I have heard that some schools do not give preference to applicants who visited the campus. It would certainly be easier to visit a few schools after an acceptance than try to visit so many schools before applying, especially those far away, when admission may be a long shot. Can anyone refer me to a list of schools that don’t penalize those who do not visit beforehand?
You can check each college on your list by looking at their Common Data Set.
Where do you find the common data set. Thanks
Just google the schools name and “common data set” and you should find them. Some schools don’t make it publicly available but most do.
There are also other ways to show interest in a school without actually visiting.
Some suggestions:
- Watch Youtube videos put out by the institution
- Follow the college on social media
- Email admission counselors with any questions the prospect may have that neither the website nor mailings address.
- Sign up for mailings or emails from the school (helpful to set up a spam email where these communications can go)
- Meet with a representative during a college fair
- If possible, interview
They tend to be either large state schools that just look mostly at stats or they are very highly ranked schools that get tons of applications anyway.
Here is the thing about waiting to visit. At schools that admit at the end of March, you get a month to decide. Seniors are busy with spring activities and AP studying, tickets are expensive on short notice, and in reality most students can’t pull together many visits. You also risk that your kid is wasting application time on schools that aren’t a good fit – looks good on paper, but your kid knows quickly after visiting that it isn’t for them. Then they end up with few choices they really want to attend. Making a bad college choice is costly too, both socially and potentially financially (freshman get better merit aid and at some schools better need based aid than transfers). It is a high pressure way to apply in my opinion. You save a buck now, but there is a cost to it.
I wouldn’t spend a lot of time visiting reaches. But if her matches and safeties are farther away, visit ahead of applying if you can afford it. Then she can go to accepted student visits at her final 2-3 choices.
my D applied successfully to several schools (LACs) that we couldn’t visit beforehand. She emailed admissions reps for each one, and set up meetings in our area for all but two (these reps travel around marketing their schools), and one of those two did a phone interview. She also made a point of visiting college fairs and speaking to reps there, got on the school mailing lists, and did a ton of research online to look for fit as much as possible without a visit. We did visit the final choices and did overnights before deciding.
You certainly don’t have to rule out colleges that take demonstrated interest into account. There are plenty of ways to show interest without visiting campus. I applied to (too) many schools and only visited two of them. For the schools that I couldn’t visit, I emailed the regional counselor and introduced myself, interviewed, went to college fairs, etc.
To summarize: don’t confuse demonstrated interest with campus visit.
My son was not accepted at the two (relatively nearby) LACs he visited but was accepted at equally competitive LACs in other parts of the country. He went to college fairs, interviewed with ad reps, and did all the emailing stuff described above. He visited his top choices after he was accepted.
And if the admissions reps don’t come to your area you can request a local alumni interview. As noted above, there are many ways to demonstrate interest short of a visit. Schools typically don’t expect people to fly across the country.
Many of the Jesuit and other religion-affiliated institutions do not consider or even track through registration any campus visits because it skews considerably to higher income applicants.
I’m sure someone else on CC has observed that the kids who are often disadvantaged at schools that track campus visits and provide fly-ins for URMs are from “donut” families without the disposable income to pay themselves for college tours.
In my experience:
Colleges that Don’t track interest
- State schools…they get many applications and don’t have time for that. It is mostly GPA/SAT/ACT.
- Ivys…of course you want to go there.
- Non-selective… please come!!
Colleges that track interest
- Selective Private schools
Here is an example of how to show interest at Case Western…note that only one item actually involves going to campus.
Case considers the “Level of applicant’s interest” to be “Important” in the admissions decision.
Here are some ways to show interest:
+Sign up for information. https://go.case.edu/register/requestinformation
When you get the emails…OPEN them…colleges can track that.
+Attend a local college fair and talk to the admissions counselor/alumni. They will have a method for you to share your information.
+Attend a High School visit if CWRU visits your HS
+Attend a regional information session. (You get info for these if you sign up for information)
+Take a tour/Go to open house if possible. https://go.case.edu/register/?id=381e4090-5c39-4b8e-ae0c-6be721f90a48
+Sign up for a local alumni interview if you can’t make it to campus. https://go.case.edu/register/alumniinterview
+Asking questions not answered on website or in this forum: admission@case.edu
or you can ask the admissions counselor in your area; http://admission.case.edu/contact/admissioncounselors.aspx
You could also let them know of your interest but you have financial/time constraints.
If you look at the college’s common data set, section C7, or the admissions tab on its entry on http://www.collegedata.com , you can find out if it considers “level of applicant’s interest”.