<p>Last year, S1 applied to Elon and was wait listed. The wait list letter mentioned that those students who had shown greatest interest in Elon would have the greatest chance of being admitted. He never visited Elon so it didn't surprise me that he never made it off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Recently, our D's high school hosted a college information night for juniors. It was suggested that, because of the time and expense involved, that there was no need to visit out of state schools that students were interested in. The speaker recommended that students visit a nearby urban, suburban, and rural college/university to get a general feel for the college experience and to wait for acceptance letters from out-of-state colleges before visiting those.</p>
<p>Based on S1's experience, I'm wondering, do colleges keep track of who has visited and shown interest in the school and does this have an impact on whether or not students are accepted?</p>
<p>Some colleges keep track of visits and make it abundantly clear that it makes a difference in admissions. Others could not care less. As a general rule the big state schools do not care. Also schools like HPY don’t seem to care either. I’ve known a number of kids who did not bother to visit and were accepted. </p>
<p>When we visited UVA some years ago, some folks were trying to find where they could sign a log showing that they were visiting. I remember the guide saying there is no such log, and no one tracks the visits. On the other hand, there were some school that we visited last year, that were meticulous about recording the contacts we had with them. They were very clear that they looked at that information.</p>
<p>Based on S’s results, I think the LAC’s definitely track visits. On one of our visits, S interviewed, and we later found out interviews are “highly recommended” for scholarships. I would visit the schools that are tops on the list, but at a minimum, get on the school’s mailing list and have some contact.</p>
<p>I think “showing interest” means more than just going on a campus tour. Calling or writing letters to the admissions office showing your continued interest in the school, updating them with new activities or grades not on the application, etc. is probably a better use of your time.</p>
<p>I think it makes a difference for the LACs. It was noted, recorded and discussed everytime D1 was contacted by school. Attended a program at St. Olaf and the admissions people said it was very important to them.</p>
<p>D applied to more than one school that indicated that interest in the school was tracked and considered. Now that the acceptance “dust” has settled, my opinion: I don’t really think it matters. It didn’t for us. D ignored one school - a reach, at best - and, lo and behold, got accepted without a visit or any demonstrated interest. Her other reach school - she visited twice (easy to do as it was not far away) and got denied admittance. </p>
<p>On another thread, a student mentioned his acceptance to Rice. He had never visited campus and yet lived in Houston. (Rice mentions that demonstrated interest is considered. However, to live in Houston and never visit the Rice campus is probably the antithesis of demonstrated interest.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I just think that if visiting is a factor at all, it’s less significant than applicants are led to believe.</p>
<p>I think there are clearly two different categories of colleges – one group tracks and cares very much about demonstrated interest; the other does not pay attention to it at all (although they may have sign-in sheets for visitors for other reasons).</p>
<p>Visiting would be one way to show interest for the first group but is irrelevant for the second.</p>
<p>I’ve also read an opinion expressed (somewhere on C.C) that if you show “too much” interest, some colleges will not give you as much financial aid as they would if you showed “just the right amount” of interest. I have no idea if that is true.</p>
<p>It’s not just a question of LACs vs. Unis. Sometimes you can find this info in the common data set. Sometimes it’s on the website. A school that “highly, highly, highly, highly, highly” (U. of Rochester) recommends an interview probably cares about demonstrated interest. Schools like Harvard that have way too many applicants that are interested and certainly don’t want to be bombarded with love notes don’t care.</p>
<p>Also, it is not necessarily just the school itself. THere are sometimes programs within a college where visiting and talking to those running the program is worth doing. FOr Cornell, some of its schools require an interview, for instance, whereas others just do not.</p>
<p>This would be a great subject for a sticky thread - schools that care if you visit and schools that you don’t. It can be kind of distressing if you’ve visited and keep getting letters and emails inviting you to visit.</p>
<p>Someone this year had a story of being rejected or maybe WL’d by a school. The parent suspected it was because the student didn’t make a formal visit. The student felt she didn’t need to because she’d been on the campus numerous times for various things…but of course, that wasn’t logged any where.</p>
<p>There is an interesing article in the April 6th issue of “Time” entitled, “The Financial Aid Game” that mentions this very thing. The article mainly addresses financial aid but it does mention how interest, or lack there of, in this particular college made a difference:</p>
<p>“The admissions officers are scanning for high scores and hotshot extracurricular activities, but they’re also on alert for interest in Skidmore and evidence that a student will thrive in college. A young African-American woman from a Southern city, for example, had impressed Dean Mendes, assistant director of admissions, during their on-campus interview. The student recounted waking up at 4 a.m. to catch a bus to school when her family didn’t have a car. Even though her hodgepodge of A’s and B’s didn’t put her at the top of the academic heap, the grades were good enough to confirm Mendes’ early impression that she would be a good fit. Accepted. A National Merit Scholar from California with a 3.88 GPA, by contrast, was a “remarkable” student, according to her U.S. history teacher. But on the application page that offered spaces to indicate whether she had visited the campus, browsed Skidmore’s website or otherwise sought to learn more about the school, the student was 0 for 11. “No contact,” scrawled an admissions officer. Waitlisted.”</p>
