Why would a school that states they do not consider demonstrated interest provide an independent link to the applicant that shows every single visit, event, interview, engagement, etc. that the student had with the school?
They don’t consider it, I guess, when making an admissions decision but they still log it and let the student see the tracked engagement.
Kind of like the jury hearing testimony that is then ruled to be stricken from the record and disregarded yet the jury never really “unhears” what was said.
I cant speak for whatever school you are talking about. But many schools track demonstrated interest so they know what types of engagement work and to what extent. That doesn’t necessarily mean the app reader sees the data and/or that they use demonstrated interest in the admissions decision.
if the school is using it as a tool to understand what works and what doesn’t, then why bother with the nice message and fancy portal page shared with the student logging all the touch points they have made?
Level of interest tracking is commonly used to estimate the likelihood of the student matriculating. Even if that estimate is not used to determine admission or not for a specific applicant, it may be used to determine how many applicants overall need to be admitted to get the desired number of matriculating students.
I.e. your level of interest as tracked by the college may affect the admission chances of other applicants who happen to be at the margin of being admitted.
It could also be to let the applicant know what info on their site they may have missed.
I, for one, often find it difficult to know all that’s there and to not confuse what I read about School A with School B.
The fact that they are trying make it easy for ypu to fully explore their site doesn’t mean that they will consider that in an admission decision. What they may consider, though, is how well you articulate an understanding of the institution and your fit, so they may be providing the road map for getting the info you need to do that.
It isn’t necessarily used for admissions decisions. It might, however, be used when considering whether or not a scholarship might lure the student away from another university.
this particular school that I am aware of creates this “personalized visit portal” - offers ED - awards only 50 merit awards that require no additional essays to be considered. the other scholarship opportunities require a laborious additional application/essay
If they are only offering 50 merit awards, they want to make sure they are offering them to students who are likely to accept. If they don’t think a student is interested, they are probably be less likely to make the offer.
They pushed hard on my son to ED. Whether or not a ‘less qualified’ student can get in ED than RD I don’t know and I know there are athletes and others in these #s but they sure make it seem like ED is ‘easier’ and Ed Is the highest level of DI there is.
“For WashU, there is also a statistical advantage, as we see fewer students apply in Early Decision and see a higher acceptance rate. This makes it easier for students who are academically prepared and excited about the WashU community to stand out in the applicant pool. Last year, our acceptance rate in Early Decision (across EDI, EDII, and our QuestBridge round) was 26%, compared to our overall acceptance rate of 12%.”
Or those whom the college really desires and for whom the scholarship significantly increases the likelihood of matriculation, which may be partially estimated by level of interest.
There is not much point from the college’s point of view to offer the scholarship to an ED admit, for example. (This is different from offering a scholarship to apply ED before the applicants apply, since that is the incentive offered to apply ED and promise matriculation, not to matriculate after admission.)
The fishy/weird part is the portal communication log to the potential applicant. The school could say no DI and then track everything in the background on their own for whatever purpose they want (understand what communication channels work or don’t, etc) and no one would be the wiser. The fact that they put a portal out there to show the applicant the log is what I find weird.
Why be coy about not naming the school? It’s not against the forum rules, its not unique enough to be used for doxxing and not sharing it undermines the ability for anyone to possibly provide an informed answer.