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.
There are a lot of factors that go into deciding whether or not you should be admitted to a particular school, both academic and non-academic, and they range from being very important to not considered at all.
Word to the wise, just because a school doesn’t track demonstrated interest doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the things that would demonstrate interest. We recommend doing things like virtual or IRL tours, emailing the admissions team with your relevant questions, and reading the weekly newsletter because those things actually help you find out if you’d like the school! This list doesn’t just mean you can apply to all of these schools willy-nilly! Now, let’s get into the list of 13 schools that don’t track demonstrated interest.
Amherst
Amherst is a small, liberal arts college located in Amherst, MA. We know, how creative of them. Amherst is known as a little Ivy, meaning their academics, rigor, and acceptance rates are on-par with their Ivy League counterparts.
Amherst’s top programs are majors like bio, poli sci, econ, and comp sci. Even as a smaller liberal arts school, their STEM majors are highly regarded and prep students well for a future career in the sciences.
Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon not tracking demonstrated interest is not surprising. CMU does a lot of things under the guise of social justice, and we assume this is one of those. Not tracking demonstrated interest increases accessibility to students who otherwise might not be able to afford tours or don’t attend schools where CMU officers might visit. At least, we think this is their reasoning.
CMU is a very, very good STEM school. Students interested in computer science or engineering are drawn to CMU like moths to a flame. Also, in honor of their namesake, CMU has a really strong business program. We also think it’s a really friendly school!
MIT
MIT is one of the hardest to get into schools (and this list has quite a few of them) out there, and like CMU, they also buck a lot of the trends in college admissions – although not always for the same, or even consistent, reasons. MIT requires test scores, doesn’t like waitlist or deferral letters, and doesn’t use the Common App. They can be considered trend setters in the admissions world.
As we’re sure you know, MIT is a powerhouse school for STEM-minded kids. In addition to being one of the most prestigious schools for STEM majors, they also have a very, very good undergrad business program.
Stanford
Another one of the most competitive schools in the world, Stanford has a less than 4% acceptance rate, and we assume they don’t need to track demonstrated interest because they know you’re interested. Stanford doesn’t have a problem courting potential students, and the only advanced decision they offer is REA – this tells us they have a real laissez-faire approach to tracking interest.
Stanford is one of the best schools in the world, and the same can be said about a lot of their majors. Whether you’re interested in computer science or history, Stanford is going to give you one of the greatest educations out there.
U Chicago
We’ll be honest, it surprises us that UChicago is on this list. UChicago offers every admissions decision under the sun – ED, ED2, EA, their new ED0, and a transfer option a la Cornell. Typically, this translates into caring about whether or not a student cares about your school, but apparently not in their case.
UChicago is known as the home of modern economics, and econ is by far their most popular major. However, the school is strong in all social sciences and students who go to UChicago like its proximity to Chicago and the career opportunities they can access in the city.
UNC Chapel Hill
The only public college on this list, but not the only public college without demonstrated interest. In our experience, state residency is going to trump demonstrated interest every single time at public state schools, even at ones that track demonstrated interest (like Michigan.) UNC Chapel Hill is considered one of the best public colleges in the country, and it attracts students from all over the world even though being a North Carolinian (or Tarheel, UNC’s mascot) is going to help you the most.
UNC Chapel Hill has a top 10 undergrad business program, and along with other public colleges like Michigan, UT, and Berkeley, they give some of the Ivies a run for their money.
All Ivies Except Dartmouth
Yes, we’ve grouped them. This entry includes seven of the eight Ivies: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, and Yale. We could sit here and write blurbs about each, but we know you know about these schools. They are renowned for being some of the top schools in the world, and they don’t really care about demonstrated interest because they know that if you’re applying, you’re demonstrating interest in their school.
The only Ivy that does care about demonstrated interest is Dartmouth. We aren’t sure why! But for the rest of these schools, we still recommend doing the exploratory, interest-demonstrating things because they matter for you.
Demonstrated interest has never been the deciding factor at any school, but it’s not going to impact your chances at these schools. You have to make sure that every other part of your application is in tip-top shape, like your grades, scores, and extracurriculars.
Need help with strategizing for college or choosing where to apply? Reach out to us today.