How Do I Demonstrate Interest During Covid?

Many seniors are struggling with finding ways to demonstrate interest during the pandemic. If you need a recap about what demonstrating interest is, please click here.

Demonstrating interest is important because colleges want to hedge their bets that a student who applies will eventually enroll in their school if accepted. It used to be that campus visits were a very good way to demonstrate interest, but now that those are mostly not available, or families don’t feel comfortable traveling, how can students demonstrate interest?

1. Opt in to email lists. If a college website has a pop-up offering a spot on their mailing list or newsletter list, sign up!
2. Open those emails. It’s not enough to sign up, it’s also important to open the emails that come in. Click on the links. The good news is you can learn a lot about a college this way as well.
3. Attend webinars and virtual visits. This previous blog post explains more about these.
4. Attend virtual college fairs. Visit www.nacacfairs.org to find virtual college fairs. Sign up for the ones your colleges of interest will be attending.
5. Attend online high school visits or in person high school visits. The fall is travel time for colleges and admission counselors are out scouring for the best students. If your high school is in session, they may come by. Pay attention to notices from your school counselor. An online option may be available for students doing virtual learning.
6. Sign up for an interview. Although most colleges don’t offer interviews, some still do and it can be in your favor to take advantage of this opportunity. Campus Bound offers mock interviews, so be sure to ask your counselor about doing that before you jump into the real thing!
7. Email the admissions counselor. You can typically find out who the admission counselor is who is assigned to you based on your geographic location or last name. Feel free to email that person to ask a question, but make sure its a thoughtful and sincere one.
8. Do a modified college tour. Some colleges are offering tours of their campus, they are just much shorter or in smaller groups. If you want to do that you can. You might also print out a map of the campus and walk around yourself, just be sure to email the admissions office to let them know you are coming or that you did that.

Despite the pandemic and many people working from home or quarantining at home, there are ways an applicant can still let a college know they are genuinely interested. If you need help with this part of the process, please contact us. Best of luck!