<p>Hello, we all know that visiting a college demonstrates interest in that college and can help the admissions process. My daughter's guidance department says that attending a presentation by a college admissions officer in her high school counts like visiting the college. Do you agree that this is significant, or is it still important to visit the college too? TIA!</p>
<p>Depends on the college. If a school looks at demonstrated interest, then visiting the campus shows considerably more interest than attending a local event. However, if the school doesn’t give much weight to interest, then it shouldn’t matter.</p>
<p>It depends on whether the school would have a record of that and whether you bring it up in any part of your application. For the college fair at my D’s school, some schools has forms to fill up for information request. Some just have someone there to answer question. Also, schools within driving distance may assume a campus visit as a demonstration of interest.</p>
<p>Actually visiting a college may give your kid a good feel about the campus – regardless how it may benefit his/her eventual evaluation. Like posters 2 & 3 have said, many schools don’t track interest whatsoever.</p>
<p>I’m about to give a presentation for my alma mater. I’m not going to take down a single name – it’s not of concern to my school. It just depends on the college in question.</p>
<p>Like T26E4 said, it is important to look at more than just the demonstrated interest part. however, some schools like Rice and Washington University openly state they DO USE demonstrated interest in their admissions. Schools like these like to see that you signed up to their mailing lists, POTENTIALLY visiting the school if its not too far away, maybe going to admissions sessions in your area with that school, etc. But please note that this can also be shown through essays and any scholarship applications at those schools. Also, you can check out common data sets of each school to see if they use demonstrated interest in admissions and how much. im the mom of a son who is applying to schools like these in this cycle and that is some of hte stuff ive heard from admissions counselors,etc</p>
<p>Thank you all. I just checked the common data set for the particular school in mind and it said that level of interest is “considered”. And the school is somewhere between target and low reach for my DD. I guess we should take a drive there if we can!</p>
<p>Yes, if it is within driving distance and it does value campus visit, you should definitely do it. Around 26.5% private and 5.6% public schools that consider demonstrated interest as one of the admission factors. When you go through the CDS and published information, you will found almost half of the top 50 schools would consider demonstrated interest in certain degree too.</p>
<p>My child’s college counselor cautioned that it’s most important to have a campus visit to and attend the HS visits/info sessions for schools a student considers a target or likely school. The reach schools know your student is likely to attend if admitted but the likely schools need to feel the love to know their applications weren’t just an afterthought.</p>
<p>Sue22 makes a good point. because in this case, schools in the middle like WASHU does not wanna feel like its used as a “safety” or secondary school for all teh extremely top applicants that get into like HYPSM, etc. They wanna protect their yield rate so they want to accept only people they know have a good chance at picking the school</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s just not practical to visit due to distance, so meeting locally is good enough. Asking for an interview once in the application process also helps in many cases. It all depends on the school.</p>
<p>However, in WashU’s case, if it’s at all practical, it’s practically a requirement. Our trusty college advisor tells the story of always getting a call at least once a year from WashU admissions “advising” a student that if they want an offer, they better show up on campus in the next week or so.</p>
<p>Perhaps OP’s GC is referring to the benefits derived from meeting with a rep locally as opposed to a presentation on campus. Both will have the same glossy handouts and/or powerpoint presentation.</p>
<p>These two expereinces can demonstrate a similar level of interest in terms of the applicant understanding unique features of the school as well as points of emphasis in programs offered. These can then be incorporated to great effect in the “Why Apply Here?” essays.</p>
<p>^ Very true. The campus visits do gave a lot of idea for my D in writing the essays. She was surprised that some of the information cannot be easily found on the web but at the campus visit. Some schools would even have exhibits from various clubs during the campus visit.</p>