I’ve seen many post in certain college threads that say showing interest is important in admissions. How do you show interest to a school you like? Do you sign up for tours? Email them? What would you even say if you emailed them? Does doing one of their summer programs/camps a way to show interest? Is there any other way to show interest?
Thank you and sorry for all those questions. Answering any of them would be really helpful!
First you should check to see if showing interest does matter. Google the name of the school and “Common Data Set”. It will take you to a report and in it you can find out how important (or not) interest is to that particular school.
Now, assuming it is, You can sign up for any email newsletter for prospective students and take a tour and go to an admissions talk (make sure you sign up before hand and sign in when you get there). If they offer interviews, make sure you do one.
There may be some unofficial ways to show interest. If you live close enough you could attend some events on campus. They won’t actually know this though unless you tell them. So either in an essay or interview you can mention some of these events. (Probably really good in a “Why this college” essay.)
Showing interest would mean visiting the school for a tour or info session and making sure to sign in with admissions. It could be stopping by their table at a college fair or making sure to meet with a rep if they visit your high school. You could also request an overnight visit or sit in on a class. You could email your regional rep with a question.
Attending a summer camp at a college usually has no effect
There are quite a few threads about this on CC, so do a search and you will see lots of good suggestions. I also highly recommend requesting an interview, especially if you can’t visit the college. I don’t think Ivys and tippy top schools let you do that though.
I agree that the first thing to do is check the common data set for each school you are interested in and see if demonstrated interest is a factor. Some things to do to show interest include:
–Visiting the school (be sure to sign in so they know you were there)
–Put your name on email list for school
–Participate in online chat sessions if available
–Email your admission rep if you have a question that cannot be answered on the website
–If a college rep visits your HS go to the meeting
–If the college rep is at a college fair near you try to go (especially if you can’t visit school)
–Request an interview (if available). If you don’t live near the school you can ask for a local alumni interview
Be careful emailing reps with ?s. My kid tried doing this, and of the roughly ten reps she emailed with legitimate ?s, only about three ever bothered to get back to her. She might have emailed twice, a reasonable amount of time between emails. After no response, she didn’t try again, because she didn’t want to bug them. One of the colleges that never responded did accept her. A couple of reps were good about responding. One rep actually did a mass email: “tell me about your favorite book you read over the summer.” D responded, no response. It was really annoying in fact. And all the websites said “please email us with your questions, we love to hear from you, BLAH, blah…”
The reps often change, and schools don’t update the websites. They quit, go on leave, or get assigned to a different region. It is pretty hit or miss to try to email with them. If they are in a busy time of year (late fall to mid-March), they are heads down reading apps. Or they go on vacation and come back to too many emails to respond to. They can also sniff out a “showing interest” email vs a question that can’t be researched elsewhere from a mile away.
Also, only interview if you think you are a strong interviewer. You can hurt your chances if you aren’t.
@intparent my D is very shy and quiet. She applied to several colleges that consider interest, and because she wanted to do as much as was reasonable to up her chances, she interviewed for most of the 12 colleges she applied to. At least two of her colleges STRONGLY suggested interviews. Due to distance, she was unable to visit three of her colleges. She was very nervous for her first one, but each subsequent interview got a little easier. She learned valuable skills from interviewing. She has acceptances from two colleges she interviewed for, so far. One was one of the colleges that strongly encouraged interviewing. If she doesn’t get into some of her other colleges, it won’t be because she interviewed. She could tell at the time that the interviews either went well or at least decent. Most people know when they have had a bad interview. I would personally only not interview if you are terrified of talking to strangers. On the other hand, if you can express interest by visiting, that is probably the best way to show interest. I don’t knwo if my D was a strong interviewer, but most of the time, people understand you are young and nervous, and how many interviews has a 17 or 18 year old had?
I think there a few things to consider before interviewing. Think of things you would like the interviewer to know about you. Think of some current events that might be slipped into the conversation, in that they might be relateable to what your interests are. Research the college, esp if you can’t visit. Be sure to include some relevant info about the college, so the interviewer knows you are interested in the college. Jot down a few points you would like to work into the conversation if possible. Most of all, take your cues from your interviewer. They are giving you opportunities to let a college know more about you.
If a school does track interest, then make sure you sign up for their email lists, open every email they send you, and click on some of the links in the emails. As others said, participate in video sessions, follow the school on facebook/twitter - anything you can do that registers your email address with them.
Actually visiting the school is best, however schools do understand that logistically this is not always possible if the school is a great distance away.
The more prestigious and competitive the school is, the less likely they are to care about “demonstrated interest”. Duke clearly states on their site they don’t track this. They don’t need to. The schools that are most interested in this are schools that often are used as “safety” schools. They want to focus on kids who really want to be there, not kids who just sent the common app to them because it was easy and they figured they would be a shoo-in.
One way of showing interest often overlooked is to answer any and all “optional” questions on the application.
Some schools can see if you ever open emails they send you.
Check your portal regularly, too, they can see if you do that after applying.
Regarding interviews, my D2 is quite shy and somewhat quirky. She did a couple of interviews (at schools she did not end up applying too) that were pretty painful. We decided to NOT have her interview any more, so she did not interview anyplace she applied. She got in everyplace she applied, including her reaches, even the schools that strongly suggested interviews. She got very good merit aid at all the non-reaches. I do NOT think that building interview skills during the college search is a good idea. You risk hurting your admissions chances – sure, better interview skills are great. But not at the expense of your admissions chances. There are plenty of other ways to show interest that don’t risk your admissions chances. It isn’t the “best” way to show interest – there is no one “best” way. Try to do a variety of things, and if they have a “Why College X?” essay, make sure you are quite specific to their school so they can see that you really do know the difference between colleges and why it is right for you.
@Lindagaf Interesting that your D did not get responses to emails at LACs. My D had a different experience. Emailed reps at 5 or 6 LACs with specific questions and got timely and thoughtful responses from all.
@TomSrOfBoston you make an excellent point. An ‘optional’ essay or short answer question is really mandatory at a school you are interested in.
@ivyleaguer225 another suggestion is to get in touch with profs in departments you are interested in. If you already know you want to study chemistry for example, find out a little something about the professors in that department. You could enquire about some particular research you have learned about. Be careful with this approach though, you do not want to annoy a professor with frivolous questions. This is probably an idea that works best if you absolutely know where you want to apply and what you want to study.
@intparent , that is another valid perspective. I think I read on another thread that your D had exceptionally good grades, test scores, etc… She obviously wrote top notch supplements, and no doubt was a great candidate without an interview. My kid is not as high stats as yours, from what I gathered. In her case, we felt that an interview could be helpful because she is weaker in a couple of areas, notably ECs. Apparently interviews don’t make or break an applicant, unless the interview is really bad, but I think in my D’s case, every little extra helps. At any rate, asking for an interview is a relatively easy way to indicate interest, especially at a school that might be concerned a kid is applying to it as a safety.
@wisteria100 , that is funny. One of the colleges D has been accepted to was one of the main culprits for never responding. And what cracked her up was that this same rep signed her acceptance letter by hand.
Even if you email with a prof, that probably won’t get back to admissions, so won’t help directly. It can give you info for your “Why College X?” essay, though. But don’t email with questions that have an answer available on the college website, or that aren’t “real” questions.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1626043-ways-to-show-a-high-level-of-applicants-interest-p1.html is an older discussion on this topic.