The college application process is a little bit like dating. No one wants to be chasing a romantic interest that has zero interest in them. It is more fun to date someone who wants to date you. Colleges want the same thing. They want to admit students that are excited about attending their institution, and who will contribute towards the creation of a dynamic and engaging environment. At a basic level, demonstrated interest is all the ways that you communicate to the college that you are interested in attending their school, the equivalent of “swiping right” on a dating app. So how do students demonstrate interest effectively? The most common ways are to visit the campus, attend a college presentation at a school, attend a college fair, email the college, and use social media. Look for a follow-up blog post soon with details about each of these options. First, however, let me explain to you a little about institutional rankings and finances. Both of these impact how colleges fill their available seats every year.
Student matriculation (the amount of students that are accepted and then actually enroll) matters to colleges because it affects their rankings, a term called “yield”. The top three schools for students accepted that actually enroll are Harvard University, Stanford University, and Brigham Young University, with 82%, 81%, and 80% matriculation, respectively. For these schools, demonstrated interest does not really matter. These schools know that they will fill all of their available seats every year. This is an important point. In the end, colleges function like a business. They have bills to pay and a significant percentage of most college’s revenue continues to come from tuition. Whether or not each class has three empty seats, the college still needs to heat the building, pay their professors, improve technology, and maintain its grounds. Colleges absolutely need to maximize their enrollment in order to stay in business. To this end, many colleges have hired specialists to analyze ALL THE DATA. College enrollment is a “Moneyball” business. Colleges track how many of their emails a student opened and how many times a student visited their website. Colleges track how many contacts you had with them via college visits, presentations, fairs, and emails. Colleges look at your zip code and how likely a student from your zip code is to enroll. Colleges that cannot afford to be need-blind know how likely a student is to enroll based on their family’s income.
Having said all of that, as a student is thinking about colleges, they need to know a few things. First, no student is going to be denied because they opened two emails instead of three from any particular university. No student is going to be denied because they utilized two strategies for demonstrating interest instead of four strategies. Everyone take a deep breath. The college application process is anxiety-ridden enough without students feeling like they have to email a college every week for four years. (Too much communication will actually count against a student.) Recognize that some aspects of the college admissions process are out of your control. Accept that the most prestigious schools don’t care about demonstrated interest because they are going to fill all their seats whether you matriculate or not. Also, a student cannot invest incredible amounts of time and energy into ten schools. Their best efforts should be saved for their first and second choice schools, possibly a third back-up school. When you talk to admissions representatives, you can simply ask them how important demonstrated interest is to their school. Talk to a counselor. With experience, they will be able to advise you on the finer points. For example, after visiting Northwestern, I know that you will get noticed if you wear Northwestern gear to either a college presentation or a college visit. President Schapiro has surprisingly strong feelings about students wearing another college’s logo on his campus. A good counselor or some serious research can help you navigate the best avenues for you to demonstrate interest at your college of choice.