Demonstrated Interest: How important is it in college decisions?
Christen Arafeh 
Unlike your grades, test scores, or even extracurriculars, demonstrated interest isn’t something you can explicitly put into your application.
Demonstrated Interest: How important is it in college decisions?
Demonstrated interest is a quality that admissions officers consider during the application process. It can refer to a wide variety of actions on your part, but it all boils down to this: have you proven to be enthusiastic, or at least curious, about the school you’re applying to?
Unlike your grades, test scores, or even extracurriculars, demonstrated interest isn’t something you can explicitly put into your application. Instead, you have to show colleges that you’re interested in them by being engaged during the application process; this could mean participating in an alumni interview, visiting the campus, or attending college fairs.
Colleges use demonstrated interest to predict yield, which refers to the percent of admitted students who ultimately enroll in their school. Yield is important to colleges because they want to make sure that most of the students they admit actually attend their school, making them look more desirable. Using demonstrated interest is one of the strongest predictive tools that colleges have for whether or not you’ll enroll.
How Can I Show Demonstrated Interest to Colleges?
Now that you hopefully understand how demonstrated interest fits into the larger puzzle of the admissions process, let’s look at some ways that you can demonstrate interest to colleges. With all of these, the most important thing you should know is that your actions should be genuine. If you are truly interested in a school, many of these behaviors will come naturally to you, and you’ll be on your way to making a favorable impression.
1.
College visits.
Although we mentioned that these can get expensive, college visits are a good way to see if a college is the right fit, if you have the time and resources. You’ll get to see what the campus is like, meet with an admissions representative, and even hear directly from current students.
2.
Attending high school visits or local college fairs.
This is the perfect way to meet with someone face-to-face without having to make travel arrangements. Most high school counseling offices include not only upcoming visits to your high school, but also any college fairs at the local library or community centers. Mark these dates on your calendar and make a point to speak to the representative of the school you’re interested in. They often have a sign-up sheet for their email list, so be sure to sign up as concrete evidence that you were there.
3.
Attending online events or webinars.
Schools that take interest seriously are aware of the disadvantage it creates for low-income students, and they are finding solutions to help those students prove their interest in ways that make sense for them. If the college of your choice offers a webinar or some other online event, be sure to sign up for it. If it’s live and during the school day, ask your counselor if you can use the library or another quiet space to view the webinar.
4.
Asking relevant questions.
Whether you call or email your admissions office, being in communication is a good thing. You could ask for information about research, study abroad, or internship opportunities, or see if you can get connected with a current student or faculty member who’d be willing to share their perspective with you. That said, admissions officers are bombarded with questions, so err on the side of caution. Only ask questions that you really can’t find the answers to elsewhere.
5.
Opening emails.
Most schools use marketing software that tracks whether you open an email, read it, or click any links within the email. If you aren’t already receiving emails from the college of your choice, get on their mailing list as soon as possible, and start reading through their emails. Click on links that genuinely interest you, such as the department website of your intended major or a student blog post.
6.
Applying by early deadlines.
Although this isn’t the right move for every student, applying early can show that you are serious about attending. As a bonus, many school have a higher application acceptance rate than a regular decision rate.
Not all colleges consider demonstrated interest in their admissions decisions, so it’s important to determine which colleges do. The easiest way to figure that out is to ask! In my experience, colleges are upfront about whether demonstrated interest is a factor in their process or not.
For colleges where it is a factor, demonstrating interest may help you in the admissions process. Now, if your GPA and test scores are far below the college’s averages, visiting, talking to admissions officers, and following the college on every social media platform in existence probably won’t tip the scale in your favor. However, if you are a borderline applicant, or if you have a very similar profile to a student whose only communication with the college was through his/her application, demonstrating interest might just be the factor that gets you an acceptance rather than a denial.
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Categories: : admissions, college
About the Author
Christen is the founder of Hive Education. She is passionate about helping families navigate the college application and admissions processes. She helps students set goals to work towards their own debt-free degrees with her personalized scholarship searches, scholarship courses, and by sharing her scholarship strategies that won her over $900,000 in for her own college education. With four years of experience in higher education, two years working with teens in inner city high schools in New Orleans, and starting her first college consulting company during a pandemic in 2020 she strives to make college accessible for everyone, especially for first generation, low income, and minority students. In her spare time she loves to share her love for books with her daughters. You can find her on Facebook.
Christen is the founder of Hive Education. She is passionate about helping families navigate the college application and admissions processes. She helps students set goals to work towards their own debt-free degrees with her personalized scholarship searches, scholarship courses, and by sharing her scholarship strategies that won her over $900,000 in for her own college education. With four years of experience in higher education, two years working with teens in inner city high schools in New Orleans, and starting her first college consulting company during a pandemic in 2020 she strives to make college accessible for everyone, especially for first generation, low income, and minority students. In her spare time she loves to share her love for books with her daughters. You can find her on Facebook.
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