Rhetorical Analysis - Research

Demonstrated interest - High school students express their desire to attend a particular college by visiting the admissions office, introducing themselves to the admissions officers and trying to attract the attention of admissions personnel by performing stunts like sending photographs of themselves wearing the college’s sweatshirt. Officials at 56 percent of the 595 colleges surveyed by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling reported that they consider demonstrated interest as a factor when selecting students to accept.
This trend is disturbing. The practice of demonstrating interest is largely limited to higher-income students attending high schools that are geared towards preparing students for college. Low-income applicants cannot always afford to visit numerous colleges to meet with admissions officers. Many public high schools do not have college counselors or guidance counselors who are knowledgeable about the most recent developments in the college admissions game, so most public high school students are not as aware that they should indicate in this manner their interest in the colleges they want to attend.

Some concerns about the growing importance of the demonstrated interest factor are:
• It is helping colleges ensure a higher yield ratio in a skewed manner,
• It is biased against students from low-income households who might not be able to afford frequent trips to campus or have e-mail access,
• It is turning the whole admissions process into more of a game.
Despite the concerns, fewer and fewer students are willing to ignore the demonstrated interest factor these days.