Myths

Demonstrated Interest

It’s amazing what you can learn on Tiktok! I found out that demonstrated interest can help you get into your “top schools.” If you email the admissions officer that is going to read your application often, and develop a relationship, you can increase your chance of admission. In fact, they want to build relationships with students early. And the “top” kids are doing this as early as eighth grade. They will keep track of how many times each student reaches out to them or answers their emails. If you’re thinking about applying to a “top” school, they want to know that you’ll attend if admitted. You can get almost a full ride just by doing this.

Here are the facts: demonstrated interest is real and can increase your likelihood of admission at the vast majority of institutions in the US. However, it will not help you at most highly selective institutions, as they do not consider demonstrated interest as part of the admissions process. They know that a large percentage of their admitted students will choose to attend – a number called yield – and do not cherry-pick the ones most likely to do so. Showing interest at most colleges, however, is a great idea when applying to colleges. This can be done by attending an information session and tour on campus or virtually, meeting with a college rep during a visit at your school or a college fair, emailing the college rep for your area with an intelligent question, or even just opening emails you receive from that institution and clicking on the hyperlinks to their website. But they don’t “count” the points of contact, and they do not want to be assaulted with multiple emails from a student. And please don’t think of starting the “relationship” in eighth grade – that is utterly unnecessary and potentially annoying to the admissions officer. While it is true that students’ visits, emails, and more become part of their admissions file, most institutions would agree that two points of contact is sufficient and more won’t help. Lastly, it is true that this kind of demonstrated interest can increase the likelihood and amount of a merit scholarship because the institution may think that the student is likely to yield. However, the idea that demonstrated interest alone could cause an institution to offer a full ride is silly. Stay posted; I look forward to de-bunking more TikTok myths!