Juvenis

If so, where?

ucbalumnus

Potentially any school whose common data set, section C7, indicates that "level of interest" is considered in admissions.

exultationsy

My friend who was admitted at HYPSM Dartmouth Penn etc etc was waitlisted at two schools: Tufts and Rice. So there's that.

Ablearcher

Almost all private colleges use demonstrated interest as a factor in admissions to achieve higher yield. Washington University in particular is known to waitlist a large number of qualified applicants.

barrk123

Rice University

NewHavenCTmom

@Juvenis--what is Tufts Syndrome?

Longhaul

NewHaven -- Not the OP, but Tufts Synd. is when a student is above the 50-75% acceptance rate stat. wise (GPA, test scores) and rejected by the college. Tufts turned down a large number of students because they felt the school was being used as a "safety" for high stat kids without the kids seriously considering attending. Tufts wanted students who truly wanted Tufts and not an Ivy.

vonlost

The "syndrome" may get more attention where stats decrease in importance, e.g., at a school where the weighting of numeric stats (GPA, test scores, rank) is 25% or less. Those rejected with "high enough" stats don't measure up in other areas (e.g., courses taken, interviews, recommendations, essays, ECs).

xiggi

The problem with a sentence that starts with "almost all" is that it is "almost never" true. Demonstrated interest is a very fickle concept and one that takes many forms. Despite the fact that the CDS might have a little mark next to demonstrated interest, I doubt that many highly selective schools pay much attention to "expressions of interest." This might increase at schools that do not get vast numbers of applicants and struggle with low yields. Fwiw, the very best indication of interest remains the ... ED application. Chances are that the schools that look at demonstrated interest have a subpar ED application volume.

As far as WUSTL/WashU, their interest is to increase their number of applicants by grabbing everything that could be construed as an application.

As far the Tufts Syndrome, someone ought to rename it the Rejected Student Cocktail Party Syndrome, as it must the most used element to explain the non-admittance of Little Suzy or little Tyler to the friends!

vonlost

^ I doubt that many highly selective schools mark anything other than "Not Considered" in the CDS demonstrated interest column, but someone willing to gather the data might prove me wrong.

whenhen

Vonlost: I looked at the top 50 national universities as measured by the USNWR. Here's what they posted in their CDS
Harvard: For some reason my computer wouldn't open any of its CDSs, but I presume that it doesn't need to look at interest.
Princeton: Interest considered
Yale: Not considered
Columbia: Could not find their CDS
Cal Tech: Not considered
MIT: Not considered
Stanford: Not considered
University of Chicago: Could not find their CDS, but from what I've read about the reasons behind UChicago's rapid ascensions in the rankings, I'd presume they're starting to care about applicant interest.
University of Pennsylvania: Considered
Duke: Considered
Dartmouth: Not considered
Northwestern: Considered
Johns Hopkins: Not considered
WUST: Could not find, but based on what I've read, it most likely considers it.
Brown: Very Important
Cornell: Not Considered
Rice: Considered
Vanderbilt: Not Considered
Notre Dame: Considered
Emory: Important
Berkeley: Not considered
Georgetown: Considered (but considering how horrendous the application is, just filling it out and sending the necessary documents most likely indicates at least a decent level of interest.)
Carnegie Mellon: Important
USC: Not Considered
UCLA: Not considered
University of Virginia: Not considered
Wake Forest: Considered
University of Michigan: Considered
Tufts: Could not find, but considering this thread is entitled "Does Tufts Syndrome Exist Anywhere Else" I'm going to go ahead and assume they at least look at level of interest.
UNC - Chapel Hill: Not Considered
Boston College: Could not find
Brandeis University: Not listed in the most recent CDS, but in their 2009-2010, they stated that level of interest was an important factor.
College of William and Mary: Not considered
NYU: Not considered
University of Rochester: Could not find
Georgia Tech: Not Considered
UC- San Diego: Not Considered
Case Western: Important
Lehigh: Important (btw, did anyone else think Lehigh was a LAC and not a "national university"?)
UC - Davis: Not considered
University of Miami: Considered
UC - Santa Barbara: Not considered
University of Washington: Not Considered
University of Wisconsin - Madison: Considered (probably only for OOS though)
Penn State: Not considered
UC - Irvine: Not Considered
University of Illinois-- Urbana Champaign: Not Considered
University of Texas - Austin: Considered (for the non auto-admits)
Yeshiva University: Not listed, but because Yeshiva is the orthodox Jewish equivalent of BYU, the school knows that the overwhelming majority of admitted students will matriculate. Yeshiva draws its student body from one sect of Judaism. Jews who aren't ultra orthodox simply do not apply.
GWU: Could not find.

I then got bored and decided to look at the top fifteen LACs as measured by USNWR

Williams: Not Considered
Amherst: Not Considered
Swarthmore: Considered
Pomona: Not considered
Middlebury: Considered
Bowdoin: Not considered
Carleton: Not Considered
Wellesley: Considered
Claremont McKenna: Could not find because the website states they are currently updating their CDS.
Haverford: Considered
Davidson: Does not mark whether or not they consider level of interest. All other boxes are checked, but for both 2010-'11 and 2011-'12, the school didn't check anything for level of interest.
Washington and Lee University: Considered
Wesleyan University: Not Considered
West Point: Look if you manage to get through the application process for any of the service academies, you obviously want to go to one. There's a reason all of their yields are higher than even Harvard's. I didn't find the common data set for this school, but I'm guessing that if every school that currently looks at level of interest required their applicants to take a fitness test, get a congressional nomination, pass a health inspection, and write the normal essays, they would stop looking at interest level.
Naval Academy: See above.

whenhen

And because I refuse to go to sleep despite the fact that I need to leave for the airport in five and a half hours, here's the listing for the LACs ranked from #14-49 by USNWR

Vassar: Not Considered
Hamilton: Not listed in the 2011-2012 CDS, but in the 2010-2011 CDS, it was considered
Harvey Mudd: Considered
Grinnell: Considered
Smith: Not Considered
Bates: Very Important
Colby: Considered
Colgate: Not Considered
Oberlin: Considered
Bryn Mawr: Not Considered
Macalaster: Not Considered
Colorado College: Considered
University of Richmond: Not Considered
Bucknell: Important
College of the Holy Cross: Important
Mount Holyoke: Considered
Scripps: Could not find
Barnard: Considered (by the way, Barnard is only ranked as the #33 best LAC. I figured it would be ranked at least in the top ten because of its affiliation with Columbia. Stupid US News).
Kenyon: Very Important
Sewanee - University of the South: Considered
Air Force Academy: See the West Point comment in the post above for the reasons why the admissions officers would never consider level of interest at this, or any service academy.
Connecticut College: Considered
Occidental: Not Listed
Trinity College: Considered
Lafayette: Considered
Union College: Considered
Centre College: Considered
Franklin and Marshall: Considered
Furman University: Considered
Pitzer: Important
Whitman: Not listed in 2011-2012 CDS, but in the 2010-2011 one it's listed as considered.
Dickinson: Considered
Gettysburg: Considered
Denison: Could not find
Skidmore College: Considered

testobsessed

Wow, thanks for looking all this up. So nice to see some facts. (Better than "I doubt that" and "almost all" and "my friend" etc.)

vonlost

Yes, wow, many will thank you! Now for my next request...

ucbalumnus

Where did you find common data set of USC (Trojans, not Gamecocks)?

An analogous example would be that New York University has a much higher reputation than the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Then again, you have state universities with campuses of different reputations (UC Berkeley and UC Merced, for example).