Demonstrated interest: The thing I am trying most to impress upon my kids is that you need to treat each and every college that you’re applying to like it’s your number #1 throughout the process. If you would attend a presentation at your high school for College Choice #1, then attend a presentation for College #7. If you would open an email from first choice college, open it for seventh choice. If you would pour your heart and soul into the supplemental essay for your favorite college, do it for the safety. And so forth. I think they have a hard time wrapping their head around this concept because they almost feel like they’re being dishonest by implying that they are more interested in a college than they actually are, but as this is something they will continue to deal with through job interviews and the like, it is a good life lesson. We draw the line at visits that require air travel and hotels (and I firmly believe schools don’t hold that against students,) but we research other ways interest can be shown and try to leave no stone unturned.
I am new to CC and have a question. My son has applied to Swanson at Pitt as well as a buddy of his. My son has not heard back yet but his buddy just got an email that they would like to see his first semester grades before giving him a response. What exactly are they looking for? Good grades? That they haven’t dropped any courses?
@snoozn and @itsgettingreal17 illustrate two sides to a very interesting coin (demonstrated interest). On the one hand, like snoozn notes, it’s silly. Clicking through things, having no real idea if anything we’re doing is helping, it’s super aggravating.
On the other hand, like itsgettingreal notes, learning to network and jump through hoops is a good skill to have. I’m trying to be good about it all and look at it as a game to be conquered, rather than an aggravation to be avoided. I will admit that the difficulties with UMD had me doing the “heck with it” for a while, but I eventually came around and was able to give D17 good advice about getting those hoops jumped through.
Demonstrated interest:
For her top choice school: lots of interest. Emails between her and the rep; showing up at fairs to meet the rep, genuine dialogue with the rep about the school and two visits.
For her second choice school- meeting the rep at a school visit; touring campus.
For her “eh” schools-generic tours, absolutely zero contact with reps. These are ginourmous schools and I’m not sure a rep would even notice or make a difference.
ETA: I had NO idea schools could see whether you clicked and opened an email!! This is really a thing?
@Buckikell, at this point they probably have accepted quite a few top scoring students to engineering. Now if someone is on the bubble stats-wise they might ask to update scores or send first semester grades.
Maybe to see if their grades have improved or are holding steady compared to junior year, and if student is taking challenging courses to be prepared for engineering curriculum.
I think they take Calc, Physics, Chem and a programming class, plus an elective freshman year at Swanson, that’s 17 credits.
@Aida I agree wholeheartedly and spent time with my DS on this concept. My best way to explain it was, if you had rejections at your other choices, whether it be a school of job prospect, how would you have wished you had presented yourself? And then there is giving yourself some room to change your priorities. You may think an opportunity is not your favorite, but the $ factor has a way of influencing your decision. Until all factors are known, keep an open mind, and there is nothing wrong (dishonest) about advocating for every opportunity as if it is your only.
I am late to this thread. My son took calculus AB junior year and this year is taking BC. The first quarter reviews calculus AB and the 2nd quarter and maybe some of third quarter is BC but I believe the rest is calculus 3. It gives them a heads up in college and the kids that took it did very well in calculus three so this is not a wasted class at his school.
@ Aida Ok, my DS actually had a hard time with this concept. In spite of my efforts, I’m pretty sure he told his 1st interviewer which school was his #1, and it wasn’t theirs. =))
@carachel2 There are multiple tricks the schools (and any business) can use to tell if you open an email.
Demonstrated Inteterst:
As a general note to everyone, if your email client blocks images or fancy HTML-based messages until you click “show images” – you may think you’re showing interest by simply opening the email, but in fact are not. It’s often the images or web-page based links in the email that really let the schools know you opened the email. Geek fact: Sometimes the images are hosted back on the college’s server, and the image has a tag in it unique to the specific email so they know which person actually opened and viewed the entire message, images and all.
In general you want images disabled initially when you open an email from someone you don’t know – it’s just good cyber protection. But if it’s a legitimate message from a school, then make sure you show the images or click the “Click here for more information” link in the email.
@stlarenas I know I am late and behind in this thread, but I guess it depends on what schools she applied EA and if they were in a top ranked school. For example, Rice University admits kids it seems based on how hard there senior schedule is and they may penalize people for changing schedules. I would make sure to let all the schools know because then they do have the true picture before they admit you. If your not able to then at least let them know after accepted. Sometimes you could also ask them after you get accepted what might happen also to help make your decision as long as 2nd semester isn’t until January for some. I would say the only schools it could hurt would be like top schools with low acceptance rates. Others probably wouldn’t care, but I bet the student could call schools too and ask if you were worried.
@Mom22DDs D17 just had a scholarship competition at one college yesterday. Each student had to write an essay - 4 topic choices were given, and an interview with 2 professors & a current student. Before the competition, she had to basically provide her resume of EC’s, leadership, etc. For this one, the college was giving out 4 full tuition scholarships & then the rest of the students would get an additional $2000 academic scholarship. There were about 100 students there yesterday.
