<p>I went to Columbia multiple times to see a cousin... but I didnt take an official tour. Does that count?</p>
<p>Its definitely visiting the campus but I worry that they keep records of official campus tours and then reject me for "lying"</p>
<p>Help?</p>
<p>yeah for admissions purposes they also keep official records of the books you've read, your interests, your hours of community service.</p>
<p>does the app question even ask if you've officially toured campus!! - it asks if you've visited, answer the question, stop being so paranoid, and do something with your senior winter break.</p>
<p>You are taking the insignificant portion of the application too seriously. I highly doubt the AOs have time to check their official record book for college visits.
Don't worry so much about that, worry about your essay etc.
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>well.. I have never been there.... does it affect me if I checked "no"?</p>
<p>Probably not. It's a way to show interest, but especially at schools with so many applicants, interest isn't too important.</p>
<p>idk i'd have to disagree. i did tour about two weeks before submitting ED and they were pleased that students did actually come to check out the school. the same opinion holds from reps i've talked to. if you can afford and have time, do it. if not, oh well.</p>
<p>i think you get a boost over somebody else that hasn't visited no matter how small that boost is.</p>
<p>at least columbia isn't one of those colleges where demonstrated interest is VERY important. For example, Emory has dvd tours for you to get from a service and then they send out a follow up letter to ask you to come visit them. to emory, they state explicitly that demonstrated interest is very important.</p>
<p>Thank you all! That was really quick.
And ConfidentialColl, I will try my best to enjoy the last 2 days of my winter break lol (i'm a nerd)</p>
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Probably not. It's a way to show interest, but especially at schools with so many applicants, interest isn't too important.
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<p>Horrible post. Absolutely horrible. The fact that Columbia gets so many applicants makes showing an interest important.</p>
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at least columbia isn't one of those colleges where demonstrated interest is VERY important. For example, Emory has dvd tours for you to get from a service and then they send out a follow up letter to ask you to come visit them. to emory, they state explicitly that demonstrated interest is very important.
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<p>I'm not sure what "very important" means to you, but a demonstrated interest is important in a number of ways. It's not all about letting Columbia know you've visited the campus; it's more so showing Columbia that you've thought about: what it means to attend Columbia, what you want to get out of Columbia, why you think you'd benefit from the unique aspects of Columbia, how you'd benefit Columbia and your classmates if you were to attend, etc. If you've figured all of these things out, you've shown a great interest in the school.</p>
<p>And it's got a unique campus.</p>
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I'm not sure what "very important" means to you, but a demonstrated interest is important in a number of ways. It's not all about letting Columbia know you've visited the campus; it's more so showing Columbia that you've thought about: what it means to attend Columbia, what you want to get out of Columbia, why you think you'd benefit from the unique aspects of Columbia, how you'd benefit Columbia and your classmates if you were to attend, etc. If you've figured all of these things out, you've shown a great interest in the school.
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<p>well, probably should ask what does "demonstrated interest" mean to colleges? It's exactly what the phrase says. You have to demonstrate in tangible ways that you are interested in columbia. i'm sure that most applicant have a sense of why they would like to apply/attend but flying over there, or talking to alumni, contacting professors..that's different.So by VERY important based on Emory's standards, its that you SHOULD go ont hat tour, get that DVD, talk to those alum, go to the regional meetings.</p>
<p>But you make a good point, I do think that EVERYONE should try to do what is feasible for them to learn more about the college, not just sign your name on the RSVP list (which is still the end result). I drove 3.5 hours to go to Columbus to attend a regional meeting with C + Rice + Brown + UChicago. It further affirmed what I liked about Columbia and it got me a chance to talk to people that could give me answers to my questions. On top of that, I flew out to Columbia. It helps you learn about that school genuinely and I'd bet that it leaves a good impression especially when they make you give your picture to them and stuff.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>The fact that Columbia gets so many applicants makes showing an interest important.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I think just the opposite. The fact that Colubia is so selective and they have so many eager applicants makes "interest" even less important. Having tens of thousands of applicants clamoring for a couple of thousand slots means they already have way more than enough kids showing tons of interest. With a huge pool of applicants, nearly all of whom are <em>highly</em> interested in Columbia, they are going to choose between them based on traits and achievements that are rare and unusual. Being interested in Columbia is not the least bit unusual.</p>
