DS20 is finishing his RD applications. His final list is not how it looked 6 months ago. In that time he has matured and has a better idea what he is looking for. He’s done a lot of internet research and met with some reps at college fairs and his school, as well as students he knows at some of his newer choices. BUT, he has no real demonstrated interest at 3 schools he added to his list. At this point, we won’t visit unless he is accepted.
Is there anything else he should do? I told him to email admission reps for our area and explain why he is late adding school A, B, C to his list but he is a little timid about that. Any other ideas? Two are reaches (but not high reaches) and one is probably a target.
It would be helpful if you named the schools, but here are some ideas your S can/should do:
-sign up for the schools’ email list. Open emails, click on the links
-follow schools on social media: instagram, snapchat, facebook, twitter
-sign-up for an interview, if offered–many schools have alums doing local interviews and/or AOs doing skype interviews
-participate in a facebook (or other medium) live streamed informational session run by the school, typically one has to register, not all schools do these but they run the gamut from financial aid processes to admissions questions to student panels.
-reach out to the AO with a question that is not easily answered by a web search. I would not reach out to an AO to explain about adding the school late. Any AO email should be short and sweet. They do not want to open an email and see 30 lines of text.
-attend any additional college fairs where he might connect with the AOs
-Write well thought out supplemental essays, the “why us” ones are very important in terms of demonstrating the applicants fit according to what the school is looking for.
When reading college emails, turn off any anti-tracking features in your email reader/browser, and display images (if you on a metered connection like non-unlimited cellular data, wait until you get to an unmetered connection to display images). In this particular case, you want to be tracked.
I see no value in letting adcoms know their school is a late add.
Demonstrated interest isn’t as simple as booking a trip or reading emails. Those are actions, sure. But anyone could do that (and not truly care about the college.)
The trick is to know the school well enough to know your match (what they look for) in various ways and that you “get” what they’re about. That can include a few other details. But the idea is to show you’re interested enough to have dug deep, processed what you learned, and made a confident decision to apply.
look on the common data set filings for the schools to see if they even consider demonstrated interest. Not all schools do, or it may be a minor factor.
In addition to the advice above for showing demonstrated interest, your son can contact admissions and see if they can put him in touch with a student home on break that lives in your area to meet for coffee and talk about the school.
Given he won’t visit unless accepted, it sounds like these are distant. And selective distant colleges don’t expect everyone to visit since they will turn down most.
The CDS isn’t a truly reliable souce about the factors. It makes it seem X is “very important” while Y is only “important.” But in holistic, the higher the tier, the more it all matters. Of course it does, with the level of competition and admit rates not in your favor.
Why should they be oh-so-eager for a kid who visits, reads and sends notes to the adcom, but doesn’t seem to “get” the college in the basic ways they see themselves? Or, sorry, who thinks grades, some ECs, and some pro forma action is all it takes? You could have 20 colleges on your list, visit them all, still not be able to demonstrate. This is more than going through the motions.
OP’s son has been doing the deeper look. Now he needs to find ways to “show” his match. Subtly, not just pleading his love. Show, not just tell.
Neither of my sons did much in the way of “demonstrating interest” beyond writing thank you notes to their interviewer. However, we did learn that three (!) of the highly competitive colleges to which they applied had called their school and spoken to their college counselor. The counselor said this wasn’t at all unusual.
“You could have 20 colleges on your list, visit them all, still not be able to demonstrate”
Your posts on this I think, confuse fit vs demonstrated interest to see who’s most likely to enroll. The best way to show interest is to apply early but since OP is talking about RD, colleges could use demonstrated interest as one factor to figure out who gets accepted from similarly qualified applicants.
"Demonstrated interest isn’t as simple as booking a trip or reading emails. "
That’s actually a big part of it for schools that track interest. Many colleges have outsourced a lot of the analytics to third parties to figure out who will enroll, based on who opens emails, time spent on website etc. Now the colleges with yields over 70% probably don’t have to do this of course.
No, I see it less mechanical than that. Applying ED, in theory, says you will enroll, but getting them to want you is more than that. Think about it: do you think every ED applicant is automatically a match, just for using an earlier deadline? Not. Or that the only concern is yield? Not. In reality, kids still get confused, misunderstand, may not have the right mix of ECs, may write their essay about some random thing…I think you know the range of pitfalls.
Joe B- student can open emails. He can have been “dreaming” of, say, Stanford since kindergarten. He can apply early. And still not have the goods. If so, his chances are low, to begin with.
The more possible kids still need to show an understanding of the college, what it is and how to show your match. Analysts aren’t reading apps.
Turns out he already knew and has been following his picks on Instagram. He has met reps at college fairs though he is hesitant to email them even with a legitimate question (for one case).
His path has been slower than many. Slow to take school seriously so GPA is not stellar. Slow to figure out potential majors, or what he’s looking for in a school. It’s all good, we could not be prouder of where he is now, but he’s also been a little slow to get into the game of college admissions. (side note: IMO it is unrealistic for some 16/17 year olds to have a developed idea of what they are doing in life!)
Now he has to convince some reach schools that he’s never visited that he’s a good fit and his “meh” GPA is not reflective of his future potential. He’s one of these applicants where SAT scores are better than GPA.
He’s already been accepted to two safeties, so now it’s onward and upward.
