Demonstrated Interest at Top Colleges — CDS Ratings

Do Top Colleges Track Demonstrated Interest? What 46 Common Data Sets Say

Most of the most selective colleges say they do not consider demonstrated interest. Of 46 top universities and liberal arts colleges we checked, 30 rate "Level of applicant's interest" as Not Considered, 15 rate it Considered, and none rates it higher.

Those ratings come from item C7 of each college's own Common Data Set (CDS), downloaded on September 24, 2026. C7 asks each college to rate how much each factor matters in its first-year admission decisions. There are four choices: Very Important, Important, Considered, or Not Considered. One of the factors is "Level of applicant's interest."

Keep in mind what this is: the college's own self-rating on a standard form. It does not measure how individual readers behave. It is still the best public signal of whether a trip, a webinar, or a stream of emails could ever show up in the file.

Where Your Family's Time and Money Actually Go

Parents usually hear that demonstrated interest means campus visits, information sessions, opening admissions emails, and contacting a regional officer. Before you spend a weekend and a plane ticket on that, sort the list:

• At a "Not Considered" college, a visit is for your child's decision, not for the admissions file. Go if you need to know whether your teen would thrive there. Skip it if the only reason is to be seen.
• At a "Considered" college, interest is one of many lower-tier factors. It will not outweigh grades, course rigor, essays or recommendations, which these colleges rate higher. It may help at the margin. Cheap, genuine contact (a virtual session, a considered question to the regional officer) is usually enough.
• At every college, the application itself is the main evidence of interest. That means a specific "why us" or "why this major" answer that could not be pasted into another school's supplement. Early Decision is the strongest statement of interest there is, and it is binding. Our Early Decision acceptance rate table shows what ED rounds look like at many of these colleges.

Swarthmore spells this out in plain words on its interview page: interviews "are not required," and "Swarthmore does not practice 'demonstrated interest' in its application review process."

The Table: C7 "Level of Applicant's Interest," by College

Each row shows the college's own C7 rating, the CDS year, and a link to the file. "Blank" means the college left the row unmarked. Where a college's newest downloadable CDS is older than 2025–26, the year shows that.

Rated "Considered"

Rated "Not Considered"

Left blank

Not in the table. We could not verify a current file for UVA, NYU, Colby, or Wesleyan, whose newest public CDS is 2022–23. We did not guess their ratings.

What the Pattern Tells You

The most selective colleges mostly say no. Every Ivy except Dartmouth rates interest Not Considered, as do Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UChicago, Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt. The CDS does not ask why. Our read is that colleges with very high yield gain little from rewarding visits, and tracking visits would favor families who can afford to travel.

"Considered" clusters where a strong applicant might go elsewhere. It shows up at several highly selective universities (Duke, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Rice, WashU, Tufts) and at many of the liberal arts colleges. That is consistent with interest mattering most where a college is managing yield. We draw that from the pattern; no college says so in its CDS.

Nobody rates it "Important." Among these 46 files, interest never rises above the lowest positive tier. If a service tells you your teen's email open rate will decide an Ivy admission, the colleges' own filings do not support that.

A Budget Procedure for Parents

Use this before booking any travel for the fall.

1. List every college on your teen's list and look up its C7 "Level of applicant's interest" rating in the newest CDS. Colleges not in our table post the CDS on their institutional-research site; search "[college name] common data set."
2. Split the list. "Not Considered" colleges get visits only if your teen needs the visit to decide. "Considered" colleges get one low-cost, genuine contact per semester.
3. Budget visits by decision value. Rank them by how much a visit would change your teen's choice, especially for an ED candidate. Do not rank them by how much the visit might be noticed.
4. Protect writing time. A college that says interest counts will judge it mostly through the supplement. Our guide to why this major versus why this college explains what each question is asking. The 2026–27 supplemental essay guide covers the other formats.
5. Let your teen make the contact. A regional officer wants to hear the applicant's own question, not a parent's email.
6. Check interviews separately. Interviews are their own C7 item and their own policy. See our alumni interview policies by college.
7. Recheck in August. C7 ratings can change from year to year. Our legacy admissions table shows how one C7 item has shifted as laws changed.

