College Applications · Demonstrated Interest
Fewer than half: 263 of the 601 colleges in our Common Data Set dataset consider an applicant's level of interest, and only 56 rate it Important or Very Important. So check a college before you spend the effort. At the schools that do weigh it, a steady record of engagement with the student's name attached can tip a close decision.
Demonstrated interest is the record of a student's contact with a college before applying: information requests, visits, events, conversations and interviews. Admissions offices run enrollment-management software that logs this contact, including whether a student opened their emails and how long they spent on the college's website. Colleges that track it use it to predict yield, the share of admitted students who actually enroll. A college that can predict yield can admit the right number of students for its housing, its classes and its budget.
That is also why most of the most selective colleges ignore it. When nearly every admitted student enrolls, there is little to predict.
Every college that publishes a Common Data Set rates "level of applicant's interest" in section C7 on a four-step scale. Across the 601 colleges in our dataset, the answer is usually no:
| Level of applicant's interest | Colleges | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Very Important | 16 | 3% |
| Important | 40 | 7% |
| Considered | 207 | 34% |
| Not Considered | 338 | 56% |
These are the 56 colleges that rate it Important or Very Important. The year is the Common Data Set the rating comes from; a few are old, so confirm against the college's current edition before you plan around one.
| College | Level of applicant's interest | CDS year |
|---|---|---|
| American University | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Augustana College | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Bellarmine University | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Dickinson College | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Dillard University | Very Important | 2021-22 |
| Georgia College and State University | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Hillsdale College | Very Important | 2016-17 |
| Ithaca College | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Morehouse College | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | Very Important | 2018-19 |
| Syracuse University | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| United States Air Force Academy | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| University of the Ozarks | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Vanguard University of Southern California | Very Important | 2019-20 |
| Wabash College | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Washington College | Very Important | 2022-23 |
| Albany State University | Important | 2017-18 |
| Arcadia University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Bates College | Important | 2022-23 |
| California Baptist University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Cedarville University | Important | 2021-22 |
| Christopher Newport University | Important | 2022-23 |
| DePaul University | Important | 2022-23 |
| DeSales University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Fairfield University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Florida Institute of Technology | Important | 2022-23 |
| Grambling State University | Important | 2019-20 |
| Jackson State University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Lee University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Lehigh University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Louisiana Tech University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Loyola University Chicago | Important | 2022-23 |
| Massachusetts Maritime Academy | Important | 2022-23 |
| Michigan State University | Important | 2022-23 |
| Mississippi College | Important | 2021-22 |
| Nazareth College | Important | 2022-23 |
| Pratt Institute | Important | 2022-23 |
| Quinnipiac University | Important | 2022-23 |
| St. John Fisher College | Important | 2021-22 |
| Skidmore College | Important | 2022-23 |
| Soka University of America | Important | 2022-23 |
| Southeastern University | Important | 2012-13 |
| St. Olaf College | Important | 2022-23 |
| Susquehanna University | Important | 2021-22 |
| The College of New Jersey | Important | 2022-23 |
| Trinity College | Important | 2022-23 |
| Tulane University | Important | 2022-23 |
| United States Military Academy | Important | 2022-23 |
| University of Arizona | Important | 2022-23 |
| University of Dayton | Important | 2022-23 |
| University of Pittsburgh | Important | 2022-23 |
| University of Rochester | Important | 2022-23 |
| University of Wisconsin-Green Bay | Important | 2022-23 |
| University of Wisconsin-La Crosse | Important | 2022-23 |
| Virginia Military Institute | Important | 2022-23 |
| Western Carolina University | Important | 2022-23 |
Two patterns are worth knowing. Most of the Ivies do not weigh interest: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown and Cornell all mark it Not Considered, and Dartmouth marks it Considered. But "big public universities ignore it" is not a safe rule. Michigan State, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Arizona rate it Important, while Ohio State, Florida, Georgia and UCLA mark it Not Considered.
Search the college's name plus "common data set," open the most recent PDF, and scroll to section C7, a grid of admission factors. Read the row labeled "Level of applicant's interest." It takes about two minutes per college, and it is the college's own published answer rather than a counselor's guess. Our guide to using the Common Data Set walks through the rest of the document.
Do this for every college on your list and sort it into two groups. Spend demonstrated-interest effort only on the Considered, Important and Very Important schools.
