What COVID-19 Means for Demonstrated Interest
Elton Lin
Demonstrated interest, or a student’s active, outward display of interest in a college, may seem like a more abstract quality than a student’s GPA and class rigor or test scores, but it still has an impact in the eyes of college admissions. While some colleges don’t track students’ levels of interest as much, the colleges that do really do care. Tulane University even goes to the effort of detailing a guide for good demonstrated interest and engagement, and Santa Clara University has a similar demonstrated interest guide geared towards a more virtual angle as a result of COVID-19.
According to the NACAC 2019 State of College Admission report (page 15, table 7), colleges consider demonstrated interest #6 in overall importance to their admissions decisions. That means demonstrated interest exerts more influence on a student’s admittance prospects than extracurriculars (#10) and teacher recommendations (#8).
It makes sense that many schools care so much about demonstrated interest—a student may send an application to a college, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they actually love the school or even particularly want to go there. With so many applicants looking to just ensure a safety net or offhandedly try their luck at a school, colleges want to know if students are likely to accept their offer of admission, since college administrators are always looking to fill their capacity with the best and brightest students. After all, their yield rate (the proportion of admitted students who actually attend) is at stake, a value that colleges and universities would like to increase since it indicates that the school is more sought after (yield rates also contribute to a college’s ranking in some lists). To college admissions, demonstrated interest goes a long way in separating the casual applicant from the dedicated one who truly wants a spot at a school.
But how exactly does a student go about demonstrating this interest? Before COVID-19, a student could demonstrate interest by attending information sessions at local high schools, connecting with college representatives at in-person college fairs, or even going on a campus tour or staying overnight at the college. However, with many new restrictions on in-person ways of demonstrating interest, students can lean more heavily on methods that don’t involve face-to-face contact:
Applying early. This extra effort in making an earlier application deadline can go a long way. While Early Decision demonstrates interest best by telling a college that they’re essentially your one-and-only, Early Action can indicate some love for colleges as well. With that being said, there’s no going back when applying Early Decision, and colleges weigh this applicant choice heavily in the admissions decision, as demonstrated by differing admissions rates for early applicants.
Contacting and connecting with admissions officers. Pre-Covid, admissions officers used to travel to high schools giving presentations. With in-person events few and far between now, students should fill out information request forms on college websites and attend upcoming events like information sessions or virtual tours. From there, students can contact the admissions officers, sign up for an alumni interview, and make sure to keep in contact with the admissions office (although direct emails should only be sent for specific questions that students aren’t able to answer from an extensive search on the college’s website). Knowing the admissions officer is especially helpful with smaller schools.
Being college-specific in essays. This is especially pertinent when it comes to those “Why this college?” supplemental essays that most colleges ask of applicants, even to colleges that say they don’t track demonstrated interest. Yes, a student might be applying primarily for a college’s outstanding computer science program, and that’s good to mention, but so many colleges have great computer science programs. Students should talk about college quirks and traditions, name-drop some student organizations, and express their desire to experience specific things they could only experience at that particular college.
How are schools tracking demonstrated interest now, in the time of COVID-19? Students still demonstrate high interest when they apply early and when their application essays are college-specific, and contacting admissions officers and alumni will only help a student’s admissions prospects. However, the pandemic situation has also forced colleges to alter the ways they typically track and evaluate applicants’ demonstrated interest. This has largely manifested as an online shift. Here are some examples:
College visits have been made virtual. Nowadays, it’s a much less viable option for students to physically visit campuses, making virtual options much more important. Northeastern University and American University, for example, offer all kinds of virtual alternatives to campus tours. Whether it’s through a student or employee-led Zoom session or a virtual college tour, college visits have been made more safely and easily accessible to students in the midst of the pandemic. Attend these! Colleges often require students to register for these virtual tours beforehand, and so they end every tour with a list of names to mark higher on their demonstrated interest gauge.
Webinars and online information sessions have gained importance. Colleges may hold these information sessions themselves, or college admissions officers and representatives from specific colleges may participate in or co-host webinars held by other organizations. Either way, these online sessions are prime opportunities for students to demonstrate interest in specific schools. Similar to college visits, webinars and online information sessions tend to require student registration, which gives colleges a list of student names to track, and these sessions allow students to more easily get in contact with admissions officers--make sure to mention where you “met” that representative if you do contact them (i.e., which info session you attended).
