I read that visiting a college rep when they come to your high school is a good way to show interest in a school.
But how do they keep track of who comes to those?
I have never been to one, and I would like to know, thx for any replies
College reps often provide a sheet for you and other students to write down some sort of info (name, student ID, etc.) Sometimes they pass around cards for you to fill out (these are more in depth, and include other things to fill out such as email address, mailing address, intended area of study, etc.)
Additionally, they often hand out business cards or provide their email address so that students can contact them with any questions or further inquiries (this shows interest!)
There will be a sign in sheet, or your gc will provide a list of attendees
Many also have special websites for each high school visit, and will include links to register in emails. If you have registered with one of the college search sites and listed your high school you will get emails with links from those that you have listed on that site.
Some do, some don’t. It depends on the college. One that has no problem getting apps – won’t be taking a list of names.
^^^ @T26E4 , I don’t mean to be argumentative, but the schools that have sent us pre-registration links for local visits include Yale, Amherst, Northwestern, and others, and that is just this week.
(and b4 you yell it yes I know that does not mean they want my kids! 
)
I’ve help organize those visits at big venues. Indeed, I represent one of those schools. Pre-registration is needed for planning purposes. For the 3 you mention, I would say not one of them will really equate attendance with interest or any affect on future decisions.
If you google the common data set for a college it will include information on how heavily the school weights “demonstrated interest”. As noted above, highly selective colleges typically do not track interest - they don’t need to. Schools that track interest are schools that are concerned with (when possible) identifying students who are applying as a safety. Schools like Yale aren’t concerned about being someone’s safety.
Wanting to know how many students at a school are going to attend an event is more likely tracked to determine whether a particular visit is worthwhile. It doesn’t mean that info makes it back to the individual student’s file to be evaluated by admissions.
I do get that, and I also agree your experience adds gravitas to your point. Thanks. I was only referring to the fact that some are collecting the names, whether or not they use them for anything more than mailers, and the OP was asking how to get the name in regardless.
Generally colleges that care about interest do track who comes.
@postmodern – back in the day, a name and an address on a presentation attendance sheet meant an extra mailer went out. Now, we presume internet searching through our admissions portal.
For larger than 1 school events I agree that showing interest to the highly selective schools is probably not helpful. When an admissions rep comes to only your HS and you have the opportunity to meet with them in a small group format I think it can be incredibly helpful. Our public HS does a few of these small groups with highly selective schools and the admissions rate from our school for these schools vs schools with similar profiles is tremendously different. Yale-no school visit and no acceptances in 5 years vs Princeton-2-3 acceptances every year. We have a few schools where the actual admissions person for our region comes out and that has to really help you having that access. My son attended a few of these where he was in a group of 5 or less and once only 2 students to 1 admissions person (they both were admitted).