What is DEMONSTRATED INTEREST?

For many schools, in-person college visits demonstrate a student’s interest in attending. When prospective students are unable to visit, whether because of the pandemic or other reasons, it’s time to change the game plan.

Think about demonstrated interest as how eager a student is to attend a certain school.

“Demonstrated interest is how certain colleges track if you’ve taken the time to truly research their school and how likely you are to enroll if accepted,” said Lindsay Fried, independent educational consultant and founder of Simply Admissions. “Many colleges automatically track a wide variety of behaviors, ranging from taking an official campus tour to interacting with the college through social media. At some schools, the degree of this behavior is then quantified and taken into account when determining an admissions decision.

“Demonstrating interest can help high schoolers take their college prep to the next level, which will hopefully lead to an increased number of acceptances at the schools they are interested in the most,” Fried said.

Not all schools track demonstrated interest but some do, ranking in-person visits just below grades, strength of curriculum, writing samples and counselor recommendations, according to the National Association for College Admissions Counseling Trends Survey.

“Demonstrated interest is an enrollment management technique,” Fried said. It allows colleges to separate the applicants that sincerely want to be admitted from those who randomly applied to a bunch of colleges without doing any research to make sure it’s a true fit. “It helps colleges determine how many acceptances they should send out, how many students will actually enroll, etc.”

A quick online search can reveal if a college tracks demonstrated interest, but it’s not truly necessary.

“I’ve found that demonstrating interest tends to actually help the students better understand if the school is a good fit for them in general,” Fried said.

While all colleges may not offer all of these opportunities, Fried said students can demonstrate interest virtually by:

• Registering for and attending a virtual visit, which may include a live virtual tour, student panel and/or information session.

• Signing up for a virtual interview, an option reserved for seniors.

• Attending a virtual college fair and interacting with college representatives there.

• Following and interacting with the college on social media.

• Signing up for the college’s mailing list.

• Spending at least 15-20 minutes looking through the college’s website.

Interaction with a college representative can be a double-edged sword, Fried said.

“It can be helpful for students to use their region’s admission counselor as a resource and allow the relationship to evolve naturally. This may mean sending a thank you note after the admission counselor visits the student’s high school (virtually or in-person) or emailing about a genuine question that the student cannot find the answer to on the college’s website. However, if a student does not have a true reason to reach out to their admissions counselor, that’s totally fine! It’s not a requirement to have a successful application,” she said.

Demonstrating interest is a great idea, but don’t go overboard. “I recommend that my students choose their top three to five colleges to focus on engaging with those schools,” Fried said.

“Demonstrating interest can help high schoolers take their college prep to the next level, which will hopefully lead to an increased number

of acceptances at the schools they are interested in the most.”

Lindsay Frie