What are great ways to show colleges that you really want to attend their school before admission decisions are released? I am really interested in USC, Emory, and Northeastern, but I cannot visit any of these campuses. Is the best way to email my admissions counselor for my region? What do I ask and what do I say? Thank you!
start by looking at the Common Data Set of these schools to see if they list “Level of applicant’s interest” as a factor. Hint: at least one does not. So you don’t need to bother adcoms if they don’t care anyway
You can demonstrate a LOT of interest by applying ED; nothing says “I am interested” by an irrevocable promise to enroll if accepted. Given you didn’t do that, the standard ways to show interest are to attend any presentations they make in your area, to accept an alum interview if they offer them, to visit the school if it isn’t too far away. You just missed the window on another way if you live farther away, emailing the school in the fall and asking if they have a current student living in your area that would be willing to meet you for coffee so you could find out more about the school when they were home on winter break.
Emailing the adcoms will usually come across poorly and hurt more than help; they get lots of emails from kids that were clearly coached to send them and they can sniff these out a mile away. They know there is no real question. And when someone asks a question already answered on the website it shows they don’t have much interest after all or they would have read thru the website.
I assume you have already applied to these colleges. I would only email an admissions representative if you have a meaningful question to ask that cannot be answered by looking through the college website. Admissions officers are swamped now are not looking for stacks of extra emails.
To determine if demonstrated interest matters for the schools you are considering google the common data set for each college and look at section C7.
USC and Emory don’t consider demonstrated interest:
https://admissionblog.usc.edu/mythbuster-i-need-to-show-the-admission-counselors-that-usc-is-my-top-choice/
http://apply.emory.edu/apply/faq.php