<p>The word on the street has been that Lehigh considered level of interest because it had become a safety school for Ivy applicants, and they needed to increase their yield.</p>
<p>Ways to show interest, aside from visiting or meeting with a regional rep, or checking the portal (yeah, that was kind of a surprise)- </p>
<p>Apply Early Decision. Many schools like to matriculate students who are delighted to go there, and not miffed because they did not get into their “first choice” or could not afford to go to an alternative with more prestige. Even Ivies have higher acceptance rates for students who apply early.</p>
<p>If you are an NMF, put down the school as your first choice.</p>
<p>Become familiar with course offerings and programs unique to that school, and be prepared to talk or write about how they interest you. If you are going to major in engineering, are you interested in their co-op program (and the companies that routinely hire from the school), opportunities to take classes in the business program, or another sequence of classes (eight semesters of Arabic or Mandarin, with multiple sections of each level) available at that school, but not others in that range? (We discovered years ago that schools such as Rose-Hulman and Ursinus had thriving Japanese programs, for instance.)</p>
<p>If your first plan does not work and you drop engineering or pre-med (not uncommon even at “less selective” schools) or your interests change, are there other majors that are exciting to you? Are you thinking of a double major or an interdisciplinary major, or an opportunity to complete an MS degree?</p>
<p>Familiarize yourself with the clubs and EC’s at the school. Even if you are not a varsity athlete, perhaps there are club sports that might interest you? If you are not a dance or theater major, you might still want to know that there are ample opportunities to partcipate in these activities. </p>
<p>Does the school offer research opportunities, and will you want to participate in these? Are there particular professors whose books you have read? Particular classes you would like to take?</p>
<p>I am sure that schools do want to increase yield, but they probably also want to develop a critical mass of students who are happy to be there and thus more likely to thrive, contribute to the community on campus, and also return for sophomore year and graduate within four or six years. But, it seems it is not enough to passively “love thy safety” these days…</p>
<p>Good ideas, frazzled2thecore. However, not everyone can take the financial risk of applying ED and not being able to negotiate a financial package.</p>
<p>Please, please, please do not turn one article about one college into “we need to start showing interest by visiting all colleges much earlier and much more often during the high school years”, which is the sense I’m getting from a couple of posters.</p>
<p>Small colleges care about visits and “interest” a lot. Large universities, generally not so much. It is very easy to look up how individual colleges feel about visits and “interest”. Don’t extrapolate from one college to another.</p>
<p>The University of Virginia clearly states that they do not care if you visit, they do not keep track of visits, and there is no way to even register for visits. If you want a tour, you just show up.</p>
<p>The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, in the other hand, has a portal where you create an account to register for a tour, and you use that same portal and user ID for every contact you have with UNC moving forward.</p>
<p>UNC cares about interest, UVA does not.</p>
<p>Interesting article but I am concluding that these particular “intangibles” are specific to Lehigh, and probably weigh less at other institutions. There is no mention whatsoever of athletic recruits or other “special talents” that we all know weigh heavily in the admissions process. So if Lehigh is high on your list then this may be helpful insight, but otherwise - “meh”.</p>
<p>Our search was limited to Midwest LACs, and it was pretty evident from both admissions staff presentations at open houses, and from one-on-one conversations with admission reps that “level of interest” played an important role in their admissions decision. I suspect that “keen interest” would bump a midlevel-qualified applicant into the “accepted” column. For these colleges the likely “bird in the hand” is more essential than “four in the bush” who may view the school as a safety, or weren’t interested enough to go through the mechanics of “displaying interest” from a distance.</p>
<p>I’ll note that several of these LACs have recently sent DS new application solicitations phrased as “enrollment is still open for you”, though their official application deadlines are over. DS is deposited as his ED school. He didn’t send in any other applications. We did, however, visit these other campuses and he did speak one-on-one with their reps. I suspect some schools are still trolling their open house sign-in sheets for candidates because of concern regarding anticipated yield.</p>
<p>We visited Lehigh two years ago. I will always remember this particular college visit. The room was packed (it was around high school spring break time). I do not remember the name of the man who gave the presentation but he was not their typical presenter - he was a senior level administrator. The memorable part of the presentation was his opening statement along the lines of this ---- </p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone in the room! Each and everyone one of you has already done something very important on your Lehigh admissions check list! You have made a visit to the campus. This is very important to Lehigh. If you have not already checked in with our office across the hall please make sure you do before you leave because it is very important that we know you were here!</p>
<p>This point was made multiple times within the presentation- it was memorable. At the end of the presentation there was a stampede across the hall.</p>
<p>Level of interest and particularly an interview is very important at my son’s LAC and several others where he applied. We managed to accomplish this all starting in spring of his jr. year through fall of his sr. year. Even one school he didn’t have a chance to visit (didn’t want to, tbh) he met with the school’s rep when she visited his hs and asked for an interview. All these school offer alum interviews and none took place until after October of his sr. yr. </p>
