"What other schools are you applying to?"

[WildeThing]

I'm going through Columbia's application portal and this question popped up. How do people feel about this? Should I be honest? Should I leave it blank? Should I just mention some of the schools? Should I only mention the very top schools? Wondering what the point of this question is since I can interpret this both as a "oh, he's applying there? he'll get in there,  let's not bother" or "he's applying there? let's make sure he comes here" even though it's probably something they don't even look at.

[TakeruK]

This is a very common question and it's not meant to be a trick question. They just want to know what other schools their applicants are also considering. The responses may not be linked to each person and might just be presented in aggregate for statistical purposes.

However, even if they use your specific response, I think it makes the most sense to be honest. Usually there is only space for 4 or 5 names, so don't name all of your schools if you are applying to like 12+. Just pick 4 or 5 that are both 1) similar in rank to the school you're applying to and 2) representative of your entire list. 

Very few schools will reject you because they think you're good enough for another place. This behaviour makes no sense, because why would they turn down a good student? All programs want the best fit students for themselves. However, the info can still be useful to the program. Programs generally need to make more offers than they have spots for, because the best candidates likely have more options and may not choose them. So if the school wants 8 new students, they might make 16 offers. But then if they see that their list of 16 offers are listing other top programs that typically "take" their students, then they might make one or two more. Or vice-versa, they might make fewer offers if their chosen candidates seem to signal that they will take the offer if given.

[WildeThing]

That makes sense. I was leaning towards honesty. I guess my concern was that they might be looking at two candidates for the final spot and pick the one who has only applied there to be certain that they take the spot.

[TakeruK]

25 minutes ago, WildeThing said:

That makes sense. I was leaning towards honesty. I guess my concern was that they might be looking at two candidates for the final spot and pick the one who has only applied there to be certain that they take the spot.

While this is a highly unlikely scenario, I agree that this could happen. However, I don't think any reasonable department would make a decision like this based on this single application question answer. They know that students might change their mind (or lie) on these questions, so I think it's way more risky for a department to make a decision based on this question alone than it is for a student to answer this question.

Instead, based on what I know about admissions, if your scenario comes true, then I think the department would likely:

1. Make both offers and take a risk
2. Don't make any offers until other offered applicants say no and open up enough spot to make 2 offers
3. Call the two candidates and ask them if they are still interested in their program
4. Flip a coin (or more realistically, examine other parts of the application and reweigh their decisions to decide based on that)

With some exceptions, schools generally want to make offers in batches and they can usually handle one (or more) fewer or extra person each year. Especially the top schools, like the one you name. It's not common for schools to make offers one-to-one with availalbe spots, they always have to take some risks and make more offers than spots. The reason why schools (especially good schools with $$) don't make exactly 5 offers for 5 spots is that they are likely to lose one or two applicants to another school and if they wait until they get those declines, it's likely the 6th and 7th candidate on their list will have already taken offers elsewhere. This is why they would make more offers than spots, to ensure they can get the best candidates they can get!