According to Inside Higher Ed, many high school counselors are concerned about the growing role of “demonstrated interested” in certain colleges’ admissions decisions. Demonstrated interest can be measured by how often a student visits a school, how often he communicates with recruiters and whether he applies early.
Some schools do not consider demonstrated interest at all. The University offers early action, but does not weigh early applications more heavily than regular deadline applications. Other schools, like Tulane, consider demonstrated interest heavily. About 70 percent of Tulane’s freshmen applied to the school “early action,” which at Tulane requires a commitment not to apply to any other university early.
Schools that consider demonstrated interest would argue the students who are most enthusiastic about their school are the most deserving of a place in the class, as opposed to students who apply to many different places they don’t actually feel passionate about attending. Though it does make sense to prioritize the students who most want to attend, this measure is impossible to objectively quantify. Considering demonstrated interest can create an unfair advantage for wealthy students, because low-income students may not have the resources to make college visits, especially if the schools they are interested in are out of state.
Demonstrated interest also places conflicting pressures on students applying to schools with low and even decreasing acceptance rates. Students are encouraged to apply to multiple colleges — “reach,” “target” and “safety.” But if a wide breadth of applications can be construed as a lack of interest in any one school, students suddenly find themselves in a catch-22, where as they try to improve their odds they are actually compromising them. And demonstrating interest toward every school would require even more effort on students’ part, on top of packaging themselves as well-rounded candidates who show academic achievement, extracurricular involvement and a unique perspective.
Putting such heavy weight on demonstrated interest — especially by prioritizing early action students — could lead to the rejection of later applications from high achieving candidates because students who are stronger in their self-marketing skills than in their academic or leadership skills have already filled the spots. Colleges have waitlists so that they can still admit students even after some offers are declined. If students do not to want to attend because they prefer another offer, those spots will still be filled with students who do want to come.
Some colleges have incorporated a kind of demonstrated interest assessment into their application by making a required essay question about why the student wants to attend. This levels the playing field for students of varying income levels and still takes into account how much a student is interested in a school. Any additional measures beyond this, however, are excessive. If colleges want to make their application processes as fair and equitable as possible, they ought not to make students jump through even more hoops than they do already.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | YesterdayOur independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
ARRAS: U.Va. must revise the Sexual Assault Prevention Training module
By Aoife Arras | 2 days agoIn addition to its failures in interactivity, the module lacks details specific to the University and discusses key concepts in universal terms.
EDITORIAL: Pedestrian safety is an institutional imperative
By Editorial Board | 4 days agoAmid a national crisis of pedestrian safety, Charlottesville and the University are also struggling to properly maintain pedestrian safety.
