Which of my schools like to see demonstrated interest and which ones are indifferent about it?

Applying to College
1

Georgetown
UPenn
Cornell
Tufts
Lehigh
Villanova
Boston College
Northeastern
Brandeis
UDel
UMD
UConn
Penn State
Rutgers New Brunswick

It’s the fall of my senior year. I want to demonstrate interest to my schools, but I have a lot at the moment. Which of these schools don’t consider demonstrated interest, and which ones put a heavy emphasis on it?

Thanks

2

Whether “level of applicant’s interest” is considered can be found in each school’s common data set, section C7, or in its entry on http://www.collegedata.com (admissions tab).

3

@christopher8956 The only one I personally know for sure is Villanova. I recently asked this question specifically and the AO told me they do NOT track interest.

4

You can also go to CollegeData (just saw that UCB also mentioned this). Enter the name of a school, click “overview,” and you’ll see a grid with nearly twenty factors considered, ranked from Very Important down to Not Considered (Important and Considered are the two middle categories). For instance, Beloit College (just entered it randomly) considers “level of applicant’s interest” to be “important.” However, I was surprised to see that Washington University’s entry had “considered” checked for this category–not “Very Important” or “Important.”

So treat the information as you will. Perhaps some colleges do not want to state outright how seriously they consider an applicant’s interest. But if they consider interest–and most selective private colleges and universities will–be sure to demonstrate interest, which you should be doing anyway!

Public universities are typically different, as a chunk of their admits will be students who meet certain GPA and test score requirements. But this is for in-state students. But even for OOS students, I do not believe (though I am willing to be corrected) that public universities are scrutinizing things like ECs, volunteer work, essays (which might not even be required), or demonstrating interest. For instance, U. of Maryland CP’s CollegeData entry shows “not considered” for the applicant interest category.