Hey, I was just filling out the MIT app today and I noticed that they ask what other school I'm applying to. Anyone know why they do this? It just struck me as kind of peculiar.
Hey, I was just filling out the MIT app today and I noticed that they ask what other school I'm applying to. Anyone know why they do this? It just struck me as kind of peculiar.
I think its probably just one of those "get to know you and how you might be a good fit here" questions. I wouldn't worry too much about it, just list some or all of the places you plan to apply to at this time. It's not like they will check to make sure your list is accurate.
I agree with Masswich.
At the school where I got my MA, I once asked my profs why they did that (since I applied to a couple of different types of departments, I wondered what it would mean to have different types of schools listed). Most said it carried no weight in terms of the application, but that it was a way to determine how serious they were about attending the department versus just wanting a degree in the field. Only one of my old profs looked closely at it to see who those students may also be applying to work with (in archaeology, the student-prof relationship is a big deal even at the Masters level).
So yeah, just list the schools. No big.
According to conspiracy theories: many of the top schools care a lot about top rankings and selectivity is a key metric. They ask to figure out where you might go and since they don't want their selectivity score to suffer they will not offer you admission if they figure you will go elsewhere.
"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less" General Eric Shinseki
Also, on the subjects taken page, Do they want us to list every course we've ever taken in college or only the ones relevant to planning? They're not really clear about that.
Unless they've changed the form, it's every course. Feel free to put the ones relevant to planning first.Originally posted by Owego
k, thanks
Just make sure that the courses you list include the calculus requirement, assuming they still have that.
Also, I'm not sure which form you're talking about. There's one place where you have to list all courses (on the standard online grad admissions app) and another form, a DUSP-specific addendum, on which you can choose which classes to list and emphasize. They'll still have the full record of your courses and grades from the other form. I just checked and it looks like it's still the same procedure as in my time.
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