<p>Is it too late to visit schools (and show interest) for admission in the fall of 2008?</p>
<p>If you visit now, will the admissions committee be apprised of that fact?</p>
<p>Some schools have you sign in when you arrive to take a tour. I think that's how they track interest. I'm sure it's never to late to visit a school to demonstrate interest. </p>
<p>This past summer my DS and I visited about 7 schools. For some we signed in, for others we just chose to drive around campus. </p>
<p>In Sept. our guidance dept had a parent's college night and explained to us how important it was to demonstrate interest. I realized that when we visited UVA we had missed the tour and had never signed in even though we'd spent a very long time there. </p>
<p>I was so nervous I asked my son to email admissions to ask about what he should do. They told him that they don't track visits. So, maybe if you post the names of the schools here others can tell you whether or not the schools you are interested in track visits.</p>
<p>I agree that it depends on the college. Certainly visit the ones that you can handle easily. It's a good way to cross a school off your list if you decide it's a no-go. Why waste the application money, to say nothing of the time and effort?</p>
<p>On the other hand, you also can visit after you apply. A friend's daughter applied to Franklin and Marshall without having seen it. She received a couple of letters inviting her to visit. She didn't, and she wasn't accepted. I bet that visiting the campus would have helped her.</p>
<p>Are the deadlines for applying Dec. 31? In that case, the time is better spent polishing the applications. Many college offices close between Dec. 24 and Jan. 1, leaving only a few days to visit.</p>
<p>Some colleges care about "demonstrated interest," which includes visits; some don't.</p>
<p>If you look up the individual schools on <a href="http://www">www</a>. collegeboard. com (take out the spaces to get the real URL), you can see whether "level of applicant's interest" is listed under the admission factors. For example, if you look up Washington University in St. Louis, you will see that it's listed (which agrees with everyone's subjective view of this college's admissions process). If you look up University of Virginia, you'll see that it's not listed.</p>
<p>Some colleges may keep track of visits even if they don't use level of interest as an admissions criterion. For example, when my daughter and several of her friends applied to Cornell University, which does not use demonstrated interest as an admissions criterion, some of the kids received an invitation from the local alumni association for a free bus trip to visit the campus, with an overnight stay. My daughter didn't get an invitation. The reason: the admissions office had a record of her previous visit to the campus, and only those who had NOT visited received invitations.</p>
<p>So just because a college keeps records of visits does not necesssarily mean that visits play any role in admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Many students only visit the schools where they have been accepted in order to decide where to go. I don't think that any school "expects" you to visit if you live more than 4 or so hours away (driving distance).</p>
<p>There are schools with very distinct flavor/character that I'd recommend visiting if you seriously consider attending them, because fit there is what pretty much determines happiness... Many excellent LACs fall into that category (Swarthmore, Reed, Williams, etc.)</p>
<p>Emory is another school that looks carefully at demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you ALWAYS sign in with admissions when visiting. It is NEVER a negative and ALWAYS a plus. Am I making myself clear? That doesn't mean you have to visit to show interest, but it's an opportunity thrown away to not sign in.</p>
<p>My son got rejected from the two colleges that had records of his visits. But I don't think either of them is on record for caring whether you had visited or not. He'd seen a fair number of campuses one way or another though in the end he made his final decisions based on visits after he was accepted.</p>
<p>Demonstrating interest doesn't have to be an expensive trip to visit. If you (or your child, if you are the parent) email and ask about specific programs or studies, that demonstrates interest. If you contact someone on campus, cc the admissions department in your responce to their reply. In other words, help the adcoms know that you have had contact. Email or call the admissions person for your area with a pertinent question. This probably won't help for HYPS, but for the other 99% or colleges, it will go a long way.</p>