Demonstrated Interest at LAC's

driver
Sun, 02 Oct 2005 11:20:05 +0000

I think this study shows why there is such an even split of opinion.

National Association for College Admission Counseling
Assembly Directive Report:
“Demonstrated Interest” as a Factor in Admission Decisions
July 2004
Assembly Directive
As passed at NACAC’s 58 th annual conference in September 2002, Salt Lake City, UT:
The Admission Practices Committee shall examine the practices of colleges and
universities denying or wait listing applicants due to a perceived lack of interest
on the part of the applicant.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
Majority of Colleges Consider Demonstrated Interest
•More than half (55 percent) of colleges and universities consider demonstrated interest
as a factor in the admission decision.
Small, Private Colleges Most Likely to Consider Demonstrated Interest
•Private institutions and institutions with small enrollments are most likely to consider
demonstrated interest as a factor in the admission process. An institution’s selectivity
and the institution’s yield rate have almost no relation to whether the institution considers
demonstrated interest.
College Wait List Statistics Not Related to Consideration of Interest
•Analysis of colleges that maintain wait lists indicate that students are not likely to be
wait-listed, accepted from the wait list, or enrolled from the wait list at a higher or lower
rate at institutions based on the institution’s consideration of demonstrated interest.
While institutions that consider demonstrated interest maintain wait lists at a higher rate
than those that do not consider demonstrated interest, there is no statistical relationship
indicating that those institutions maintain a wait list because they consider demonstrated
interest.
Demonstrated Interest Likely Not Determining Factor for Rejection of Applicants
•To determine whether colleges use demonstrated interest to reject students, the
importance attributed to demonstrated interest must be compared to the importance
assigned to other factors in the admission process. Both before and after extensive
analysis, demonstrated interest is shown to be a “tip” factor in the admission process. Its
importance—even among institutions that openly state consideration of interest—is
limited to a second-tier factor. As such, it could play a part (though not likely be the
exclusive determining factor) in the decision to accept or reject students after other
factors are considered, including grades, admission test scores, class rank,
recommendations, and writing sample.