<p>I am making sure that my D shows some kind of interest in her college choices, just to be on the safe side. It doesn’t make sense to me why you would apply to a school without checking it out thoroughly, but that’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>If you read a college’s admissions website carefully, it’s usually clear which camp the college is in – interest-trackers or don’t-cares. And of course admissions people will give a clear answer if asked (at a college night, or school visit, or similar forum). They have no interest in hiding the ball.</p>
<p>I would also distinguish between showing interest and visiting. Colleges understand – or at least SHOULD understand, and certainly most do – that not every kid can afford to visit every college that might be perfect for him or her. What’s more, in many cases the students a college may be most intrigued by – nonwealthy, nonconnected kids from outside the college’s home region – are the ones who may not be able to visit. Going to local presentations, getting a local alumni interview, corresponding a few times with admissions officers: all that can be just as effective at showing interest as signing in for an on-campus tour.</p>
<p>There is one thing I would do, however, if you are not going to visit. The colleges that track interest are also the colleges that worry about yield, and they know that it’s often hard for a kid to pick a school he has never seen over one that he has. So I would try to communicate clearly something like, “I really want to go to college in another region, but that means I won’t be able to visit any of my top choices.”</p>
<p>It is good as the above poster mentions, to be on the “safe side”…but our experiences mimic those of ignatius…we purposely visited my daughter’s top choices and they were not reaches, but matches…she was waitlisted to two of them while others who had not even attended an info session locally were admitted… and, yes, she continued to “demonstrate interest” even after the visit…</p>
<p>the message: visit, but don’t think it will make a huge difference if they don’t really want whatever your kid brings to the table…</p>
<p>Geography plays a role as well. Few if any schools expect someone to travel across the county for a pre-admission campus tour. On the other hand, if you live reasonably close–getting your name on the list certainly makes sense. </p>
<p>There are other ways of showing interest–asking for an alumni interview in your area generally counts the same as having an on campus interview.</p>
<p>missypie, I’ve asked the same question. You can look at the CDS for schools to see if level of interest is something they consider. Not all LACs seem to care. For instance, Macalester and Carleton state that interest is not considered. Brandeis says that level of interest is very important, and really seems to hammer that point home. Another resource to fill in holes in release of the CDS is the P’ton review.</p>
<p>The folks at Harvey Mudd seemed to care somewhat about “interest,” but more about getting to know applicants and being sure that the applicants know Mudd (i.e., interview).</p>
<p>I think this is because they’re very specific about their target population fitting their mission. They want to know that the students know what they’re getting into, and that the students are there because they want what Mudd offers.</p>
<p>With their w:eek:rkl:eek:ad, I imagine the extra motivation of wanting to be there is pretty important around midterms.</p>
<p>I hope with economic times the way they are, you don’t always have to visit. I told my girls we just can’t take our old car or a plane trip too far unless they are accepted to a certain colllege. We are visiting closer ones but will a few emails or the student asking for info help?
I think there’s a fine line between being interested, apathetic or over the top…I think some students bombard a college and might be annoying. If they really, really want you, you probably don’t have to do very much, if you are in-between, interest can help or hurt and if they aren’t interested, there might be a very good chance, nothing would help you. I just hope they consider some students can only do so much.</p>
<p>Colleges are beginning to notice the “stealth applicant” phenomenon – students who have no contact with the school until they apply (online, of course). As the trend grows, and it undoubtedly will, schools may find that they cannot assume that lack of contact necessarily translates into lack of commitment, and that automatically disqualifying stealth students may mean disqualifying some very good students.</p>
<p>BTW Debruns, my D applied to Earlham in stealth mode, and was not only accepted but awarded a sizable merit scholarship, sight unseen. Earlham may be in the minority now, but I’d bet that as time goes on, the “stealth stigma” will diminish at many schools. </p>
<p>Debruns, there are other ways of demonstrating interest. Many colleges send their regional admissions reps out to make presentations in different parts of the country. You can press your school to invite admissions reps from your daughters’ target colleges to make presentations at the school. Your daughters could schedule interviews during one of these visits (school or city), or call and arrange telephone interviews. If they’re well informed about the college and taking steps like these, then their “interest” will be discernible. I wouldn’t worry too much about a physical visit in this case, especially if your financial situation obviously precludes it.</p>