<p>A friend just showed me the current eval form used by alumni interviewers at a top NY LAC and it has two separate areas asking about the perceived interest of the student in the college. One specifically asked if the student had not visited campus, why not? I mention this here to suggest that anyone who hasn’t made the trip to a distant campus should be prepared to explain why they didn’t (the prohibitive trip costs, etc), and be careful not undo themselves by inadvertently mentioning any other far away campus visits or the interviewers may note that the student seems less serious about their particular school.</p>
<p>And is yield truly no longer being tracked by USNWR? Does that start this year? Wonder how that will affect admissions.</p>
<p>Yield has been off the U.S. News list of factors for college rankings for a few years already. Considering yield led to too many perverse incentives for colleges to deny admission to strong applicants.</p>
<p>I’ve been searching with no luck: is there a thread somewhere that lists schools that care about “demonstrated interests”? Specifically, schools that are going to note that yes, this applicant did come on a campus tour?</p>
<p>I know that the usual way to do this is to give a list of schools and then find out which of them care about visits. But 10th grader D1 doesn’t have the list, or even a list (though she does have safeties worked out). She’s been doing research on and off, and has mentioned a few names of some reaches, but nothing for sure. We may find ourselves able to do a little campus visiting on the East Coast towards the end of the summer, so some visits might be possible. D1 will be coming off of a summer program; she’ll have been gone for 5 or 6 weeks, and will be in more of a “chill” frame of mind than a gung-ho “let’s see a dozen different schools in a week” attitude. If I can find a list of schools that do care about prospie visits, and any of those schools either match up with schools she’s interested in, or match up with schools that I think she might be interested in then taking a relaxed look at a handful might make sense. For instance, to use the reachiest names she’s mentioned, there’d be no point in touring Brown, but I gather that Wesleyan notes who has shown up on tours.</p>
<p>Yes, you are right about Wesleyan and Brown I believe. Generally, liberal arts colleges(smaller colleges like Swarthmore, Haverford,etc.) will care about demonstrated interest. The big universities(Harvard, Duke, Princeton for example) tend to look over demonstrated interest. Unfortunately, I don’t have a list of schools that look at demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>One is that most private schools care about the student’s interest in the school. The problem is that you are defining “demonstrated interest” with a visit. However, be aware that many schools, including Brown, in fact, include essays on the application that ask “Why do you want to attend this school?” Your child will need to be very specific. Demonstrated interest can be shown on the application. It can be through visits with people on campus (not just a tour) and other communication. A visit is just one way. </p>
<p>Second comment…the reason to do visits, in my opinion, is not to demonstrate interest. The reason to do visits is for yourself to explore the schools in depth (way more than a tour by the way). I don’t agree with not touring Brown because it may not “count”. I would visit Brown so that your D knows the school well. She can see if she likes it enough to attend or not. If she likes it, she can find out all she can about it. When she writes her Why Brown statement, she’ll have specific things to point to. </p>
<p>By the way, my own children, as well as my clients, write Why X College statements to all schools, whether or not such a prompt already is on the application (many schools have such a prompt). They demonstrate their interest in very specific ways to that school that they could not say about another school or could not be said by another candidate as it is geared to themselves. In order to write such a statement, it helps to have had a visit. The visit can also be further referred to in the statement of interest. A visit goes beyond being checked off in some office.</p>
<p>Yeah, demonstrated interest != campus visit. Plenty of people visit campuses and don’t want to attend <em>that</em> school, and a student can demonstrate real interest without ever stepping foot on campus.</p>
<p>I’m not aware of a formal list of schools that consider interest - it would be nice if someone created one. Of the schools my daughters considered, those that were upfront about the importance of demonstrated interest were Emory, Muhlenberg, and Dickinson. I think the posters above are correct about the importance of interest at private schools, especially LACs. </p>
<p>Muhlenberg really likes to see interest. Applicants who hope for merit aid are required to have on-campus interviews. The school accepts about 50 percent of their incoming freshman ED.</p>
<p>I recently noticed that there’s a category for the importance of demonstrated interest in the common data set report filed annually by each school. You’ll find it in the “First-Time, First-Year Admission” section, under “Basis for Selection.” The school can answer whether “level of applicant’s interest” is very important, important, considered, or not considered. So when you find a school your d likes, you can check out the common data set, which is usually somewhere on the school website, and see how much weight the school attaches to interest.</p>
<p>frazzled, that’s a good suggestion to check the common data set where the school rates the importance of “demonstrated interest.” I never really look at that. Why? Because I treat EVERY school as an opportunity to demonstrate interest and my kids did that with every school they applied to and so do my clients, on the application. Ideally, they also visit but again, for their own needs, not to prove anything. But they do come away with knowing the school better and so their statements of Why X College tend to be even better.</p>
<p>Thanks, this is all very helpful. I think my next course of action is to have D1 use pizzagirl’s excellent suggestion in the ongoing “hates her matches/safeties” thread about sorting features/attributes of different types of colleges into piles; that’s a nice alternative to the counselor-o-matic checkbox list. That will give me some general guidelines about what kinds of schools she may be interested in, and will be a nice way to get her thinking along “Why X?” lines. Then I can look at the common data set reports (thanks, frazzled!).</p>
<p>I really, really, really don’t want to get sucked (or suck myself) into a massive tour of many, many schools; I suspect that would end up being counterproductive. Especially since D1 will have been living out of a suitcase for the previous 5-6 weeks. When I broach this idea to her, she may end up shooting it down entirely.</p>
<p>In the brochure/guidebook/whatever one would like to call it that Emory sent me a week or two ago, it did mention that they like to see its applicants have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the school and that interest still plays a part in the admissions process.</p>
<p>In addition, our family went to Carnegie Mellon’s Open House in July, and we were required to register and they took note of the fact that we were there. In their information session, they also said that they would like their applicants to have an understanding of the school and how the school fits the student - aka how much research you have done on the school.</p>
<p>We’re going to visit UPenn and Swarthmore in a few days, so I’ll post back if I discover any new information.</p>
<p>What about overnight visits beyond the awesome information gathering potential? My D and I liked the campus of her (now) first choice ED so much during the tour and interview that she vowed to try and do an overnight visit this Fall before she applies. Is this overkill on our part? Will the college think we have unlimited resources (we do not and my D would be contributing some of her own money from her job)? Would a college ever move an obviously committed ED applicant to the regular pool to increase yield somehow? Could it confuse the college into thinking we have reservations?</p>
<p>So many questions! What to do (besides switching to decaf)???</p>
<p>I think it’s pretty normal for ED applicants to do an overnight visit, even multiple overnights, to make sure that it really is their #1 school.</p>
then taking a relaxed look at a handful might make sense. For instance, to use the reachiest names she’s mentioned, there’d be no point in touring Brown, but I gather that Wesleyan notes who has shown up on tours.</p>