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Hi. I was just wondering, for anyone who knows, do the Ivy League schools have some type of contact when handling applications? For example, if a student applies to Upenn, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell, will all of them know that you applied to the others and perhaps view you as not serious about your choices but rather as some1 attempting to increase his/her chance of being accepted to an IVY? Thanx ;-)

By Dromedary (Dromedary) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 05:50 pm: Edit

They don't, officially. Certain members of the Princeton admissions committee might use applicants' personal information to log onto the Yale admissions website, but that's the extent of the communications

By Aparent (Aparent) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 05:54 pm: Edit

They do, in the early round. A Brown adcom rep told us that they share lists of early applicants, and if they find out that you applied early to Brown and another school they will cancel your application. Btw I asked whether they held onto these lists to check in the RD round and see whether applicants had already applied elsewhere ED, and he said no. fwiw

By Goodkid2004 (Goodkid2004) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 08:47 pm: Edit

ooh..

By 1214 (1214) on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 12:53 pm: Edit

Is that true that Aparent says? Isn't that a breach of confidentiality?

By Dromedary (Dromedary) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 02:26 am: Edit

It wouldn't be a breach, because they're just making sure that candidates are keeping their commitments. If they used the information later on, that would be a problem.

By Anonrs (Anonrs) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 03:55 am: Edit

Schools see all the other schools that you send your FAFSA to. I believe that the FAFSA form also says to list them in order of preference. (We just used alpha listing ourselves).

My son and I attended a college info night with UChicago, Cornell, Rice and Columbia in May. In an extended response to an ED question (one of the other reps answered the basic question and then the UChicago rep stepped up to the microphone), the UChicago rep said that they had rescinded several offers admissions this year because they had found out that the students had been accepted ED somewhere else. (UChicago has EA so you can apply there and RD at other schools). She didn't say how the UChicago admissions office found out about the ED decisions but she did say that they had never before had so many ED rule-breakers in one year.

A thought just occurred to me -- the FAFSA cannot be sent in until January 1 at the earliest. ED is supposed to be done deal by that date so students would have absolutely no reason to list other schools on the FAFSA forms. It could be that the ED schools contacted other schools listed on the FAFSA.

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 11:02 am: Edit

I take a more pessimistic view.

The College Board is a membership organiztion. All the colleges are members. The College Board lives to serve its members---students are only used as information for the members.

I think anything a student gives to the College Board becomes information that any member college can easily gain access to.

Oh, sure... the College Board does some good things for students--- but that's just to keep them coming.

By Aparent (Aparent) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 11:24 am: Edit

Yes, MT. I actually wrote to the College Board, telling them I thought it was not appropriate for all colleges to be able to see the other schools you send your FAFSA to. The reply I got was basically, "Well, this is how we do it." Confidentiality is not something they promise.

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 12:08 pm: Edit

And here's another hunch: I don't really think colleges mail out scores to colleges. I think each college has online access to the College Board's database, and the students complete file is opened to the college's eyes when the student pays the fee.

Wait... I take that back! They do everything I just said, PLUS they mail out the paper report as well--because they've been doing it that way since before punch cards were invented! That's the way any real paper clip buracracy would operate. Sooner or later, the bean counters will prevail and the paper reports will stop.

Remember punchcards...?

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 03:01 pm: Edit

wait, so each college knows through your FAFSA what other colleges you're applying to????

By Ughstinkysocks (Ughstinkysocks) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 10:01 pm: Edit

this has been a very helpful discussion

By Anonrs (Anonrs) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 11:48 pm: Edit

That is correct, Sunshine, each college can see what other schools will be receiving your FAFSA info.

btw, I happened to be at a CC today and looked at a FAFSA form. The language re listing colleges by first choice said something about "if you are applying for *state aid* you might want to list colleges by choice."