<p>Many parents believe colleges give applicants "Interest Points" if they repeatedly show interest in the school. Others believe this is a myth. Other than perhaps being skeptical of applicants from the same area as the college who never visit, what are colleges' common practices in this regard?</p>
<p>It’s not a myth at all.Some colleges consider applicant’s level of interest, but many of the ones commonly talked about on CC (HYPSMC and the like) don’t. To see which ones do, you can google the name of a school and their common data set.</p>
<p>Thanks. Where does this appear in the Common Data Set?</p>
<p>Found it, thanks. When a college just checks “Consider” in this category, I wonder how much weight it is given</p>
<p>I think that this isn’t a very big factor, but could definitely be real, especially for small LACs where they really care about interest in their college.</p>
<p>“Consider” means very little impact. There are some schools where evidence of interest is very important (such as WUSTL). Most others, not so much.</p>
<p>Any guesses as to whether expressing a lot of interest could reduce a merit scholarship since the college might decide it is better used to entice someone with better numbers playing harder to get?</p>
<p>There are several colleges that are well known for not accepting those who don’t visit. Ask your counselor.</p>
<p>Visiting makes sense from several perspectives, unless distance plus cost is a major barrier. Some books, etc advocate collecting “Interest Points” through multiple letters and e-mails</p>
<p>So lets say you live close by (2-3 hr drive) and you don’t visit because your single parent (mom) has no money and works while you go to school and take care of an infant sibling, would the penalize me?</p>
<p>Ju-liaa</p>
<p>I would explain this to the admissions office by email or letter and mention it to your Guidance Counselor, who can put in the school recommendation letter</p>
<p>So does this mean that even if you’ve already visited a school, it would still make sense to attend an in-school admissions presentation by that school to collect more “interest points”? Seems a bit silly, but anything that helps…</p>