<p>Schools that put a lot of stock in "showing interest" are not schools in the HYPSM class but rather ones in the next tier down. For example Pomona College. In California, Pomona is sick and tired of being Stanford's back up school. They want to weed out the applicants who regard them as such. So they put big importance on showing interest and expect applicants to visit the campus. They want to accept the kids who really love Pomona. Stanford, on the other hand, couldn't less about showing interest. They (correctly) assume that <em>all</em> their applicants are very interested. In the larger scheme, I think Columbia fits more in the Stanford model rather than the Pomona model.</p>
<p>all right this is turning out to be pathetically misinformed thread.</p>
<p>1) they hardly care if you've visited campus, it's usually a function of wealth and not doing anything with your junior summer other than seeing colleges, a poor kid, an international kid, or a kid really devoted to a summer project aren't less interested in columbia if they don't visit.</p>
<p>2) showing a deep interest in columbia is absolutely essential to getting in, precisely because there are 20,000+ applicants. 'showing an interest' is not a binary variable, there are massive shades of grey in how much interest you can show, visiting campus doesn't win you these points. The ad coms also won't place much weightage to it, because it's yes/no question and is completely unverifiable.</p>
<p>3)showing a deep interest is a bare threshold for getting in, if you're an idiot and you show a deep interest you're clearly not getting in, if you are brilliant and you don't demonstrate a great interest in columbia you in all likelihood will get rejected (ask cerberus, she's interviewing several kids and tells me about some of them).</p>
<p>im only a sophomore in hs, but out of all the colleges i've visited (like 11 or so...), Columbus is AMAZING when it comes to facilities, location, and overall layout/architecture.</p>
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>>The fact that Columbia gets so many applicants makes showing an interest important.<<</p>
<p>I think just the opposite. The fact that Colubia is so selective and they have so many eager applicants makes "interest" even less important. Having tens of thousands of applicants clamoring for a couple of thousand slots means they already have way more than enough kids showing tons of interest. With a huge pool of applicants, nearly all of whom are <em>highly</em> interested in Columbia, they are going to choose between them based on traits and achievements that are rare and unusual. Being interested in Columbia is not the least bit unusual.
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<p>You're wrong. It doesn't matter what you "think." Read my post and confidentialcoll's post for further explanation.</p>
<p>^^I guess you are right. I was wrong about Columbia. It's not like HYPS - schools that don't care about you showing interest because they know its applicants are all very interested. It must be one of those insecure lower-tier schools - worried that applicants are only mildly interested.</p>
<p>^ "It's not like HYPS - schools that don't care about you showing interest because they know its applicants are all very interested."</p>
<p>I applied to Princeton, but I don't give a crap about that school, so I guess their applicants are NOT all very interested, huh? However, I do care very much if I get accepted to Columbia or not. </p>
<p>"It must be one of those insecure lower-tier schools - worried that applicants are only mildly interested."</p>
<p>I'm sure it's very worried, because obviously, having to turn away 90% of applicants who spent days or even months crafting their essays, filling out a seperate application, and researching on the school despite a large student body shows that it doesn't get enough people applying.</p>
<p>^i think coureur was being sarcastic lol..</p>
<p>^ I know, but I was ****ed off then at my 78 problem physics homework due tomorrow morning so I was letting out some of my steam and he/she happened to be my target. the poor thing. lol sorry. </p>
<p>Even so...I'm still ****ed at him/her for saying those things...even if he/she is sarcastic. should just accept he/she was wrong and let the CU alumni/students handle it. what does he/she know? No need to be sassy...</p>
<p>eating food i think you've misread the way in which coureur was being sarcastic. s/he was telling us: "ok, you just called your school a tier below hyps, because it cares about interest, hahahahahaha". s/he was still disagreeing, just mocking our argument instead of framing any. Kitkatz should be pssed off, as am I.</p>
<p>@coureur: interest is a bare minimum requirement at these schools. Are you kidding me that HYPS don't care about interest? go onto their forums and look at the EA threads / RD threads from last year. People all have very similar profiles regardless of the final outcome. They care about how badly people want to come to their school, noone's yeild is perfect, and showing an interest in the school might also mean that they'd be more motivated to perform better while at the school. </p>
<p>where on earth do you get that they don't care about fit and interest? ever tried getting through an interview showing that you don't care, yet you're good enough? It's exactly the same with an application which makes you write essays. and even if, miraculously, hyps doesn't care about interest, how does caring about interest put you in a tier below?</p>
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Horrible post. Absolutely horrible. The fact that Columbia gets so many applicants makes showing an interest important.
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Columbia2002, could you be any more condescending? I'm sorry I was so terribly wrong, all I did was repeat what I had been told on this board. I apologize if I was mistaken.</p>