Is this thread sufficiently bothersome yet? I will check back when decisions are announced.
I’ve seen this scenario before and know how it turns out. In an effort to meet all the interview obligations, the student schedules 8 interviews for the same day at the same coffee shop. By the sixth one, he’s in the medic wagon for caffeine overdose and on the front page of the national news.
Thousands of blog threads and millions of posts are generated as a result.
@JustOneDad On the contrary, I think that, after having done my first 5 or 6, I will have become a college interview guru. And not only will that help me greatly with the other 15 or so, but it’ll also give me extremely valuable skills for later in life with job interviews and what not.
@prospect1 
You need to schedule them such that the most competitive are done at the end.
@CaliCash I did what for 3? Very few schools have an “optional” essay yknow. Off the top of my head, the only optional ones were Harvard, Duke, Williams, and CSM, and I did all except Williams. Obviously I wrote the required supplements.
@JustOneDad I’ll try to figure that out once alumni start contacting me.
I’m talking about demonstrating significant interest. Through good (face it, you can’t ace them all) interviews, meaningful emails (I obviously wasn’t talking about Harvard’s optional essay. Harvard is a crapshoot), and visits. You’re doing the minimum and that’s all you can do. Thts why shotgunning is a problem. Especially for schools who are frequently looked at as low matches or guaranteed accepts like Lehigh. You may think you are doing a lot but for every one miniature demonstration of interest, you have 20 other schools that demand more. I guess I’ll just wait to see what happens!
@CaliCash I’ll repeat: I am in the process of writing meaningful emails. The majority of the schools I’m applying to do not track visits. Please stop with this “all-seeing eye” mentality; it’s not doing anyone any good and you yourself know that visiting an Ivy’s campus will not help with admissions.
I don’t see what you are missing.
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You have no REAL interest so no, the emails aren’t meaningful. They’re BS’ed.
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It’s MORE than emails.
You spread yourself too thin. You asked for the problem with shotgunning, I’m telling you one of the many problems.
Maybe not to Wall Street… and it would be a shame for someone with your level of thoughfulness, rigor, and all around honesty to miss out on that environment. Oh… demonstrated interest usually is done BEFORE the applications are submitted, not after. Schools see through that, too.
And… once again, you have ignored questions by several posters about the financial viability of your safeties (and your school list as a whole). Can we interpret from this that you didn’t run the NPCs for all the schools on your list?
@CaliCash “Real?” Reality is whatever I make it seem to be, and let me guarantee you that my emails will come across as thoughtful and genuine. Not that they are likely to make the slightest bit of impact on a top college’s decision.
Why don’t we just go to, say, Stanford’s website, and see what THEY have to say about demonstrated interest?
http://admission.stanford.edu/site/faq/#faq_1_1
That said, here (http://www.lehigh.edu/~muy208/research/admission/admission_wp_version.pdf) is a very interesting study about the effects of demonstrated interest on admissions. They say that in highly selective (so I would imagine rank 20-50) universities, demonstrating interest through off-site contact (think email, optional interviews, etc.) increases the probability of admission by 11-13%, and demonstrating interest through both off-site and on-site (think campus visit) contact increases probability of admission by 21-23%.
So I’m not saying you’re wrong - in fact I am agreeing with you for the most part. Where we disagree is the quality of my emails - which I haven’t even written yet - and the value of said emails to a rank 20 and above school, where I conjecture that they are not nearly as valuable as you make them out to be.
@intparent My parents have told me to not concern myself with cost, and to try to get into the best school I can, which is what I’m doing. They’ll cover it. The reason I’ve avoided financial viability questions is because I don’t have much to say, as my parents don’t share our financial situation with me, other than telling me to not think about it.
OP, regarding what I said in post #162 about beginning to sound “a bit more genuine” . . . . I gotta take it back after your post #217. There is a significant difference between self-confidence and arrogance. Understanding this is the reason why Goat might get in, and you might not. Your interviews are really going to hurt you, I’m afraid.
@MidwestDad3 I knew people would start turning against me as I revealed a more genuine side of myself, but so be it. Must I really explain that the College Confidential “me” is not the same as the college interview “me?” I can put on a very humble appearance if the occasion calls for it, and I intend to.
I don’t think the top ten or so schools appreciate being bothered by phone calls and fake e-mails to generate demonstrated interest. I think you should do all “optional” essays and do interviews if offered.
OP – good luck. I don’t condone your shotgun approach, but I admire the fact that the tone of your replies is far more calm and respectful than a lot of the adults who are directing fire your way.
