<p>People always say that showing interest in a school always helps your chances. How are are you supposed to show interest, I just dont under stand what that means and how to do it, and if I did it would it help at all.</p>
<p>Take an official tour, set up a meeting with an admissions officer, set up a meeting with a professor in your intended major, etc. Some schools keep track of these things, others don't.</p>
<p>It's really just doing what you're probably doing already, just letting the admissions office know about it. If you visit campus, even for an unofficial tour (like driving through on a weekend), send them an e-mail and let them know how much you enjoyed it. Request the viewbook rather than waiting for it to come to you. When you have a question, consider calling or e-mailing them rather than, say, just asking on this site. :) Go to open houses or do an overnight. Things like that.</p>
<p>If you're in a situation where you can't visit until spring (after decisions come out), or can't afford to visit, would it suffice to send e-mails asking questions to the admins/professors/advisors?</p>
<p>Many top schools don't care about your interest (it even says so in their common data sets).</p>
<p>You certainly want to do everything that the posters above have said, but the best way to show your interest in a school is to show that you really know something about the school, that it isn't just another one in the stack of applications you're completing. When the time comes for you to complete the question on that school's application that asks you "Why this school?" (and they all ask that question), really answer the question, and don't respond with a generic "because I think it will most closely match my interests." Refer to something you saw on your tour or overheard on campus, or read about on their website or in their viewbook, or some program at the school that particularly interests you. That's really what is meant when everyone says that you should show your interest in the school.</p>