I plan to apply to Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and the Penn State and St. Bonaventure combined medical programs. How much of an influence would visiting these campuses have on admissions chances?
It only has an effect to the extent that a) they use ‘demonstrated interest’ as an admission factor or b) allows you to answer “Why College X?” essays better. Pretty sure the first 3 do not track interest.
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It used to be taken as a sign of demonstrated interest. But since so many students started playing that game, to a lot of super-competitive schools, it doesn’t mean anything anymore.
It may give you the advantage of seeing something on campus you can mention that isn’t on the website. Other than that, not really as advantageous as it once was. If it comes down to Applicant A and B fighting for one of the last seats and they’re comparable in SAT/ACT, GPA, extracurricular load, etc., it might come down to demonstrated interest. Atleast, that’s what most admissions counselors say.
You can google the common data set for each college and it will tell you if that school uses demonstrated interest as a factor in admissions.