A college can only count contact it can attach to a student's record, and that record exists only after the student gives the college a name and email. Anonymous browsing, a walk-on tour and a generic email to fifty schools leave no trace. Use this test for every action: if it does not carry your student's name, it does not count.
| Action | What makes it count | When |
|---|---|---|
| Request information on the admissions site | Creates the student's record; everything after links to it | As early as 9th grade |
| Time on the college's website | Measured once the site knows who you are, so log in to the applicant portal or arrive from the college's own emails, and spend real time there | Ongoing |
| Open and click the college's emails | Only credited to the email address on file, so use the one you registered | Ongoing |
| Info session or virtual event | Sign in under the student's name, not a parent's | 10th to 12th grade |
| Campus visit | Register through the admissions office in advance; an unregistered tour is invisible | 11th grade to fall of 12th |
| Contact with the regional rep | A fair booth sign-in or an email the rep answers is logged to the record | 11th to 12th grade |
| Interview, alumni or on campus | The interviewer files a report | Fall of 12th grade |
| Early Decision application | A signed, binding commitment | Fall of 12th grade |
Admissions reps spend each fall visiting high schools in their territory, and for most students that visit is the easiest logged contact of the year. A homeschooler has no high school for the rep to visit, so the student has to start that contact directly.
Three colleges on our homeschool scholarships list also rate interest Important: Cedarville, California Baptist University and Mississippi College. At those schools, engagement and merit money point the same way.
In Common App, a homeschool student invites the home school supervisor, usually a parent, as the school counselor. The parent then completes the School Report and its homeschool supplement and uploads the transcript. Every contact a rep has with your student eventually meets that transcript, so it should read as a document a registrar produced: course titles that state their level, credits, a calculated GPA.
Yes, because it is a binding commitment, not a signal. The Common App's Early Decision agreement quotes the NACAC rule: a student may have only one Early Decision application pending, and if admitted must promptly withdraw every other application. The one exit is financial: a student who applies for aid and is not offered an award that makes attendance possible may decline and be released.
Keep a log for each college that tracks interest: the date, the name of the person you met, and one detail you could not have found on the website. That log becomes the raw material for the "Why us?" supplement, which is where interest shows up in the file a reader actually sees.
A generic answer reads: "I love your beautiful campus and strong academics." An answer built from the log reads: "When I visited on October 10, the chemistry chair explained that first-years join a faculty research group in their second semester. That is the reason I am applying." The second one can only come from a student who was there.
Send a short thank-you email within a day of any interview or one-on-one conversation. It is another logged contact, and it keeps the rep's name in your log.
| Grade | Do this |
|---|---|
| 9th to 10th | Request information from colleges you are curious about, under the student's own email |
| 11th | Check section C7 for each college, email reps at the ones that track interest, register for visits, sign in at fairs |
| Summer before 12th | Finish visits; take any interview that opens early |
| Fall of 12th | Interviews, the "Why us?" supplements from your log, and an Early Decision choice by the Nov 1 or Nov 15 deadlines |
Yes. A rep who gets a weekly email from the same student is not learning anything new. Contact should be spaced and specific: one email per real question, one registered visit, one interview. Ten clicks the week before the deadline read as a burst, not a record.
Demonstrated interest gets you noticed. A professional transcript and GPA are what the rep's file is waiting for. Start free, no credit card.
Start FreeIn our dataset of 601 colleges' Common Data Sets, 16 rate an applicant's level of interest Very Important, including American University, Dickinson, Ithaca, Syracuse and Washington College, and 40 rate it Important, including Lehigh, Tulane, Michigan State and the University of Pittsburgh. Another 207 list it as Considered.
Fewer than half. Of 601 colleges, 263 (44%) consider an applicant's level of interest in some way and 338 (56%) do not consider it at all. Only 56 (9%) rate it Important or Very Important. Figures come from section C7 of each college's most recent Common Data Set on file, mostly 2022-23.
Search the college's name plus "common data set," open the most recent PDF, and find section C7. The row labeled "Level of applicant's interest" is marked Very Important, Important, Considered or Not Considered. It is the college's own answer, published every year.
Mostly no. In their 2022-23 Common Data Sets, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown and Cornell all mark level of applicant's interest Not Considered. Dartmouth marks it Considered.
Without a high school, a homeschooler misses the visit an admissions rep makes to each school in their territory, so replace it directly: request information on the college's site, email the regional rep assigned to your state with one specific question, register for visits and events under the student's own name, and take any interview offered.
It is the strongest signal there is, because it is binding: if admitted, the student must withdraw every other application. Under the NACAC rule quoted in the Common App agreement, a student can be released only if the financial aid offered does not make attendance possible. Run the college's net price calculator first.