How much interest did you demonstrate?

[idnib]

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[snowbeltmom]

You can look at at school's Common Data Set to determine whether showing interest is factored into the admission decision.  My high school senior fell into the recruited athlete category, so his college application process was different than it would have been had he not played a sport.  Had he not been a recruited athlete, if the school factored in "showing interest" in the admission decision, I would have made sure that box was checked.

[Brenda in MA]

We definitely made an effort to "show interest" because we were very interested in my children not only being admitted to certain colleges, but also getting scholarship offers.  We showed interest by visiting campuses and going to local college fairs and checking in with their college rep at the fair.

Whether it seems fair or not, it does make sense for a college to consider interest -- especially if they are rankings-conscious.  The yield rate -- # who attend/# admitted factors into the rankings.

Brenda

[Pawz4me]

We did an official (registered) visit to every university DS applied to except one.  That was his super safety (we had visited the campus informally several years ago). 

[FaithManor]

Well, I hate to admit it, but we have pandered. :D He needs scholarships and some schools do take into consideration how enthusiastic they sense the student is.

 

 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

You can look at at school's Common Data Set to determine whether showing interest is factored into the admission decision.  My high school senior fell into the recruited athlete category, so his college application process was different than it would have been had he not played a sport.  Had he not been a recruited athlete, if the school factored in "showing interest" in the admission decision, I would have made sure that box was checked.

 

I had to Google Common Data Set and was surprised at how much information is available.  I have looked through the Data Set for one of DS's choices.

 

In case anyone is interested in looking at whether or not showing interest plays a factor is admissions: it's under the category Basis For Selection, last line for C7, "Level of Applicant's Interest".  There are four categories:  Very Important, Important, Considered, and Not Considered.

 

For this particular school, it is Considered..

 

I will look at some of the others and see what comes to light.

 

ETA:  I looked through his top 5 schools, Level of Interest is rated as Very Important for one, the others all indicate it is Considered.

[Hoggirl]

Agree with others to check the CDS. Ds's top choice did not consider demonstrated interest at all. Some do and some don't. One had it as either important or maybe very important (American University in DC). If it was considered at all then we demonstrated interest by visiting, etc. The only exception was his only Ivy - Princeton, where I believe interest is considered. We did not visit, and he was rejected. I seriously doubt that made the difference, however. He did attend an in-state Princeton alumni luncheon to which all applicants were invited. It was about three hours away from our home.

 

Visits can be expensive. There are other ways to demonstrate interest, of course, but visits are nice if you can afford to do them and have the time.

 

One thing to note - we visited the Claremont Consortium in February of his junior year. He was able to interview at Pomona (wound up not applying), but Claremont McKenna College did not allow interviews until senior year. He was waitlisted there. :/ I'm still kinda not over it - ha ha! Given his ultimate results he wouldn't have chosen it - I'm just prideful! Anyway, if you have a BIG interest in a school where on-campus interviews are allowed, make sure that you go at a time when you are eligible to interview.

[Jenny in Florida]

I was reading this article and became curious if WTMers demonstrated extra interest (as defined in the article) to the schools at which their children received acceptances.

 

I didn't demonstrate any interest.  My son, the applicant, did a few things:

 

- He exchanged e-mails with admissions officers and faculty members in the departments in which he was specifically interested.

- He signed up to receive materials by mail and e-mail.

- He arranged visits/tours to most of the campuses.

- He made sure to stop by and at least visit briefly with faculty in the his departments of interest while he was on campus.

- He arranged in-person auditions for scholarships and/or placement at most of his high-priority schools.

- He sent DVDs of his audition pieces and/or performances to schools he could not visit in person.

 

He ended up applying to 11 schools. He was accepted to nine, waitlisted at one and denied at the last. Interestingly, he did not visit in person either the school at which he was waitlisted or the one at which he was denied. 

 

I think it's important to note that he didn't do any of the things on that list to "demonstrate interest," but because he was interested.

[FaithManor]

I didn't demonstrate any interest.  My son, the applicant, did a few things:

 

- He exchanged e-mails with admissions officers and faculty members in the departments in which he was specifically interested.

- He signed up to receive materials by mail and e-mail.

- He arranged visits/tours to most of the campuses.

- He made sure to stop by and at least visit briefly with faculty in the his departments of interest while he was on campus.

- He arranged in-person auditions for scholarships and/or placement at most of his high-priority schools.

- He sent DVDs of his audition pieces and/or performances to schools he could not visit in person.

 

He ended up applying to 11 schools. He was accepted to nine, waitlisted at one and denied at the last. Interestingly, he did not visit in person either the school at which he was waitlisted or the one at which he was denied. 