The Evidence of Interest Your Teen Controls

At every college on this list, a specific supplement shows more interest than a visit does. A "why us" or "why this major" answer that names real courses, people, or programs, and connects them to what your teen has already done, is evidence the college can actually read. Your teen can run their own draft through GradPilot's free college essay review against the Common App why-major rubric. Then read the feedback together. The review gives qualitative feedback on the writing; it does not predict admission, and the words stay your teen's. For how readers weigh the essay more broadly, see how holistic readers read a college essay.

FAQ

Does Yale track demonstrated interest?

Yale's 2025–26 Common Data Set rates "Level of applicant's interest" as Not Considered. That is Yale's own answer on the standard form. Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Cornell and Stanford give the same answer.

What does "Considered" mean in the Common Data Set?

It is the lowest of the three positive categories, below Very Important and Important. It means the factor plays some role, not a large one. The colleges choose the label themselves, and the CDS does not define how much weight each label carries.

Can a campus visit hurt my child if we skip it?

At a college that rates interest Not Considered, the college says interest is not a factor, so skipping a visit should not count against your teen. At a "Considered" college, the CDS does not say which contacts count. A specific supplement and one genuine low-cost contact are the cautious way to show interest without travel.

Is opening admissions emails really tracked?

The CDS does not ask colleges how, or whether, they measure interest. It only asks whether interest counts at all. For 30 of the 46 colleges above, the college says it does not, so email habits are not a factor there by the college's own account.

Is Early Decision a form of demonstrated interest?

It is the clearest one, because it is a binding commitment to attend if admitted. Only apply ED if your family has checked the finances first. See whether you can get out of Early Decision for financial aid.

Sources

All retrieved September 24, 2026.

• Swarthmore Admissions: Request an Interview
• Dartmouth Common Data Set 2025–26
• Duke Common Data Set 2025–26
• Northwestern Common Data Set 2025–26
• Rice Common Data Set 2025–26
• WashU Common Data Set 2025–26
• University of Michigan Common Data Set 2025–26
• Tufts Common Data Set 2025–26
• Boston University Common Data Set 2025–26
• Wellesley Common Data Set 2025–26
• Bowdoin Common Data Set 2025–26
• Middlebury Common Data Set 2025–26
• Davidson Common Data Set 2025–26
• Barnard Common Data Set 2025–26
• Hamilton Common Data Set 2025–26
• Grinnell Common Data Set 2024–25
• Harvard Common Data Set 2025–26
• Yale Common Data Set 2025–26
• Princeton Common Data Set 2025–26
• Columbia (College + Engineering) Common Data Set 2025–26
• Penn Common Data Set 2025–26
• Brown Common Data Set 2025–26
• Cornell Common Data Set 2025–26
• MIT Common Data Set 2025–26
• Stanford Common Data Set 2025–26
• Caltech Common Data Set 2025–26
• UChicago Common Data Set 2025–26
• Johns Hopkins Common Data Set 2025–26
• Vanderbilt Common Data Set 2025–26
• Emory Common Data Set 2025–26
• Georgetown Common Data Set 2025–26
• Carnegie Mellon Common Data Set 2025–26
• UNC–Chapel Hill Common Data Set 2025–26
• UCLA Common Data Set 2025–26
• UC Berkeley Common Data Set 2025–26
• USC Common Data Set 2025–26
• Georgia Tech Common Data Set 2025–26
• Boston College Common Data Set 2024–25
• Williams Common Data Set 2025–26
• Amherst Common Data Set 2025–26
• Swarthmore Common Data Set 2025–26
• Pomona Common Data Set 2023–24
• Carleton Common Data Set 2025–26
• Claremont McKenna Common Data Set 2025–26
• Vassar Common Data Set 2025–26
• Harvey Mudd Common Data Set 2025–26
• Notre Dame Common Data Set 2025–26