My daughter applied Early Action - we are scheduled to tour next Friday (after decisions come out). She did interview - Not sure if that is common? She is a 33 ACT single try, 3.96 UWGPA, 4.36 out of 4.5 weighted. 8 AP’s 6.5 units of science and 5 years foreign language, All honors. Thanks in advance for thoughts on demonstrated interest impact.
My daughter was admitted EA with no demonstrated interest, other than attending a Tulane preview night at a hotel in our city. She did not interview. Her stats were similar to your daughter’s except she had a 32 ACT. We didn’t go tour until March, after she had received the Deans Honors Scholarship.
@JG1962 and @azmomof3 --what you both describe IS demonstrated interest–attending the admissions event (the preview night) and doing an interview. There is no such thing as “limited demonstrated interest”–you’ve either shown interest or not. And by far the biggest indicator of interest is the Why Tulane Essay–showing why your are a good fit for the school in general and program in particular to which you are applying. @JG1962–if you’ve written good essays and have a nice letter of recommendation, then you’ve got a great chance of acceptance because your gpa and starndardixed test score and academic rigor of schedule are all very strong!
Did she hear ?
Was admitted today EA. Have to admit I was nervous because I didn’t visit or interview or meet with officer who came to my school or town. I never contacted my admissions officer either because I had no questions to ask and didn’t want to seem like I was asking just for the sake of it. Although I did contact someone in a department that I’m interested in. I also wrote a decent Why Tulane essay. I decided only a few days b4 EA deadline to even apply hence the lack of demonstrated interest. I’m glad they could tell my interest from my essay!
I applied to Tulane this year, had great extracurriculars, two solid cancer research fellowships, lots of leadership, first in my class of 425, a perfect ACT and two perfect subject tests, numerous awards in math and science, and I got into MIT EA. I was deferred from Tulane. I heard that they want to maximize yield by not admitting those who they feel are not serious about attending the school, and I figured since I had not demonstrated much interest they assumed I was treating their school as a safety (which they weren’t wrong about). These were just my experiences, it could be that there was something in my application that they just didn’t like, but my counselor told me that that’s probably what happened. I literally didn’t do anything besides fill out an application, though; if she had an interview and attended preview events then I doubt the same thing will happen to her.
@laney882 I am sure Tulane would love to have you if you are serious about attending. And there are things you CAN do to get admitted, given your amazing stats and class rank and research fellowships and extracurriculars. See Admissons Director Jeff Schiffman’s December 19 Blog on the Dos and Dont’s after getting deferred. But are you really willing to choose Tulane over MIT and likely HYPS elite Ivy-League type schools where your demonstrated interest is not considered? You need to convince Tulane of that.
@trackmbe3 Thank you for your advice, but no, I don’t plan on pursuing it. I was only sharing because I felt that it might be evidence of the importance of demonstrated interest in Tulane’s decision process. MIT is my dream school and I’m perfectly happy with the way things ended up 
Demonstrated interest is far more than the acts of visiting or sending an email. It’s how it comes across in your app that you know the school and how you articulate your interest. It’s not just the Why Us, but also how you show your match to them, beyond stats, “You have my major,” or your future career interests.
Done well, they won’t guess, eg, that you prefer another college or that your stats are too high.