[The title of this post is the tl;dr version; what follows here are all the details.] I have a rising Junior who is doing lot of looking at six specific colleges already, and I know that some of the schools track online activity on their websites and count it toward demonstrated interest. She is going to have a really busy Junior year, plus she will be traveling or attending programs (related to her intended major) for most of next summer, so we wanted to get a lot of the leg work done early. She is pertty certain about her major (and I think it’s a really good fit) and is just looking at the schools that are consistently ranked as best for that major (we used six different lists and made our own aggregate score for each school; the top two schools were pretty obvious but it really helped rank the four other ones), so we’re now comparing the actual classes required for each school’s degree (if they’re posted), plus looking at each school’s internship/work experience opportunities, rates of employment, mentorship programs, alumni starting salaries, etc. We also already know that we can afford all of the schools and understand her chance of getting in (2 lottery, 4 match - although two of the matches might really be safeties based on GPA, but they rank well for the major itself so we consider them matches). We have scheduled in-person campus visits with two of the schools (our two favorite match schools) for this summer because we’ll be in the state for one and have time to drive up to visit the other. Also, we have a friend who is friends with a professor at one of the match schools we are visiting and said that professor would be happy to give an additional more-personal tour, plus the professor’s son recently graduated from that school in the major my daughter wants to pursue and he’s willing to set up an opportunity for her to ask his son questions. Both schools definitely like demonstrated interest. What I’m wondering is - is there a shelf life for demonstrated interest? If we do all this now because this is when we have the time, will it still count when she applies in a little over a year, or will they think she’s not as interested if her website visits slow down or she doesn’t do another campus visit the summer after her Junior year? We’ll find a way to keep up the demonstrated interest if necessary, but we’d rather have her focus on her grades, the SAT, and ECs next year instead.
Yes, it counts. Have the student make a gmail account just for college admissions, and sign up for these colleges’ mailing lists using that account. Use that account to reserve tours, etc., and the institution will keep track over time.
Demonstrated interest doesn’t really mean how many times you visit the website or how many tours you have taken. You can show demonstrated interest through your application, essays supplemental questions, etc. Doing what you are doing now, looking at the specific course requirements/sequence and understanding what makes each school unique will put your D in a good position to show her interest to the school in her application.
Thanks for the email tip. We had not thought about making a separate account just for college admissions.
For some schools, that’s exactly how they track demonstrated interest…examples that some schools use: whether emails are opened, if links in the emails are clicked and how long spent wherever on the website the link takes you, attending virtual and/or in person sessions, number of miles traveled to visit in person, applying ED (the ultimate expression of demonstrated interest). There are more examples, but that’s a good start.
OP- we found it helpful to designate an hour a week (it was Sunday night for us, YMMV) for all things college. My kids found it incredibly annoying (and that’s a euphemism) to have me checking in, asking questions, (they’d call it nagging) not to mention all the deadlines and random activities (are you signed up for the right SAT center?).
Your kid can use ten minutes of that hour to scan the email box and make sure that things are opened, read, saved, discarded; you guys can use the time to remind/cajole/suggest/plan visits, your kid can vent about how stressful it all is and you guys can vent about how expensive it all is.
And then go make popcorn and forget about it for another week.
I kept notes during the week of “important things” I needed to nag about, but the whole college thing didn’t take over our lives because we confined it to an hour. Of course essay writing and that stuff needs to take place during the week whenever there’s a spare 20 minutes or so to jot down ideas or edit… but the parent/kid/email component really doesn’t take more than an hour, unless of course, you let it seep into your entire life!!! I’d have been fine with that, my kids not so much…
And it relieves the pressure on your kid about “demonstrated interest” to know that you don’t have to open the emails in real time-- once a week to scan, see if there’s an event nearby, see if some alumnus is giving a coffee/info session at his house, etc.
I love your one-hour, once-per-week plan for D23, with the parent(s) making notes during the week of things that will need attention during that hour. We will definitely start using that! We have hired a counselor to help with the actual applications, essays, and deadlines when we get to those next fall, and I think having someone else nag my daughter instead of me will be worth the price we’re paying, lol. Thanks for the great suggestion.
That’s my understanding - that a lot of non-T20 schools are tracking online activity from individual IP addresses and matching those with actual student info when possible. I am totally fine with that and am, in fact, aiming to take advantage of it to demonstrate interest to her favorite three or four schools. I am just wondering if it’s okay to slack off a bit next year so she can focus on actual work (keep that GPA up, get a good SAT score, actually enjoy her ECs). It doesn’t sound like anyone knows for certain, but I think we’ll be able to manage it using blossom’s great suggestion.