She has 2 more competitions for January & 1 for February. For the first one in January, they give out 3 full rides, but you are competing with about 1000 other students for them. She had to submit her application for the scholarship, that included 5 essays. At the competition, I know they will have another essay to write, and I think an interview as well. That is the one big school (25,000 students) that she is applying to. The other colleges are about 2-3000 students.
All of the colleges D17 applied to are within a 6 hour drive, with the closest being 1 1/2 hours away. It was funny that the one we went to yesterday is 4 hours away and I was asked multiple times how I felt with her possibly going “so far away”. This made me reconsider if the college is a good fit if they feel 4 hours is really far & that she may feel like an outsider just because she doesn’t live within an hour! However, D17 is a bloom where planted kind of kid & she knows what she wants. Now just keeping fingers crossed that she wins something big!
@michiganbuckeye Good luck to your D with the scholarship competitions!!!
@michiganbuckeye : Looks like your DD chose schools close to home, lucky you! My DD’s choices are quite far away, except for state schools, so it is a difficult decision to miss school on Friday afternoon and spend $$$ on airfare to participate in a scholarship event she is not well prepared for.
Good luck to your DD, here’s wishing she scores big!!
I have to admit that this talk of demonstrated interest causes me some angst.
What is the perfect number of demonstrated contacts? At what point do you pass the peak of the curve of encouraging more merit aid to discouraging it because you seem to love the college so much there is no point in throwing any merit aid your way? At what point do you move from the excited, enthused candidate to the needy candidate who can’t look up anything already on the website for themselves? With both the kids and the AOs being so incredibly busy, isn’t this a huge waste of time and effort? The huge power and information difference in favor of the college just makes this seem sort of abusive to our kids. If you say you don’t track the demonstrated interest, and you do, that seems worse.
I’m sure it’s the engineer / introvert in me creeping out, but the demonstrated interest thing sometimes feels like the person who goes to the meeting and always has to say something. Some of us think it is important to weigh in since we were invited to the meeting and some of would have said something if something was wrong. I guess colleges are like companies and you gravitate to the culture that is more of a fit.
I guess, in the end, everyone tries to be their own authentic self and the admission chips will fall where they will.
Congrats to all of you who’s DCs have received good news and acceptances!
My D15 was invited to two scholarship competitions when she was applying. Both were across the country. The first one we had to fly her to, but the school took care of everything else. I think ~150 kids were there, and it was one of two competitions they held and they awarded three full ride scholarships. H flew out with her to that one. The other school had one competition. They flew the kids out and took care of everything. No parents wanted or needed. About 400 kids were invited and competed for up to 40 full ride scholarships. They stayed for a weekend at both schools. There were interviews with staff and students, writing, etc. one interview was with four other scholarship attendees and two faculty. The other was with three faculty, on upperclassman, and D. At the second school, they even observed how the kids handled themselves in frat party situations. D found them both very interesting.
@Mom22DDs I got lucky that the schools D17 looked at are all within reasonable driving distance. She was seriously looking at University of Glasgow in Scotland, but they didn’t have everything she wanted. 
She wants Geology & Japanese - while the colleges she has applied to don’t necessarily have everything she wants, she is willing to compromise. She is very budget aware & realizes that she may end up the financial safety, but she will make it work well enough. She loves to travel, so I’ve dangled the carrot that the $$ under our budget would allow her to travel. So she also took that into account knowing she didn’t want to spend money on airfare going to/from school when she could use that $$ to travel elsewhere.
Good luck to your DD on any scholarship competitions she does!
Demonstrated Interest: I think it depends on the school and your DC’s actual interest. If a school says that demonstrated interest is a factor (just one of many), why not show some interest? Go to local events, ask a question (if you have one) by emailing your area admissions rep, visit the school (if you can swing the cost), get on the email list, introduce yourself, write essays that show you’ve done your homework on the school. My son has a clear #1 - Not a huge school so there is a small likelihood that the rep will remember a name/face or two. 
So he introduced himself to the visiting rep (twice). He said something clever to her (any little bit helps). He wrote a handwritten “Thank you for visiting my school” note and mailed it (snail mail) to her. We figured, if it came down to 2 equal files and she had some pleasant (not pushy) interactions, maybe that demonstrated interest would help.
Quite honestly, my kid doesn’t even have time to get enough sleep, let alone go to events, that are often on week nights.
I really dislike the tactics some of these colleges use in an attempt to drive up their application numbers. Why do schools with admission rates in the single digits need to send mail constantly telling kids that they are eagerly awaiting their applications? I feel bad for the 17 year olds who actually think these colleges are sincere.
^^ Obviously they want to have admit rates in decimal points, like 0.01 % admittance :-&