<p>I think Grinnell cares a lot about ‘showing love’ in part because they are in rural Iowa and they want to make sure you really know what you are choosing and why. Lots of highly qualified kids get waitlisted because the school thinks they aren’t really serious. </p>
<p>Grinnell isn’t apologetic about their location, by the way: It’s in a cute college town, surrounded by rolling farmland. They have amazing facilities and tons to do on campus. The location is a plus for those who want a strong sense of community and a school where all the action is on campus.</p>
<p>It is the commonly-held view that Cornell doesn’t care if prospectives visit. Whether that’s really literally true or not who can say, unless they are in the decision room, but that’s the “word” that’s out there. They get zillions of visitors to campus. </p>
<p>Sometimes one wonders if what these schools say is always the same as what they do. There’s an LAC that states plainly on their website that alumni interviews are completely informational and non-evaluative, yet they give their alumni interviewers an evaluation form to complete and submit following the interview.</p>
<p>This year we have toured Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Penn, and Dartmouth. Each of these Ivies (plus MIT) specifically said they do not track or consider demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>Lehigh made a point to say they absolutely do. If their first contact with a student is the application, they will wonder why they are applying. In fact, at a recent local college fair, we stopped by the Lehigh booth. After chatting with the reps, S asked if he should fill out the card if he already visited. They emphatically said yes. Curiously, the RIT rep said no need, they already have his info (though at their tour, they said they do consider interest).</p>
<p>My take on this is that the Ivies and tippy top schools do not care about your interest. They assume everyone loves their school (arrogant as that may be). It’s the schools just below that really need to see the love. They don’t want kids who are applying just in case they don’t get in elsewhere. They want to know that this kid checked us out, heard our story, and wants to apply here.</p>
<p>May I highjack this thread a tiny bit and ask for your suggestions about HOW best to “show the love” beyond the visit? DS is resisting this part of the process, saying it feels cheesy and fake to send off an email with a made up question. Though I sense him thawing on this a bit as he gets farther into the process, what others ideas do you have for showing interest? TIA.</p>
<p>Ha, ha, Mythmom, I am laughing with you, not at you. I have a son who could do better if he did NOT interview. The wrong type of interviewer and he is just no good. I avoided interviews for him during the college visits.</p>
<p>I think it matters for Rice. D is a current student who did all the “love” things: arranged an off site interview with alumnus, visited campus before applying & sent scores form the testing sessions. Her scores places her at the low end of the 25 - 75 admit range so she obviously did something right.</p>
<p>All the Claremont Schools (Pomona, CMC, Scripps, Pitzer, HMC) plus Occidental expect you to visit if you live in Southern California. They are quite up front about it.</p>
<p>I’ll offer a dissenting view about needing to show Rice the love. Our son, who just finished his freshman year there, didn’t visit until he was accepted. He did make sure to do an off-campus (way off campus) interview with an alum. And we did attend a travelling roadshow where a Rice admissions officer spoke, along with people from about five other schools (Brown, U of Chicago, etc). But I doubt that any of this impacted the decision to admit him at all.</p>
<p>An acceptance here and there without a visit doesn’t mean a school is not one where the visit features highly. One of mine did NOT visit a number of schools that his GC said really counted visits in the picture (and I agree), but he still got accepted. It’s just not a good idea to skip it for some schools whereas with others, like UVA or the SUNYs, they could not care less and will tell your right out that it doesn’t even get indicated.</p>
<p>Still if your student can get an opportunity to talk to his admissions officer and has a nice, memorable meeting, it can only be positive. Just be aware that not all kids interview well and some are better off if they are kept far away from the admissions office.</p>
<p>Mutti2012 - If you aren’t able to schedule a visit, minimally go onto the website of U’s of interest and register and request information. Now your child is at least on their database of students showing some advance interest in the school.</p>
<p>cpt: I like your laughing and camaraderie. My D had the same experience. Wait listed where interviewed, accepted where she didn’t except for Brown. Interviewer loved her and called begging her to go.</p>
<p>I think both my kids seemed too NY and high powered for some schools (like Bates.) I’m not sure what the problem was because interviewers expressed appreciation.</p>
<p>Schools want to admit folks who really want to come. Maybe there was some subtle intuiting of the fact that these weren’t first choice schools – don’t know.</p>
<p>At Barnard (first choice school) she was only interviewed by a student – not normative in any way, I’m sure. At Williams DS was not interviewed at all. We were actually shocked by the acceptance because the rate for non-athlete normal kids in the RD round is so low. But it was his heart’s desire and we had been on campus 5 times.</p>
<p>"I have a son who could do better if he did NOT interview. "</p>
<p>Mine too, at least that’s the way he felt about it. So, he didn’t interview. Even at the schools that made it quite clear that interviews were of some importance.</p>
<p>One of those schools he actually got into, to my complete surprise. I guess they gave him a break on the interview because he lives very far away. The other, he didn’t. But there were other factors that may have led to that result, not just that one.</p>
<p>Doame, thanks for your thoughts. So far he’s been able to visit every school he’s interested in so I would think he’s in their data base since he registered on-line for a visit and/or filled out a card once he was on campus. Two of the smaller schools actually wrote to HIM after he visited (I assume these go out to all visitors) and he happily responded. It’s initiating the “conversation” with the adcom that gets him shy. His high school recently hosted a forum of admissions reps from 5 schools and he had no problem sending emails today to two that are on his list (and that he’s already visited). He even understood to cc: the regional rep from our area. But beyond these “prompts”, what should he be doing?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s just a matter of showing the love, but of demonstrating fit. Students have turned down Ivies and other “more selective” schools to go to Grinnell, so they clearly are taking extremely highly qualified kids, not just waitlisting them because they think they’ll go elsewhere…</p>
<p>At UMaryland, if you want to apply for the honors college and have the best chance for $$$ you have to apply by their “Priority Date” (by Nov 1- at least that was the date for 2015 kids). I would think about sending one to them since it will probably be one of the first due anyway. Check if this same thing is true at any of the other colleges on your list or schools you plan to apply EA.</p>
<p>So, after actually having a cup of coffee and seeing my post, it looks a little out of context. Here is the point I was trying to make. </p>
<p>I don’t think that just sending your scores early is really what schools mean by showing love, if they even care about love. I think a better use of your free score reports would be to send them to places where they will be required first, and you are sure that you will be applying. Schools like UMaryland would be one such example where your application has to be complete with all supporting documentation in order to get the most advantage in terms of scholarship and programs.</p>
<p>On Cornell, the tours are walk-in, no registration, don’t take names, addresses…so what could be interpreted as “demonstrated interest” at another school doesn’t even put you on their mailing list at Cornell.</p>