Thank you very much. Appreciate your input.
Your point is very correct, and directly in line with insightful question one could ask. Thank you
You are NOT going to develop a “reasonable relationship” with ANY AO. That simply does not happen in the real world,
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YOU do NOT have a reasonable excuse. Your STUDENT might.
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No matter what you have heard from various podcasts, etc, the odds that your student speaking directly with an AO will make a meaningful difference in the actual decision to admit or not are extremely small.
You or your student might develop a rapport with somebody in the engineering department. It might help your student in shortlisting their preferred programs. But it is NOT going to make the difference in an admission decision.
Bona fides: direct experience on engineering admissions panels.
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Rick Clark’s book “The Truth About College Admissions” was one of the best I read on the topic.
My D had a genuine question for her admissions officer at UDel. The AO offered to do a Zoom call with her but since she was 17 I needed to be present. I said nothing in the call other than hello since I wanted my kids to handle their own college admission processes. Not sure if it helped with the outcome, but she was offered admission with a good merit scholarship. She was also admitted with good merit to the colleges that offered an “optional” interview, so any optional essays or interviews are worthwhile.
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OP- you need to cover off the basics on “demonstrated interest” and then back off and let the admissions folks do their thing.
Basics- your kid needs to create an email address which is appropriate and professional (so not "Party2Nite@hotmail.com) and check it daily. Every single day. I’ve heard of kids missing departmental scholarship opportunities because the Adcom emailed “The deadline for the underwater pottery scholarship is next Friday” but the kid assumed (no kid, no) that anything important would come via a text. WRONG.
Your kid needs to make a spreadsheet with all of his deadlines- the hard ones, the soft ones, the stupid ones (like the math teacher says that all requests for a recommendation have to be in writing, on her desk, by October 1). And that gets checked once a week and/or updated as new information becomes available.
Your kid needs to keep a running list of virtual tours, Q&A’s, “Meet the professor” Zooms, etc. for any school on his list- even the safety schools (especially the safety schools). And needs to at least log on- even if he only sticks around for the first 15 minutes.
Your kid needs to have physically toured (and checked in at admissions) any college which is within a 75 mile radius of your house, OR easily accessible via public transportation/bus.
That’s it. Seriously. If your kid starts emailing to ask for lunch suggestions, asking random questions which are either on the website or no human being could possibly know (“Are applications going up or down this year?”) he will end up in the “this kid is a noodge” pile which is not where he wants to be.
There are different rules if your kid is applying to a Musical Theater or other performance-based majors; there are different rules if your kid is a recruited athlete; there are different rules if your name is Barron Trump. But since you didn’t post that these things are in play, you can stick to my rules and be very confident that your kid has showed the right amount of demonstrated interest.
And you need to realize that the person who answers the phone in an admissions office-- and that person’s boss-- have zero sway whatsoever into an admissions decision. Except to flag your kid’s file with a “kid is incredibly annoying and calls with dumb questions” yellow sticky which is not a good look.
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The only things I would add to the post above are:
–Have your S sign up early for interviews when colleges do offer them. Interviews may be done on campus (in conjunction with a visit at times), locally either with an alumni or when an Adcom is visiting high schools in your vicinity, and there could be online options as well at some colleges.
Not all colleges offer interviews.
–If the Adcom visits the HS or hosts an event in your area your son should make every effort to attend.
FWIW my D applied to LACs that definitely valued demonstrated interest. She visited, interviewed, and for one college that had a program and was her top choice she shadowed a student for a day. The only emails sent to Adcoms were brief thank yous after interviews.
As others have said Adcoms are busy and are not looking for emails from people simply trying to check a box in his or her application.
Keep in mind that the most definitive sign of interest is applying binding ED although I recognize that is not a possibility or the right choice for every school and/or every student.
(sorry @blossom I meant to reply to the thread, not to you directly.)
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Many good suggestions on this thread, but wanted to point out a couple of things that changed since Covid:
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Most colleges stopped doing on campus (and in general, in-person) interviews. Maybe that’s reverting back now, but haven’t personally heard of any that switched back.
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Plenty of AO high school visits became virtual.
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Most tippy-top schools stopped considering DI (other than applying ED).
I agree that reading the college’s emails, opening links they send and writing tailored essays are the best ways to demonstrate interest.
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thank you. That is very correct great updated advice.
A number of colleges have resumed in-person interviews, HS visits etc. YMMV - the OP’s son should check the website of any college he is interested in.
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My two kids attended highly selective colleges and programs. They did not contact adcoms to ask questions. When visiting each college in person, my kids lined up meetings with departments heads or faculty where possible (contacting them directly) and with students in their fields of interest and with those who ran the specific extracurricular activities they planned to take part in. When writing their Why X College essays, they were able to reference having met with these people and what they learned that appealed to them, etc. They didn’t have these meetings for that reason (though that was a benefit) but to genuinely learn more about the college beyond a tour and information session.
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This is exactly what both my kids did BTW.
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My son actually did form friendly email relationships with a couple of AOs he met at college fairs or when they visited his high school (we live overseas), but I don’t think that had any impact on the admissions process. I think the dynamic was different, as the schools had made significant investments in having the AOs travel to the county where we live, and it seemed only fair to let them know their efforts made a difference in our son’s decision to apply or do a campus visit. From an admissions perspective, I think the interviews were far more important, even where they were intended to be just informational. An interview he did with a recent alumni of the school he ultimately chose was very helpful when he wrote his “Why X school” essay, particularly as he had not visited.
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