<p>It is really not difficult at all to show interest (even if you cannot get to the school for a visit. )</p>
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<p>I would guess that changing out of engineering is more common at less selective schools (until you get to the selectivity level where engineering is absent).</p>
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<p>[University</a> of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Admissions Information - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1600]University”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1600) indicates that UNC-CH lists “level of applicant’s interest” as “not considered”.</p>
<p>Somewhat unusually for a public university, UNC-CH does list “relation with alumnus” as “important”.</p>
<p>The Princeton study should be called the Tulips and Daffodil report. </p>
<p>It always blooms in early April.</p>
<p>“Therefore, it seems that students need to start showing interest in any way they can, without stalking.”</p>
<p>For schools like Lehigh that have relatively low yield and are located outside of big, desirable metro areas, yes, showing interest is an important part of an admissions strategy.</p>
<p>I was surprised to read that 17% ( i.e. 1 out 6) of the class is comprised of legacies. Wonder what the percentage is at other schools.</p>
<p>I believe Notre Dame has a high set-aside for legacies. Something like 25%, IIRC. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>UBC, good point.</p>
<p>UNC-CH has a portal through which you ceate a single ID, which you use with every point of contact, including (in our experience) registering for tours, speaking to admissions, checking your application etc., called “My Carolina for prospective students”. I know that other large universities also have applicant portals to check admissions, and I’m trying to remember why I got the impression that Carolina’s was different. </p>
<p>I think its because that we used that single ID from midway through S’s HS junior year, when he first registered for a tour, through every step of the admissions process, including using that ID number during a few phone calls we made, but it has been a few years since we went through the process. They may not specify that the applicant’s level of interest makes a difference, but my impression was that UNC does keep track of points of contact. (When S called to enquire about transcripts that the HS had mistakenly sent minus class rank, and whether they should be resent, some universities just answered the question. UNC asked for his ID number when they fielded the question.)</p>
<p>Interesting article. So many ways to show interest. I didn’t realize that logging into the portal was monitored.</p>
<p>I think more schools are beginning to look at the interest factor as more schools are using the Common Application and kids are applying to more and more colleges. When my oldest applied to colleges over 12 years ago, his high school really discouraged applying to “too many” schools, saying that 6 was a good number and no more than 8 as a rule, and really balked after 10-12. Now they have thrown int he towel as many of their students are applying to 12+ schools. They don’t bat an eye now at that number. </p>
<p>The problem for colleges is that for all of the applications they are getting, and the better known schools are getting more applications than they did, with students applying to more schools, there is that sticky point that these kids can only go to one school and the college population has been shrinking in the last 5 years or so. That means there are a lot of phantom applications in the mix. Gotta ferret out the ones who are truly interested and will come, and yet put together the best possible class. So the schools are using interest as way to gauge that probability that the kid is going to add to the yield. Different schools have different ways they measure this interest. </p>
<p>The schools like HPY, don’t care. Too many kids bend over backwards in interest. They have the luxury of KNOWING that everyone applying is very interested and that they are on the top of more students’ lists than not. In fact, students show too much interest in these schools who just don’t give a dang. The same with most state schools, large schools that just can’t track the interest factor and for them it doesn’t much matter since they have their core of students covered with a large number of in state kids they know will swing the numbers to what they need. They don’t care if you visit or what you think of the school. It comes down to three numbers for many of the large, state schools, Test score, class rank, and date of application. Once the class is filled, and they often fill up on a rolling basis, then Einstein couldn’t get into their Physics program.</p>
<p>I take these peeks into the admissions process at these schools which are given regularly, with a grain of salt. In fact I break out the big old salt container, never mind even the shakers. The Heisenberg Principle looms large in these situations. Most applications are decided in a matter of minutes–if you do the math with the number of apps, number of hours in a day, number of admissions people, and the length of the admissions cycle, and you know most apps don’t get more than a quick lookie see. These committee meetings tend to be over a small number of apps and they are run quite differently when the reporter is out of the room and the cameras are not running.</p>
<p>U of Rochester also stressed at the info session that they look for interest. The admissions rep who interviewed my D told her that they monitor activity on the portal, so she would log in every few weeks to check her application status, even though they were very good about sending e-mails when they received each piece of her app. Unfortunately for them, she was using them as a safety, as it’s a great school she would have been OK attending.</p>
<p>One typically only has access to the portal once they apply, do most schools allow access to the portal prior to applying?</p>
<p>We spoke with an admissions officer during an admitted student day (not at Lehigh) last week and he said they really only have about 10 minutes per application and that they don’t want to be anyone’s safety. They look at HS class rigor, demonstrated interest, GPA, test scores, and then it gets subjective: geographic, gender and race diversity; essay; and major. He said the process is not fair.</p>