I am currently a Junior and am planning on visiting colleges and attending their events. I was wondering which colleges take demonstrated interest into account when looking at applications during ED/EA, RD, or Waitlist.
Colleges I’m looking at are:
Georgetown
NYU
WashU in St. Louis
College of William and Mary
UVA
UC Berkeley
UCLA
American University
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Google the Common Data Set for each of these schools. There is a grid that shows the importance of various items, including interest.
Also, this is a pretty reach heavy list. It is your matches and safeties most likely to care about interest.
When we visited WashU StL, they were very clear that they considered demonstrated interest to be very important. Reading between the lines, they got tired of being a backup for kids who really wanted to go somewhere else but would consider WashU if their other plans fell through. Plus, on a less cynical note, I think they realize St Louis isn’t for everybody and they want to make sure people have done as much as possible to understand the area and college and love them both, will be happy and successful there.
The first thing you need to do is google " Common Data Set" and
then look in Section C7: Relative importance of each of the following academic and nonacademic factors in first-time, firstyear,degree-seeking (freshman) admission decisions.
Then look at “Level of applicant’s interest”
Is it Very Important, Important, Considered, or Not Considered?
Big State schools may only “consider” ECs because they mostly use GPA/SAT/ACT because of the sheer number of applicants. Private schools have holistic admissions and may think it “very important”.
Ivy League’s, e.g. Yale, may not consider interest or only “consider” it because they think “of course you want to come here”.
It is often the private schools that give it more weight.
Interest doesn’t matter unless you can afford it.
Even if the college doesn’t consider DI as very important, doing the things one would do in order to “demonstrate interest” is still beneficial to the candidate in terms of trying to find a good fit - and the more you know the school, the easier it will be to answer the “Why us?” question on the applications.
@Stardust2187:
UCLA and UCB do not consider an applicant’s level of interest. If you are not a California resident, make sure these schools are within budget since they offer little to no financial aid to out of state applicants so figure on $65,000/year to attend.
Run the Net Price calculators on all schools of interest before visiting since you do not want to fall in love with an unaffordable school.
If you are CA resident, then definitely worth your time in visiting both schools.