<p>I know colleges like to see that you've taken an interest in them, maybe visited the college or did a summer program there. I'm just wondering how involved should I be? I'm pretty sure that they don't expect me to know everything about them and to go to 10 tours. What is a good balance of how many visits I should do, how often I should ask the college questions via phone or email, etc?</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Some don’t track demonstrated interest at all, but others consider it quite a bit.</p>
<p>You don’t need to spam them with questions or visit a ridiculous number of times. Visiting once and attending a tour and information session in your sophomore or junior year demonstrates a reasonable level of interest. There is no need for a second visit until you are admitted.</p>
<p>As for asking questions, you should do so only when you have a question that needs to be answered via phone or email (i.e. the information is not on the website or in the printed materials you have).</p>
<p>Requesting information by adding yourself to the mailing list also demonstrates interest.</p>
<p>Further, at schools that track interest, it may be to your advantage to attend one of their local admissions presentations (but attending multiple presentations is unnecessary and redundant) and/or a visit at your high school.</p>
<p>Sending an update with any significant additions to your application (i.e. additions that are worth their time to add to your file) in January or February of your senior year also demonstrates interest.</p>
<p>Perhaps attending an online chat session or asking for a video tour for schools that offer them might be worth it, too.</p>
<p>Bottom line: There’s no need to do any particular thing more than once, nor is there any need to ask questions for the sake of asking questions. You definitely don’t need to do all of the things I listed, as they’re just some suggestions as to how you could show interest.</p>
<p>Remember, at schools that don’t track and/or don’t consider interest in their admissions process, there’s no need to show any interest at all, but you should still visit if possible so that you know enough about the school to make your decisions.</p>