With more and more college campuses shutting down for the months of March and April due to the spread of COVID-19, many high school students’ plans to attend campus tours during spring break are now up in the air. This is disappointing for families who were hoping to get a better sense of locations, settings, and student populations at their prospective schools. It can also be stress-inducing because some colleges not only highly encourage visiting, but track what’s called “demonstrated interest,” or whether or not a student has somehow connected with a college to show they are seriously considering it. A campus visit is a powerful way to demonstrate interest, but it’s not the only way (and certainly isn’t the most affordable, practical, or—given our current situation—the safest). So, what can you do when campus visits aren’t an option?

My former college roommate called me in early fall to ask a question about her daughter’s college application process that went something like this: “We can’t decide whether it’s worth the time and money for Leah to visit these colleges where she wants to apply. What do you think?”

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post came out with a story that outlined online consumer behavior tracking methods used by many higher education institutions to determine the likelihood that a student would enroll if accepted. This seems to be somewhat surprising to people, probably because they don’t think of colleges as businesses trying to sell something to consumers. In an age when admissions practices seem more complicated and opaque than ever before, it also feels like one more secret kept from the students and parents who are already stressed out about grades, test scores, and application essays.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, guest host Sally Ganga covers three timely and informative topics: how to make demonstrated interest work for you in the college application process, the best way to communicate with colleges, and appealing the financial aid awards that high school seniors are starting to receive.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, guest host Ian Fisher welcomes a special guest to discuss what you can do with a humanities degree. During Office Hours, he talks with colleagues to better understand what demonstrated interest means and goes on to cover where to get help filling out the FAFSA.