A google search of the words “demonstrated interest” will result in a lot of information and opinions around whether or not it is an important factor in the application process. The term gets thrown around a lot during application season, and this blog post will explain what it means.
When a student demonstrates interest, it means that they’ve taken steps to show a college that they’re very interested in attending. Interest is usually shown during the pre-application portion of the college application process, which means that the steps you take should be done prior to hitting submit on your common app account.
There are many ways to demonstrate interest. You can attend a school tour, do a summer program at a college, schedule an interview, go to information sessions, reach out to professor, etc. Pretty much anything that puts you on the radar of the school you’re dying to attend. And while the definition of demonstrated interest is simple to understand, things become slightly more unclear in terms of its significance.
Two questions that we often receive are “how important is demonstrated interest” and “if it’s important, how do we show a college that it’s our top choice?” Annoyingly enough, the question of how important demonstrated interest is varies by school. There is no one size fits all answer here. You might start your research process by looking at this list of schools that consider, slightly consider, and don’t consider demonstrated interest in their admissions process.
Another approach is to google “(school name) + demonstrated interest” and see what you find. You can also call the school directly if being put on hold and transferred to three more employees before being told to look online is something that you would like to do. Having already done a deep dive on which schools care, we can confidently say that there is still a lot of confusion at the schools themselves, which could be because the landscape of demonstrated interest is changing.
Let’s step back to clarify how demonstrated interest has changed. Demonstrated interest used to be considered fairly important to most colleges. While it was never a written rule, word on the street once deemed it crucial to visit, attend programs, and be on the email spam list of every school you might one day attend. But then in 2018, Carnegie Mellon put out a statement that said that demonstrated interest would no longer be a factor in their admissions process. Why? They wanted to focus more on diversity and inclusion, and removing demonstrated interest from the formula levels the playing field. In simpler terms, not everyone can afford to demonstrate interest. It’s expensive, takes a lot of time, and is unrealistic for many worthy students.
And while Carnegie Mellon is emblematic of a trend, it doesn’t mean that demonstrated interest is dead and/or a thing of a past. For example, if you want to attend UCLA and you live in California and didn’t visit, that doesn’t look great at all. But if you live in California and couldn’t visit Bowdoin (in Maine) before applying, no one is going to hold that against you. In the end, we suggest that you are strategic about how and where you spend your time and money when visiting colleges.
TKG Tips and Takeaways for Demonstrated Interest:
Demonstrated interest alone will not get you into a school if you are not a strong candidate. It can slightly strengthen an ~already solid~ application, but if you’re below range for grades and standardized test scores, it will not get you into Harvard (!!!).
When a school says that demonstrated interest is not considered, more people apply. We would love to think it’s going away for reasons related to inclusivity, but that’s not the only reason. When more students apply, acceptance rates go down. This all goes back to rankings and money and the insane theory that schools with the lowest acceptance rates are the best schools for everyone.
We still suggest visiting as many schools as you can, but please don’t break the bank. And always keep in mind that visits have no real bearing on your candidacy, and are really a chance for you to learn more about the school.
Educate yourself on your dream school’s stance on demonstrated interest before you go to great lengths to put yourself on their radar.
Attending a summer program at any given college will not increase your chances of getting in. In recent weeks, we’ve seen colleges like UCLA add this to their summer program applications. Hooray for transparency!
Still apply to schools that you’re really interested in, even if you can’t demonstrate interest.
We’re pros at helping students stand out. Contact us here if you’d like to work with someone.
Based on some of the questions that we’ve received, it seems that demonstrating interest is sometimes viewed as more important than actually getting to know the schools you’re applying to. When we work with juniors and sophomores, we start the research process online. We suggest you do the same. It’s a great way to get a better view of the collegiate landscape, find out what you’re looking for, and create a basis for comparison. If you’ve already found your dream school, and you’re ready to demonstrate interest, check out the list below.
Ways To Demonstrate Interest:
Go on a school tour (and give them your information)
Attend an admissions information session
Go to events on campus
Schedule an interview (if it’s available)
Reach out to a regional representative and/or alumni from your town
Attend a summer program at the college
Sign up for a webinar (if you can’t attend a tour)
Email the admissions office **with a SPECIFIC question**
Apply early decision or early action
Introduce yourself to a representative at your college fair
Put yourself on the email list (and actually open the emails)
Call your department of interest and ask for information about specific offerings (example: contacting the English department at Brown to ask about tracks, classes, or opportunities)
Contact professors and pitch yourself as their research assistant, or ask for an informational phone call
Anything else that puts you on their radar
As you can see, this list is long. Should you do everything listed above? No. That’s not a realistic goal and a poor use of your time. While we did our best to curate this list internally, there are other ways to demonstrate interest. We advise you to be creative, but not to waste your time and the time of people who are working at these colleges. You should not be calling to introduce yourself, or emailing anyone if don’t have a genuine question.
We would be remiss not to mention that perhaps the strongest way to demonstrate interest is to write a stellar “Why X College” supplement. It might be helpful to reframe the process, and think of demonstrating interest as a way to gather information for your written application. Writing “I toured Cornell and loved the campus and buildings” will not do much (read: anything) for your candidacy. But if you really do the work of familiarizing yourself with the school before you apply, you’ll have plenty to write about in your application.
If you’re not sure where to start, contact us here.