Myth #10
“Visiting colleges that are far away is very expensive so, wait until you know where you’ve been accepted, then visit those colleges and make your final decisions.”
This was the standard practice for many students up until just a few years ago. Today, it’s enough to keep many students from being accepted at a school they like and where they might otherwise have been accepted!
If there’s one term that every student applying to college today should learn, repeat to themselves 20 times a day and perhaps have tattooed on the palm of their hand so that they won’t forget . . . it’s “demonstrated display of interest”. We talk about how things have changed for students applying to college today from the time their parents went through the same experience . . . well, this is one of those major, critical, can’t be ignored or overlooked changes.
What exactly is a demonstrated display of interest? C’mon . . . if you can’t guess this one from the name then maybe you shouldn’t be applying to one of America’s top 100 colleges! It’s exactly what it says it is . . . an applicant’s proven history of interest in the school.
Colleges have studied and actually quantified this interest very carefully. Many major colleges now have fairly sophisticated systems in place to track and calculate an applicant’s demonstrated interest. How seriously do schools take demonstrated interest? Well, I know of one major university, a well known top 25 school, which takes the following approach when folders are brought to committee for discussion and a final decision. On the front of the applicant’s folder, this school prints a score derived from the student’s demonstrated interest, their GPA and their SAT’s. If the score is below a minimum threshold established by the admissions committee, the application isn’t seriously discussed . . . it’s generally discarded. Think of that for a minute. This particular school has basically elevated demonstrated interest to a plateau along with your high school grades and standardized test scores!
If you are seriously interested in a particular school as one of your top choices, make every effort to visit that campus at least once before you apply. Visiting the campus proves to an interested student that their impressions of the college are accurate. It also proves to the admissions committee that the student is a serious candidate and not just applying on a whim!
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