This college admissions cycle, I had the pleasure of watching a good friend deftly exercise a seldom-discussed element of college admissions strategy. That is “demonstrated interest.” This is the concept of conveying to a college that you REALLY want to go there. To be impactful in this area, one really needs to go beyond simply applying as an early action candidate and/or writing your personal statement about how you’ve wanted to go to this college since you were a little kid and both your parents went there and their legendary quarterback is your idol, or whatever. To fully actuate this element, a student really needs to DEMONSTRATE their interest in the school.
So, my friend’s son, a senior who we’ll call Brian, really wanted to go to this large university. Admission to this school is very competitive and Brian’s test scores and GPA were a level below the range we typically see admitted to the school. Honestly, his numbers were far enough away that I didn’t think he had much of a chance of getting in. I think Dad understood this, but was determined to give it his all.
The first thing Dad and Brian did was to go and tour the campus and meet with an admissions rep. I can’t overstate the importance of an official tour here, especially in cases such as this where no one in the family has a tie to the university. How can you say that going to a given school is the most important thing in the world to you if you’ve never even been there? Colleges absolutely track who signs up for their official tours and align that data with the applications they receive. If you don’t bother going to see the college, you’re not really making an effort to demonstrate your interest.
The other key thing they did here was meet with an admissions rep. Indeed, Brian has a great personality. He’s magnetic. Dad understood he had a kid with traits that can make him successful well beyond his high school numbers. Admissions reps are the same individuals who read applications and make decisions about students. This meeting established a relationship and made Brian a face and personality that went along with his application.
So, the relationship was established and Brian was on the radar. Between that meeting and the time admissions were released, Dad and Brian worked to foster the relationship they had with the admissions rep simply by staying in touch. They sent an email every so often with a question or just to check in and reiterate how much they felt the school’s program of study in Brian’s intended field was perfect for him. Conveying an alignment between what a school offers and what a student wants to do in their career path is also a crucial piece of effective demonstrated interest.
This continued contact kept Brian in front of the admissions rep, likely brought him familiarity in the whole admissions office, and he was eventually accepted. Brian plans to start school there this summer. As the school released data from their admitted students, Brian’s numbers remained well short, but he got in anyway. It all goes to show the important role demonstrated interest plays in the process.
