<p>S2 is a rising HS junior. Over the next year and a half we can only afford the plane fare to visit three of his long distance choices. So of the list that follows (some reaches, some not) which schools factor in student visits most when they make their application decisions?</p>
<p>Georgetown
Wake Forest
Tulane
Santa Clara University
University of Denver
Northeastern University
Bucknell</p>
<p>Cbug, northeastern may factor in visits but depending on your situation it might not be worth the trip to look at one school. Where are you located? Do you need financial aid? DS is an alum. If you post or pm more details I may be able to help you decide if it is worth the trip.</p>
<p>ebeeeee – We can only afford 3 visits by plane (even that is a bit of a stretch). We are located in the Midwest. So even though we have other schools on the list, these are the only ones that would require a plane ticket. And yes, we would need financial aid. That was a very important reason we chose these schools – along with the fact that they have good business programs and we like their size. Northeastern is by far the biggest school on our list.</p>
<p>Mine is also a rising HS junior. I was thinking of sign up for the Common App and access to some of the essay questions for the schools on D2’s list(she does not know such thing exits :D) and see which ones might require a visit. Like “Why X College” type of question? It might make it more effective for her to write the essay. We are also planning to visit some schools to see if she wants to do ED. ED is a true way to show the love.</p>
<p>cbug, I don’t know about the other schools, but I don’t think that NEU is known for good FA. You can check the averages. I can tell you, that in 2006 my son got a pretty good merit award from them, but there were no additional grants offered, so NEU’s package was not good for our family.</p>
<p>“Demonstrated interest” does not always mean you have to visit the campuses of these schools. You can always attend a local college fair in your region if one is being held. If you request info for a particular school, they will put you on their mailing list and notify you when one is being held. I’m not familiar with which of the schools on your list ask “why x ?” but I will tell you that Duke asks such a question. Of the 4 kids from my S’s school who were accepted, 3 had not visited the campus until AFTER they got their acceptances. I’m not sure how the 3 kids who hadn’t visited beforehand answered the “why x ?” question on the application.</p>
<p>My kids were able to answer the why this college question by reading through the colleges’ websites and mailings. They were able to find something unique about that school that was of sincere interest to them.</p>
<p>cbug, you’ll want to find the Common Data Set (CDS) for each of these schools. Which isn’t always easy to find–try using Google, searching the school websites,and looking here on CC. The CDS contains a section on admission criteria for freshmen. Section C7 lists the relative importance of various academic and non-academic criteria, including “level of applicant’s interest”. For instance, Santa Clara says that “level of applicant’s interest” is “considered”.</p>
<p>As others say, there are lots of ways to show interest: a regional road show, sending email to the admissions office or to a department with specific questions, following a school on Twitter or Facebook.</p>
<p>My impression is that schools do not hold it against you if you live far away and don’t visit.</p>
<p>It can be a problem if you live nearby and don’t bother to take a look-see, especially if the school looks like it might be a safety for your applicant.</p>
<p>Cbug. Definitely check out northeastern fa policies. When my son was there he received sixteen thousand per year in merit money. That was the top amount awarded other than a handful of top scholarships and I DO mean a handful. They are not known for great fa. You can go online and email the adcom from your area with questions as another way of demonstrating interest. They also set up informational phone interviews with regional adcoms or at least they did five years ago…</p>
<p>I really think “showing interest” is a bit overrated as a phenomenon. I would visit the schools that you have the most questions about or feel like you know the least about, and then try to reach out in other ways to the schools you can’t fly to.</p>
<p>Univ of Denver tracks demonstrated interest, but that can be fulfilled by having a Hyde Interview in the city near your home…</p>
<p>I would imagine that Bucknell, being as small as it is, would care but given that you would bring “geographic diversity” it wouldn’t hurt to find out if it is necessary before acceptance</p>
<p>Bucknell definitely wants you to show them love. When I visited with my S a couple of years ago, I remember them specifically mentioning at the info session that they consider it important to visit, and show your interest in the school, and how by being at that info session those students had helped themselves admissions-wise.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the others.</p>