 

I think it's important to note that he didn't do any of the things on that list to "demonstrate interest," but because he was interested.

I think this is very true of us as well .While I mentioned pandering, the reality is that all of the interest ds has demonstrated, it's because he is truly interested in each institution. The one that he was accepted at but rejected, NMU, he also contacted the least even though we did do a campus tour and faculty interview - the interview was very telling, and the distance combined with weather factors related to his health, made the decision easy.

 

High priority schools have received high priority attention from him and from dh and myself in terms of researching them, attending financial aid seminars, etc. Low priority wouldn't likely get so much attention.

 

But, to some degree I guess it is still a little bit of pandering simply because he does want to seem eager to attend and especially with scholarship competitions ahead. He'd like to stand out to admissions and to faculty when they all get together in a room and decide who is getting what.

 

It's uhm...symbiotic.

 

Interestingly, since we are deeply involved in 4-H, our family is known down at State's campus. Some expected to see an application from ds, and he would have gotten in - that's a no brainer - but, he wasn't interested in attending there. So the college that has received the most "interest" from us was never on the short list! LOL, that is going to end up being true of all four of our children. This makes us the most odd 4-H leaders in our area. I am not kidding when I say that the vast majority of the high school graduates of the 4-H leaders here end up landing at MSU. I wonder if that puts us on a naughty list.....HMMMMM......

 

I may need to duck and cover when I speak at the leader seminar this spring. :lol:

[dirty ethel rackham]

Oldest ...

visited all the schools his junior year before applying.

went to a Colleges that Change Lives fair and talked to some of the ad coms and reps there.

applied early action (not early decision) but that was because we were counting on merit $$ to make college possible.

I called a few schools myself to clarify some of their positions.

visited top contenders a 2nd time, but that was after acceptance.

Applied to 4 schools.  Accepted with top merit $$ to all 4 schools

 

2nd kid

went to a Colleges that Change Lives fair and talk to the ad coms/reps there.

applied early action to all the schools that had that option (and still early to most of the others.)

visited only a few of the schools before applying (due to some time constraints junior year.)

Applied to 8 schools.  Accepted to 7 (waitlisted at one school that required an interview that my kid never bothered to set up.)  Top merit $$ at most of the schools. 

 

Granted, we didn't apply to top-tier schools.  We only applied to schools where my kids' stats were in the top third of accepted applicants because we knew that the only way they could go away to school was to get good merit awards.  We also limited our search geographically because we could not afford the travel expense on top of tuition/room and board. 

[katilac]

From the quoted article: If a student has already applied to the college, isn’t that demonstrating interest enough?

 

Taking the common app into consideration, I'd say no, not really. The College Board says  5 to 8 is "usually" enough, and numbers higher than that aren't unusual. So, yeah, I think demonstrated interest is certainly valid as one factor among many. 

[katilac]

I didn't demonstrate any interest.  My son, the applicant, did a few things:

 

 

Hey, our kids are WTMers too! 

 

When my kids were in early elementary, I was talking to dh about a new book I was considering. Youngest pipes up and asks, "Is it by that Susan lady?" 

 

They're not boardies, but they're definitely WTMers. 

[Teachin'Mine]

I expressed a lot of interest.  I had the time and expressed it all to my dd only.  Unfortunately she was busy with more immediate interests and goals and although she was interested in all the colleges she applied to, it wasn't obvious to most of them.  I've always heard that junior year is the busiest but IMO it's first semester senior year.  If you have the flexibility of homechooling, it would be wise to allow some time for showing interest. 

[idnib]

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[idnib]

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[Sebastian (a lady)]

Let me comment from a different perspective.  I do admissions interviews for my alma mater, the Naval Academy, and often staff a table at college nights and other public events.  

 

Every year I have a couple students who apply who seem to have spent little time investigating the school at all.  They lack information on limited majors, obligations while a student (such as wearing uniforms every day, not having off campus liberty during the week, not being able to bring a date onto campus as a freshman except at specific times, not having a car on campus), and service selection opportunities (for example, there is no nursing program, few who go into medical school, no direct law program and a requirement to do a warfare specialty if physically able [meaning Supply Corps is out for most students]).  

 

Now I like my alma mater and have really enjoyed doing outreach over the last ten+ years.  But I do find it frustrating to work with a student who has not put in the time to go to the admissions website and read the Steps to Admission page.  

 

And I did really wonder what the young man who was so shocked during our interview to find that he would have to wear a uniform every day thought he was applying to.

