<p>Not always, Agent. With the common app, there are many students who are now applying to many, many schools. This is something that some of the colleges encourages with their quick no fee apps online and other promotions. It causes a problem for the admissions offices, however, as they do not know who is truly interested and who is not. So many of these schools do want their applicants to visit, interview, show interest so they can separate those who are truly interested in considering the school. I know kids who probably showed their disdain for schools during such visits, as they were turned down from schools where they should have been shoo ins. They were rather transparent from the onset that the schools were just their safeties. Many kids are very obvious how much they like a school, how well thought the process of selecting a school is. A skilled admissions officer can often spot those with no inclination of going to a school. But not always. My oldest applied to an online, free app school as a safety that his GC pushed him into doing. No visit, not thought of accepting. He did not meet with admission where he just might have been cut since he did not bother to do any research or anything about the school. However, he did meet with the coach and became a recruited athlete through some coincidental events. Was accepted. But there were kids who were not accepted to that school that I would have thought obvious picks, who interviewed with the admissions officer who visited the highschool. THeir comments made it pretty clear how those kids felt about the school, and I’ll bet it showed. They were waitlisted, quite insulted about that too.</p>
<p>My son visited a college this year, a selective LAC. He did not schedule an interview as it was a looky see visit. Did not even see any of the admissions folks, just the tour kids. He got a postcard, urging him to come interview. An admissions officer visited his school, and just before that visit, he received a letter telling him of this, the date, time and room number of the visit, and “inviting” him to come by and say hello. He did. Schools may not exclude kids who do not show interest, do not visit, do not come to regional visits, but it can make a difference in a borderline situation.</p>