<p>My son is currently attending Northeastern on a full tuition, merit-aid only scholarship. It’s true they don’t give out many of them but if the OPs S has reason to believe he’ll competitive, then Northeastern can be worth the application fee. </p>
<p>As for showing the love, at Northeastern I think that your son contacting admissions with a question or two is just fine. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask here or pm me. </p>
<p>PS If he’s looking at Georgetown, has he considered George Washington or American? Both offered my S very generous merit aid packages.</p>
<p>I did a info session and tour at Georgetown with D last November. I don’t recall any mention of “showing interest.” However, since we were there, maybe it was a moot point. </p>
<p>Son attends Wake Forest. We visited and he did his interview same day. I think it really mattered. But, I have nothing to base that on. </p>
<p>Much to my surprise, Bucknell doesn’t do interviews. But, they do seem to encourage visits as a way for the student to scrutinize the school. That leads me believe that they consider a post-visit app as a demonstration of “love.” From the website:
</p>
<p>Go to the colleges’ Common Data Sets. They’ll tell you.</p>
<p>Bucknell, for example, lists “Level of applicant’s interest” as an “important” factor in admission—the same level as ECs, recommendations, volunteer work, and work experience, but lower than the “Most important” factors like rigor of secondary school record, class rank, GPA, standardized test scores, essays, talent/ability, and character. “Geographic residence,” on the other hand, is merely “considered,” along with alumni/ae relation, first gen, and racial/ethnic status. If they say it’s important, I’d assume it’s important—more important, in fact, than geographic diversity.</p>
<p>Northeastern, on the other hand, lists “Level of applicant’s interest” in the “Not considered” category. If they say they don’t care, I’d assume they don’t care.</p>
<p>Wake Forest is an intermediate case. They list “Level of applicant’s interest” as “considered”—not “important,” but “considered,” so more important than at Northeastern, but less important that at Bucknell. Denver is also in this category.</p>
<p>I’ve had some trouble locating recent CDS for Georgetown, Tulane, and Santa Clara. Perhaps other, more persistent searchers can find them. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, though, that even at a school like Bucknell where “level of applicant’s interest” is important, there are plenty of ways to demonstrate that interest short of an expensive cross-country trip. Go to their admissions website and sign up to get admissions updates. Call the admissions office and ask if they’ll be appearing at any upcoming college fairs or information sessions in your area. Ask them if they can put you in touch with any recent Bucknell alums in your area, because you’d like to talk to them about their Bucknell experience. E-mail them with a few questions (but without pestering them). And so on.</p>
<p>Well, maybe we’ll just stick with visiting the top 3 choices: Georgetown, Tulane and Santa Clara. Hopefully the other kinds of demonstrated interest will suffice for the others.</p>
<p>^you do not have to visit Tulane prior to applying; I know at least 5 students attending next year that didn’t even set foot in NOLA before acceptance letters went out…unless there is a chance he/she might want to apply SCEA</p>
<p>In fact, if you apply early enough, your son/daughter might hear before Thanksgiving (no promises there, but there is a chance)</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I placed more emphasis for D1 on visiting schools that were possible safeties or matches. At least two matches that looked perfect on paper fell entirely off the list after visiting, while another match rose up to become her overall #2 choice.</p>
<p>*For what it’s worth, I placed more emphasis for D1 on visiting schools that were possible safeties or matches. At least two matches that looked perfect on paper fell entirely off the list after visiting, while another match rose up to become her overall #2 choice. *</p>
<p>I agree. It’s a very good idea to visit financial safeties . It can be a major relief to know that a financial safety (or two) is well liked…it sure makes the admissions waiting game easier to bear.</p>
<p>And…I agree that visiting Tulane isn’t necessary. </p>
<p>It might help if you said what your son’s stats are. If they are at a certain level, then not only would Tulane surely accept, but also likely give a merit scholarship. that said…I don’t know how good Tulane is about “meeting need” after a merit award. They seem to give a number of $25k scholarships for high stats, but if they don’t give a bunch of need based aid after that, then the school would still cost about $30k per year.</p>
<p>And, I agree…if your son’s stats aren’t competitive for a full tuition merit at NEU, that probably isn’t a good idea. Perhaps PMK can state what her son’s stats were. Was he a NMF? </p>
<p>What are his financial safety schools?</p>