Demonstrated interest matters at some schools and is irrelevant at others. The data shows which.

NACAC's annual survey finds that demonstrated interest, visits, email engagement, webinars, early application, is rated as having considerable or moderate importance at a large share of schools. But at the most selective schools (the Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Caltech) it is generally not considered at all.

You can look this up yourself: each school's Common Data Set, section C7, rates "level of applicant's interest." Where it's tracked (many liberal-arts colleges and schools like Tulane or Northeastern), engaging with admissions events can genuinely matter. Where it isn't, a visit won't move your application.

Tafel helps families spend effort where it counts per school, instead of applying one demonstrated-interest playbook to every name on the list.