What is demonstrated interest?

Answered

I think the previous answer is a good one but I would like to elaborate on the nuances of how colleges treat interest in their schools

Let's be 100% clear, all colleges regardless of whether they are ranked #1 or #500 care if you are interested in their school. But some schools divide the interest into 2 distinct categories which are the following:

Demonstrated Interest: So demonstrated interest covers all kinds of things like the following:

-Following the college on social media

-Signing up for more information on the colleges' websites

-Attending information sessions either virtually or in person

-Visiting the campus in person and getting a tour

-Signing up for sessions like "What UPenn is looking for"

-Contacting the admissions office for germane-specific questions about the application process

You get the drift.

Application file interest: Now this is a different kind of interest the colleges want to know so you can properly fill out the Common App and the Supplemental essays and short questions related to the school.

For example, many top colleges have a "WHY US?" essay prompt. You absolutely can not get high marks for this essay if you haven't investigated thoroughly what the college is all about. This takes time and effort. And then you have to write something clever, unique, and individualized about why UPenn or Columbia fits you and vice versa in a symbiotic relationship.

Colleges fully expect you to read their website and marketing collateral and re-read this material so you are fully ingrained into what Dartmouth or Brown is looking for. While all top colleges have similar acceptance rates and their admits typically have the same sorts of stats like GPA, Test Scores, and ECs, the college criteria for FIT is different at each and every school.

So if you go to Dartmouth's website you will see this.

What does Dartmouth look for in an applicant?

"Every student we admit brings something unique to the community: a combination of qualities, experiences, and point-of-view that isn't duplicated by any other student. Our holistic selection process is grounded in the concept that the whole is more than merely the sum of its parts. At Dartmouth, this idea is at the forefront of our application review process."

So my takeaway from this is that Dartmouth is looking for spikey unique individuals that stand out in the crowd and look and feel like nothing generic. So if you are a book-smart STEM kid that has perfect grades/test scores/course rigor but doesn't do sports, doesn't play an instrument, doesn't engage in your community, doesn't have eccentricities that are quirky and interesting, then you are DULL to Dartmouth. rejection.

But the applicant with less than perfect stats who is a rock climbing champion who makes and sells pottery on ETSY, interned for Congressperson, and has 100K followers on youtube for their astronomy channel is certainly more compelling to Dartmouth.

So you have to look at C7 of the common data set to see if both kinds of interests are considered or just the application interest.

Good luck.