Colleges are likely tracking online communication more closely. As noted above, some colleges already keep an eye on whether students have opened the schools’ emails or clicked the links in those emails, and with COVID-19 pushing everyone online, colleges will likely pay all the more attention to interactions in your inbox. Follow schools on social media, register for alumni interviews, and email admissions officers with questions that can’t be easily answered on their college websites—schools will definitely take notice and take your demonstrated interest into account when they consider your application later.
Data is everywhere online, and colleges are taking full advantage of that to track students’ demonstrated interest. The greater emphasis on online methods will also make it much easier for students to demonstrate interest—physical college visits tended to be difficult for students with tight schedules or budgets, for example, whereas virtual tours negate those problems entirely. However, this also means that more students can more easily demonstrate higher interest in schools, so students should be even more active to keep up with the increased competition.
For which schools does demonstrated interest really matter? While it takes only a simple search online of a school’s name and “demonstrated interest” (or even Common Data Set) to check a particular school’s stance on demonstrated interest, here are some particular examples of colleges that consider demonstrated interest:
Boston University lists demonstrated interest as "Important" to their admissions decisions, and their dean of admissions, Kelly Walter, has said, "We tell [prospective] students it’s important to establish a relationship.” The school's alumni admissions volunteer handbook encourages volunteers to "encourage all students to complete an inquiry card" so as to gather information from the interested student. The handbook even outright says, "BU does track interest — each time a student sees us at an event, we note that they’ve taken an extra step to learn more about us."
Northeastern University marks demonstrated interest as a “Considered” factor in its admissions process, and the sheer number of places on their website for students to submit their information speaks to that. As aforementioned, Northeastern has a host of virtual ways for students to engage with the school and demonstrate interest, from information sessions to campus tours and more on their Senior Resources page.
New York University also marks demonstrated interest as a “Considered” factor in admissions. Among others, NYU’s College of Arts & Science offers potential applicants a detailed outline of expectations for interviews, highly encouraging students to register for one so the school can “get to know you as a person and as a potential student” and “obtain information that is independent of your file”—all signs of demonstrated interest. They even encourage students to thank and contact interviewers after the interview is over.
American University absolutely holds demonstrated interest in high regard, marking it as “Very Important” in its admissions process, and it shows. From an official video walking students through “What AU Looks For: Demonstrated Interest” to its virtual engagement options to the fact that two-thirds of its admitted class has a history of attending “either the campus tour or offsite information session” to its admissions officers openly talking about the importance of demonstrated interest in evaluating applicants, it’s clear that American University tracks this metric closely.
Pitzer College also lists demonstrated interest as a “Considered” factor, stating on its website some examples of actions that “count towards your demonstrated interest! It provides a full menu of virtual alternatives to campus visits and information sessions—all of these are virtual for the school now, in fact—and, of course, these all come with places for students to register and submit contact information. Not only does Pitzer offer virtual interviews, but it also offers virtual drop-ins, where applicants can have a “candid chat” with current students. Pitzer even encourages applicants to attend a tour and/or an information session before signing up for one of these drop-ins.
Washington University in St. Louis considers demonstrated interest “Important” in its admissions process. One of its FAQ’s outright asks “Do you take demonstrated interest into consideration?”, and the school answers this with a lengthy, resounding yes. Washington University in St. Louis also offers virtual engagement to high school seniors and underclassmen alike, allowing potential applicants to get an early start at demonstrating interest, and aside from things like virtual campus tours and webinars, they also offer “academic theme days” for high schoolers to more fully explore the academic programs at the school under a guided lens—with student registration, of course!
In short, demonstrated interest remains an important facet of many colleges’ admissions processes, even in light of COVID-19. There’s been an overall shift towards online methods of engaging with colleges, and schools that hold demonstrated interest in higher regard have made sure to accommodate these new needs, offering all kinds of virtual tours, information sessions, and other forms of communication. Students should take full advantage of these opportunities—and even if a college doesn’t track demonstrated interest, following all these tips can only help applicants decide on their best fit school.