to each other about my application, although I only know a bit of what they've talked about. Two of them are good friends with each other, and I've been told by both of them that they've already discussed it and decided that if I go to one of their departments, I can do some work in the other as well. One of those POIs has also been in touch with a prof at a third school to see if they'll be interviewing me. The weirdest one is that he's also made a deal with a fourth POI to let me do some work in her lab, and even cc-ed her on an email telling me about this deal. The thing that makes this strange is that this fourth POI's department rejected me less than a week before this email.

I doubt that I'm an outlier on this, so yes, I think they do discuss applicants!

[hogmommy]

I have a slightly different, but still odd situation. One of my LOR writers was formerly faculty at the school to which I applied. She wrote my LOR and sent emails to her best contacts in the department on my behalf. She and one of the current faculty members remain very close. After I found I was accepted, I sent the "thanks so much for writing on my behalf" email and she responded with "I've actually known [of your acceptance] for a few weeks, but was sworn to secrecy."

In one way, this made me mad--"you mean I stressed out for 4 weeks for no reason?", but in another way it makes me happy because it tells me that I was accepted almost immediately after they began reviewing applications.

Regardless, it is clear that there is a secret network out there (that we may or may not be aware of) and there is probably a good chance we're being discussed informally by a variety of players from a variety of schools.

[chimerical]

To add to what everyone else said, I wouldn't lie about being interviewed/accepted/waitlisted by another program. Besides the obvious ethical problems, faculty do talk to each other and could very well find out. Not saying the OP had that in mind at all, but I have heard of someone doing this to put pressure on a target school, so I figured I'd put it out there.

Edited February 15, 2010 by chimerical

[lurkingnomad]

To add to what everyone else said, I wouldn't lie about being interviewed/accepted/waitlisted by another program. Besides the obvious ethical problems, faculty do talk to each other and could very well find out. Not saying the OP had that in mind at all, but I have heard of someone doing this to put pressure on a target school, so I figured I'd put it out there.

...Reminded me of this >_<

http://dealbreaker.com/2009/10/jeffrey-chiang-will-be-receivi.php

Oh the scary world of bankers...I mean it's indeed unethical faking it and the applicant shouldn't have done that, but it's also really sad how the whole story/email was spammed around and ended up online Profs can't be that mean...right? ...right?? (then again, grad school application is pretty much like finding a job anyway..)

[rogue]

...Reminded me of this >_<

http://dealbreaker.com/2009/10/jeffrey-chiang-will-be-receivi.php

Oh the scary world of bankers...I mean it's indeed unethical faking it and the applicant shouldn't have done that, but it's also really sad how the whole story/email was spammed around and ended up online Profs can't be that mean...right? ...right?? (then again, grad school application is pretty much like finding a job anyway..)

I wouldn't call it mean, but I think this may also happen on occasion in academia. I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) about a guy who lied on his applications and someone caught it and posted it to some listserv so other adcoms would know. I think Princeton might've been the school that caught it and posted it, but I'm not sure. If I recall correctly, the guy then tried to sue for defamation or something. Does anyone else recall hearing about this?