College interviews take a significant amount of research. You need to be able to answer their questions about the university and bring thoughtful questions of your own. Can you do that for 20 different interviews?
“That said, here (http://www.lehigh.edu/~muy208/research/admission/admission_wp_version.pdf) is a very interesting study about the effects of demonstrated interest on admissions. They say that in highly selective (so I would imagine rank 20-50) universities, demonstrating interest through off-site contact (think email, optional interviews, etc.) increases the probability of admission by 11-13%, and demonstrating interest through both off-site and on-site (think campus visit) contact increases probability of admission by 21-23%.”
So what you’re saying is 5%—>5.6%
As long as OP had the stamina to write the essays and his/her scores are in the range, he/she have as much a chance as any non-hooked candidate (which is low—for everyone). I love your spunk OP. I wish you the best. Some on this board seem to have a vested interest in the existing process (whether adcom, or college counselor, or a parent whose kid tried a different method). You are bucking the trend.
The OP has mentioned several times that the tuition/financial aspects are not a concern for him. Whether or not that is actually true is really none of anyone else’s business. He may or may not have financially viable safeties on his list but that will be his (and his parents’) situation to deal with. Posters here have expressed their concern about that aspect. It is now up to the OP to either take this advice or not and in any case, if he didn’t run the NPCs prior to applying, it is certainly too late for him to do so now. There doesn’t seem to be any point in further harping on the finances.
Also, posters who are fixating on OP’s use of the phrase “bs” when discussing his writing and saying it is “cheating” are being a bit ridiculous IMO. Of course, you want to write about specific programs, aspects of a college in the “Why X” essay. It sounds like the OP has done a lot of research so he could do just that. I can see how many students (especially those that are flexible) could find aspects of Harvard, Columbia and Dartmouth that they might “fit” with even though these are disparate institutions. Just because I like the City doesn’t mean I couldn’t also enjoy a rural location. And I can see benefits to Columbia’s core as well as benefits to a completely open curriculum like Brown. Most teenagers can only guess at the kind of college experience that they really want anyway (since they haven’t yet experienced it). I liked plenty about my selective LAC experience but I expect I also would have enjoyed many other environments as well.
Many people (especially those who don’t live on the east cost) cannot go visiting all the colleges ahead of time and I know plenty of people who attended their college/university sight unseen until they day they started classes.
I think many of the posters who are decrying this student’s strategy are romanticizing the whole college application process as if all 17 year olds must have a true “passion” and know exactly what type of university/program will fit their “dream.” While its true that I banking as a goal may seem kind of cliché and that likely OP doesn’t really know what it entails, most17 year olds don’t really know what any particular job (other than perhaps teaching, medicine, law, nursing) is really about. I don’t see kids who want to go into engineering or accounting or other pre professional tracks (probably because it’s a safer bet to get recruited for a well paying job) being vilified for that choice.
Finally, I do think applying to 31 colleges is a bit ridiculous but to each his own. We will all see what happens when April comes around.
Although I initially posted negatively, this spiraled out more than I had previously thought (and warned) and is now interesting.
If schools were really interested in demonstrated interest (which, as I’m sure that we and they know, is easily fabricated and is often a function of parent’s availability to travel, etc.), then they would say so. We can only assume that if it is not said to hold weight, then it truly does not.
Regardless, no school expects applicants to send off chains of meaningless emails - in what situation would an email or really any correspondence convey more than the fact that an applicant is interested (oh wait…doesn’t an application do that as well?). If anything, it would seem extremely artificial to try and maintain communication with the college on every available channel.
And in regard to being able to perpetuate interest (although I still don’t quite understand why we feel the need to do this - schools just as often reject people who think they are “perfect matches” and research extensively as those who do the opposite), let’s be honest here. There are really a few archetypes in terms of colleges, and many of these fall roughly into the same category; one does not need to quote specifics from an obscure professor’s lecture to show interest. A simple acknowledge of that archetype’s applicability to one’s own case and a small customization of said acknowledgement (such as a specific department or program) is enough to convey interest to the degree that is necessary.
Interesting… because on your ‘chances’ thread you started 4 days ago, you indicated “Income bracket: 150K+ but applying for financial aid (complicated)” That does not imply that your parents “will cover it”. I hope you are looking carefully at all the deadlines for financial aid paperwork for each school on your list. Many of them do NOT wait until after admissions to request various financial paperwork (7 of the 8 schools my D2 applied to FA for two years ago wanted the paperwork prior to the decision from them, even the need blind schools – only one waited until the admissions decisions were out before you had to turn paperwork in). With 31 one schools, you should be building a spreadsheet and starting to track all those dates and forms now.