<p>Does anyone know if UChicago tracks or cares about demonstrated interest?</p>
<p>By demonstrated interest, I mean things like: visiting campus, responding to postcards, talking to professors.</p>
<p>They certainly don’t care about visiting campus. In general, I think the policy is that they don’t care about demonstrated interest. I have a slight feeling that answering a few postcards can’t hurt, but I have no evidence for that other than anecdote.</p>
<p>My experience is that demonstrated interest is not as important as it is for either Rice or WUSTL.</p>
<p>These previous posters are just plain wrong. The University of Chicago does indeed care a lot about demonstrated interest. When I went to an information session, they told me that they create a file the first time you visit campus or request information and track how much interest you’ve shown. When you visit campus for a tour or information session they have the put your information into a computer so they can track it.</p>
<p>The impression that they gave everyone was that demonstrated interest is very, very important.</p>
<p>I think demonstrated interest IS important, but I imagine what the admissions office cares about is genuine demonstrated interest, which involves more than just visiting campus and replying to all their postage and emails. Specifically, you want to show that you’ve done your homework in terms of researching the University and that you like what you learned - for instance, that you’ve come to agree with the general educational philosophy at Chicago (they take that very seriously). The last step is to convey that through your essays - the “why UChicago?” essay is the perfect opportunity to share this. I wrote my “why UChicago?” essay about the core and how I valued interdisciplinary education. It seems to have worked for me.</p>
<p>Of course this is purely anecdotal, but it made sense to me.</p>
<p>I didn’t say that demonstrated interest is not important. It is just that I didn’t demonstrate my interest as defined by OP. I didn’t even get a chance to interview. IMHO, what is important is to demonstrate that you are a good fit for UChicago, Doing what OP suggested will not hurt but in my case those forms of demonstration were not necessary to get accepted…</p>
<p>My son did not visit the campus until he got accepted. He did demonstrate interest by applying early, getting an interview and writing a good “Why Chicago” essay.</p>
<p>I agree, I never visited campus either, but I was pretty happy with my “why Chicago” essay and felt it really showed how I fit the school well. I also submitted an “application update” through the form on the website in February saying how I read Abbott’s Aims of Education speech and liked those ideas, etc. (along with other stuff I updated them on) and I really think it helped me.</p>
<p>I think demonstrated interest is mainly important insofar as it demonstrates fit. The best way to do this is to write a stellar “Why Chicago” essay.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks guys. I certainly hope to write a good essay (I feel very strongly about certain UChicago ideas), but wanted to check if I should bother replying to these postcards.</p>