The preliminary list is made (thank you CC for the help) - still too big, but my daughter is a college junior so we have some time to cut it before the fall application season begins.
I was HOPING we could do a small trip to to see 5 of the colleges -various sizes, private/public and target/safeties – but it’s just not financially feasible at ALL.
So what do you do if you can’t visit schools especially if demonstrated interest might be part of the admission criteria?
I thought she could write to the AOs --but I’m not even sure what she is supposed to say? “Hi, really like your school!” And then what?
I always suggest starting with each school’s virtual tour on their website. She could also sign up for virtual information sessions if they’re offered. She could find her admissions counselor on their website and e-mail that person directly expressing her interest and asking any questions. If her high school gets visits from college admissions counselors she should look out for those and visit with the counselors for her schools of interest. As far as demonstrated interest goes, there’s plenty of ways to show that. One school advised my S22 to follow the school admissions page on all social media that they are on.
Hopefully these actions can help your daughter get a feel for the schools enough to further prune her list.
Most colleges offer virtual tours. Look for campus admissions YouTube channels, webinars, etc. Sign up for emails. Open emails. Respond to prompts on the emails. Click through email links. Create a professional Instagram account (meaning real name listed without any questionable images). Follow campus admissions pages. Like images and info that they share.
If you can’t find ways to show interest at a particular school, share the name of the school and I’m sure someone on this board who is familiar with the school can offer suggestions.
College admissions officers are typically understanding if long distance visits can’t happen. Here are some ideas:
–If available, do a virtual tour, virtual information session, online Q&A session, etc.;
–Get on email list (and open all emails sent);
–Attend any local presentation, HS visit, interview, or college fair where school representatives will be present;
–Read through the website carefully and a good college review or two to get a feel for the school and its offerings. This will help answer any supplemental essay in a more meaningful way;
–Email admission officers only if there is a meaningful question that can’t be answered from reading the website, mailings, etc. Admissions officers are busy and don’t need emails just to say hi or to rehash readily available information.
Sign up for the school’s email list. Open the emails, click on links in the emails when they come. Many schools track this.
Most schools have virtual admissions sessions, but some also have virtual student panels, mock admissions sessions, etc.
Go to HS visits of the schools of interest
If the student does reach out to the AO, make sure it’s a question that isn’t easily answered by looking at the website, and don’t ask for proprietary info, like the CS acceptance rate (or something like that.)
I am not sure how colleges can always ID students who follow them on social media, as many students don’t use names on social media, they use handles that aren’t their real names. Also, there are many very similar names. I’m just not sure how or who would be going thru these accounts from the college side and marrying up followers with applications in any given year. Seems difficult.
As others are also suggesting, anything where you register or otherwise provide your contact info is good for demonstrated interest. Online information sessions where you sign up are great for this, and also don’t overlook the possibility there may be some sort of reachable college fair where you can visit a booth and fill out a card or such.
And for sure, once you are really serious about a college, reaching out to the AO can make sense. If you like, you can reflect on actual questions you might have–for example, I find it is not always clear exactly what people actually do with housing or dining, versus what is allowed. Or you could ask to be put in contact with students who share some interest–could be academic, could be an activity, or whatever. These are all great ways of showing you are past seeing them as just a name on a list, you are really interested in understanding what it would be like to be a student at their college.
And for that matter–that is good stuff to know! Meaning the actual student perspective. I do think you can also look at things like online reviews and forums and student newspapers and blogs and such. But getting in actual contact with a current student to chat about such things could be invaluable.
Finally, they may also have “optional” non-evaluative interviews/chats, sometimes available before you even apply. Again, could be quite useful, and a good way to demonstrate interest where relevant.
Colleges are very aware that college visits are not possible for all kinds of reasons. Especially in this post-pandemic world, there isn’t a requirement to visit colleges. There is no penalty for not visiting. The more important actions, which are achievable for most students, have been mentioned already.
I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned yet that another great way to show interest is to complete all optional or recommended writing supplements. Those can be even more important if a student is maybe on the lower side of accepted students, or if the student hasn’t been able to show interest in other ways.
If there are any local colleges within driving distance that might be of interest, it can be helpful to visit, if for no other reason than to get a sense of what a college campus is like. As far as following social media, that can give students a good idea of campus feel, but also they might see something that could be mentioned in a supplement. For example, maybe the student Union or library shows some feature that really caught your child’s interest.
Not sure which part of Kansas you’re from (i.e. closer to Missouri or Nebraska or Oklahoma or Colorado), so it’s possible that some out-of-state schools might be closer than the ones I’m suggesting, but I could see some local visits to places like:
Benedictine: About 2400 undergrads in a very small town (population 10k), so a small school that’s extremely residential in a more remote location.
Washburn U: About 4900 undergrads in Topeka, so mid-sized school in an urban location. Although it’s a commuter school, about half of first year students live on-campus, so it might at least provide an idea of a medium-sized school (and how important it is/isn’t for a campus to be primarily residential).
Kansas State (about 15k undergrads) or U. of Kansas (about 21k undergrads) to get a sense of larger schools in a college town.
To visit three of those schools (small, medium, and large) would be a 2.5 hour loop, so potentially able to be done with a minimum amount of time. Of course, if you’re over near the Colorado border these might not be the schools you’d pick, but I still think you get the idea.
We are in northeast portion of Kansas. She spent a week at KU - so that gave her a good idea of a large public. We visited Macalester in person so small campus/city combo (she gave that 2 thumbs up). We will probably take her on a trip to Kansas State since her brother goes there -and that should give her big school in small town atmosphere. I was just hoping to see east coast LAC and New England mid-sized which are different animals than (most) of the schools out here. But the suggestion is a smart one!
Suggest to your D that she create a neutral, business like email address for ALL college related mail. First name_last name@gmail is going to be a lot easier to stay on top of than if her “partygurl@yahoo” account is filled with college, 20% off coupons from Loft, notification that her Amazon package has been delivered, etc.
I know so many kids who missed opportunities- college fairs in a near by town/suburb, invitations for a special scholarship weekend, outreach from a “student ambassador” inviting her to ask questions or show up on a Zoom event. I get that it’s hard to keep up with email, but it’s a lot easier if she has an account which is just used for college stuff. The volume will get heavy, and the digital contacts is a cheap and easy way to show interest without getting on a plane!
You can gather a lot more information useful to culling a list via the internet than you get from a curated tour experience that is more of a marketing event. For the big environmental questions (large/small, urban/rural/suburban, etc.) those are really introspective questions that they need to ask themselves about how they want to be living in college. I honestly don’t think visits are all that important and can be more distortive than helpful (just cause you had a good tour guide at a school doesn’t mean anything about what your life as a student will be)
As for demonstrated interest - look for virtual tours or information sessions, most schools that care about demonstrated interest have them.
