I participated in 40+ virtual events over the years and here's what I learned.

What is Demonstrated Interest?

Demonstrated interest refers to the extent to which you show the college that you are eager to attend their school. In simple words, demonstrated interest means you showing great enthusiasm in attending the particular school.

Demonstrated Interest is a very underrated component of the application that most Bangladeshi applicants aren’t aware of. If you’re someone who doesn’t have 1550+ scores on the SAT or great olympiad backgrounds, demonstrated interest can play a vital role in getting you in despite your other weak components. [Even if you have those elite stats, demonstrated interest is important if you’re shooting for midtier or safety colleges].

Demonstrated Interest mainly matters in Midtier or safety colleges. Top t20, t50 colleges don’t tend to track demonstrated interest with the exception of a few.

The ways to show Demonstrated Interest

• Applying via Early Decision or Restrictive Early Action or Early Action.
• Completing all the optional supplemental essays the college might have.
• Completing an interview even though it might be optional.
• Writing detailed researched why college essays.
• Attending Virtual Events.
• Contacting regional admission officers with thoughtful questions that aren’t on the website.
• Sending a Letter of Continued Interest.

Applying ED/REA/EA: Most colleges have higher acceptance rates in these admission cycles. Especially ED & REA shows that the school is your first choice, and thus increases your chances. For example, Duke University’s Class of 2024 Early Decision acceptance rate was 20.6% while the Regular Decision acceptance rate was only 6%.

Completing Supplements: Even though they say it’s optional, for most colleges, no supplemental essays are ‘really’ optional. So if they have an optional essay, complete it. Some colleges pop up optional essays in their portal after you apply. Such colleges include Grinnell, Denison, Yale-NUS, etc. Complete those optional essays if you wanna have a better chance.

Completing Interviews: If they say interviews are optional, don’t believe them even if they’re right. Interviews are the most unique way to show your voice, your story that can’t be expressed with words and commonapp structures. It improves your chances highly. I’ll write in detail about interviews and the best tips and tricks in the coming days. Stay tuned with my posts & blog (talha.notion.dog/admissions) for that.

Detailed ‘Why College’ essay: What makes a ‘why college’ essay great? I’ll definitely need another post to write about that. Stay tuned with my blog for the most resourceful contents on admissions.