demonstrated interest — Blog — TKG

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demonstrated interest

13 Best Schools without Demonstrated Interest

Demonstrated interest is when schools keep track of, and take into consideration, your level of interest in their school. Whenever you demonstrate interest, like through a tour, emailing your admissions officer, or signing up for an email, schools can track that! However, not all schools do care about demonstrated interest. Today, we’re going to talk about some of the top colleges that don’t take demonstrated interest into consideration.

9 Best Schools with Demonstrated Interest

Demonstrated interest is one of the lesser-asked about parts of the college admissions process, but that’s why we’re here to talk about it. At TKG, we’re all about the details! Demonstrated interest is when a school tracks and takes into consideration the level of interest you’ve demonstrated. We know it’s generally uncool to use the phrase in its own definition, but it’s pretty straightforward.

Demonstrated Interest at Tufts

So you want to be a Jumbo, huh? Elephants are not normally credited with, you know, subtlety, and you might be tempted to take the “spraying water through your trunk” approach to demonstrated interest. Here’s the thing, though — demonstrated interest is not the secret weapon that you think it is, and it’s important that you know where to focus your energy as you knock out your applications.

Demonstrated Interest at Middlebury

With class years totaling under 1,000 students annually, Middlebury is a small school that gets harder to get into as interest continues to rise. Every year, a few students go rabid over demonstrated interest. Why? Well, to be honest, there is no explanation capable of justifying catfishing your admissions counselor into friending you on Facebook — and the fact that you’re using Zucky Boy’s platform in the first place is all the proof we needed to know you’d gone feral. Nevertheless, we understand the urgency behind questions about demonstrated interest. It’s not totally clear what it is in the first place, and everyone wants to give themselves the best chance of getting accepted to their first-choice school.

Demonstrated Interest at Vanderbilt

So you want to anchor down, huh? Vanderbilt has gotten increasingly competitive in recent years, and it’s natural that eager prospective students are looking to have an edge on their competition in any way that they can. “Demonstrated Interest” has remained a hot-button issue in college admissions because applying can be an incredibly emotional process and it’s hard to understand how much demonstrated interest really matters.

Demonstrated Interest at Northwestern

In the last few years, the college landscape has changed quite a bit when it comes to demonstrated interest. Historically nebulous and opaque, demonstrated interest didn’t have a clear definition, nor did universities disclose how much it factored into their admissions decisions. Recently, more top-tier universities have come out to say they do not consider demonstrated interest when evaluating applications, but each school has a slightly different policy. Northwestern’s might seem a bit complicated at first glance, but we’re here to cut through the noise so you can focus on what matters most this college application season.

Demonstrated Interest at MIT

While oldheads are out here complaining about TikTok this and ChatGPT that, the truth is that some things about adolescence never change. For example, applying to college has always caused high school seniors a significant amount of stress. And young, eager college hopefuls have always wondered if demonstrating interest — if finding a way to show how much they really care — would make it just a little bit easier to get into their dream school.

Demonstrated Interest at UPenn

Hello, and welcome to the “demonstrated interest” support group. If you’re a bewildered college applicant, you’re in the right place. Demonstrated interest is confusing. For one thing, there’s no data that can tell us in cold, hard numbers how much it impacts admissions decisions, and colleges don’t have a clear definition of what behaviors they interpret as meaningful displays of interest.

Demonstrated Interest at Princeton

If you landed here, the odds are you’re scouring the internet for anything to give you an edge on your Princeton application. Unsurprisingly, the question of demonstrated interest comes up a lot, because most schools don’t strictly define what their idea of demonstrated interest is or how much it factors into their decisions. Luckily, that’s started to change, and Princeton has made its policy clear.

Demonstrated Interest at Dartmouth

While it remains shocking that a school whose official mascot is just the color green but big (and whose unofficial mascot is “Keggy the Keg”) has maintained its position as one of the most competitive colleges in the U.S., numbers don’t lie. With an acceptance rate of just 6.2%, Dartmouth is not only an Ivy League but one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in America, founded in 1769. If you’re thinking “cut to the chase already,” we’ll give it to you straight. If you want to one day see a somewhat worse-for-wear foam beer keg tap itself at sporting events all over Hanover, New Hampshire (sidenote: is that auto-cannibalism?), you’ll need to set yourself apart in every possible way before applying. (We wish we were joking.)

Demonstrated Interest at Harvard

Honestly, we should be applying our clown makeup as we write this post, because Harvard is Harvard. Who doesn’t want in? Interest is implied. You don’t get brownie points for wanting to go there because, um, duh. You want to go there, your neighbor wants to go there, every teen rom-com protagonist wants to go there, and — we’re pretty confident in this assumption — even your imaginary friend wants to go there. Yeah, we’re talking Rory Gilmores out the wazoo.

Demonstrated Interest at New York University

Everyone’s favorite dream school has gotten more competitive. Gone are the days of being a Violet (or a Bobcat or whatever their mascot is) as second-choice to Ivy League dreams. NYU’s acceptance rates have more than halved in the last ten years. HALVED!! In 2013, NYU had a 35% acceptance rate, which went down to 28% in 2017, down again to 19% in 2018, and finally for this last admissions cycle they’re down to 12.2%. And if we follow this math, it’s only going to get harder and harder to stand out amongst the piles of applicants.

Demonstrated Interest at Duke University

Duke is one of the most popular schools with our clients. It has a great culture, robust academics, and it seems like everyone wants to go there. Their most recent acceptance rate? 7.7%. That makes Duke more popular with applicants than schools like Dartmouth, Cornell, and UPenn. So how can you set yourself up with the best chances possible when applying to Duke? Demonstrated interest. Which sounds simple enough, but here’s where it gets confusing. Duke says that they don’t track demonstrated interest:

How to Show Demonstrated Interest During Covid

There are a lot of things that are important in the college application. We regularly emphasize the fact that grades are of the utmost importance. In a normal year, tests matter a lot, too. If you want to beat out the competition to a highly competitive school, your essays are going to be key. Then, there are all the ancillary things that add up to help put you over the edge in a very competitive college admissions environment. Demonstrated interest is certainly an ancillary component—in fact, it doesn’t matter all that much but it’s something that parents and students care a lot about. It’s also one component over which you can exert a lot of control.

Demonstrated Interest at The University of Michigan

The final installment of our demonstrated interest mini-series is focused on the ever-popular University of Michigan. If you’re wondering why everyone seems to love the school so much, start here. If you (or your child) have recently set your sights on The Big House you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading for the low down on demonstrated interest on everyone’s favorite campus.