 

 

I'm not comfortable with schools that tally up each and every contact and use some kind of point system.  We are now very far away from most colleges my kids want to apply to.  Any visit will start with about $3000 worth of plane tickets, rental cars and hotels and will have to be wedged in around the community college schedule.  But I do want to see that my sons have spent some time investigating the schools and haven't just picked something with a flashy sports team or an exciting nightlife nearby.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

 

I'm not comfortable with schools that tally up each and every contact and use some kind of point system.  We are now very far away from most colleges my kids want to apply to.  Any visit will start with about $3000 worth of plane tickets, rental cars and hotels and will have to be wedged in around the community college schedule.  But I do want to see that my sons have spent some time investigating the schools and haven't just picked something with a flashy sports team or an exciting nightlife nearby.

 

I agree with this.  90% of DS's schools are on the East Coast.  We had one shot to do college visits and could only fit in 5.  Of those 5 two were eliminated as a result of the visits so only 3 schools will see 'demonstrated interest' through an on campus visit.

 

One of the other schools we visited inadvertently while studying the Civil War.  We have pics of DS on campus but it wasn't an official visit and it was a few years ago.  When he received mailings from that school he remembered the campus, did some further research, liked what he saw, and chose to apply. But the school will never know that, there was nowhere to share that info on the application.

 

We have no money or time left to do college visits to the other schools before decisions are made.  We can do one or two more after he is admitted (to help narrow the field) but that will be about it.  

 

The idea that DS will be waitlisted or rejected as a result of perceived lack of interest is a source of anxiety for me.  That, once again, our economic status and lifestyle will negatively alter DS's future when, in reality, he is doing everything he can. 

[Jenny in Florida]

Hey, our kids are WTMers too! 

 

When my kids were in early elementary, I was talking to dh about a new book I was considering. Youngest pipes up and asks, "Is it by that Susan lady?" 

 

They're not boardies, but they're definitely WTMers. 

 

True enough, but I was responding to the wording of the original question:

 

I was reading this article and became curious if WTMers demonstrated extra interest (as defined in the article) to the schools at which their children received acceptances.

 

I probably shouldn't have been snarky, but it happens to be one of my pet peeves, listening to parents talk about where "we" are applying.

[Jenny in Florida]

We have no money or time left to do college visits to the other schools before decisions are made.  We can do one or two more after he is admitted (to help narrow the field) but that will be about it.  

 

The idea that DS will be waitlisted or rejected as a result of perceived lack of interest is a source of anxiety for me.  That, once again, our economic status and lifestyle will negatively alter DS's future when, in reality, he is doing everything he can. 

 

"Demonstrated interest" doesn't have to equal in-person visit, though.

 

Has your son communicated with faculty in the departments in which he is interested, either by phone or by e-mail?

 

Has he chatted with anyone from the admissions department? Asked questions? Checked to see whether reps might be doing any information sessions or participating in college fairs near enough to your home that he could attend? Had any conversations that would indicate he's done or is devoting time and effort to doing the kind of research and investigation that Sebastian mentions? 

 

Those are all things I think a student should do just to be sure he or she is actually interested in applying to a given school. However, they all "count" toward the dreaded "demonstrated interest" category, also.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

My previous posts sounds a whole lot whinier and woe-is-me than I meant it to be. 

 

I am just concerned and very much a worry wart.

 

 

[idnib]

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[Hoggirl]

True enough, but I was responding to the wording of the original question:

 

I was reading this article and became curious if WTMers demonstrated extra interest (as defined in the article) to the schools at which their children received acceptances.

 

I probably shouldn't have been snarky, but it happens to be one of my pet peeves, listening to parents talk about where "we" are applying.

I understood what you meant. That is one of of my pet peeves as well. However, *we* were the ones who had to visit, as ds certainly didn't have the financial means to pay for airfare to visit schools 1,800 miles away. Nor did he, as a 15-year old, have the ability to rent a hotel room when *we* visited schools 1,800 miles away. We had two separate airline trips to California, one to DC, and driving trips to Houston and St. Louis. That had to involve "we."

 

I did not contact any admissions people, change wording on essays, etc. Ds registered on-line for on-campus visits, arranged trial music lessons, and handled the scheduling of alumni interviews required. Nevertheless, if questions arose involving FINANCES, I did contact financial aid offices. "We" did not qualify for financial aid, so I wanted to make certain that a FAFSA was NOT required anywhere ds received merit money. Too big of an issue to leave to a 16-year old boy, IMO.

 

I get it. I posted on the other thread that *we* did not make a college decision. However, IME, parents certainly have to be involved in the process.