Can excellent grades and scores ever leave a college doubtful that a student will enroll? Families ask after every decision season, usually about a strong applicant who was admitted to several highly selective colleges and denied or waitlisted at a less selective one. The usual name for the suspicion is yield protection.
Three terms are easy to blur. Demonstrated interest is a college’s consideration of signals that an applicant wants to attend, such as a visit, an interview or a specific supplemental essay. Yield is the share of admitted students who enroll. Yield protection, as the term is used here, is the alleged practice of withholding admission from an otherwise desirable applicant because the college expects that student to enroll elsewhere. The first two can be measured. The third is a claim about motive.
The Common Data Set and IPEDS files used in this analysis do not provide the applicant-level outcomes and decision rationales needed to test whether high-scoring applicants were denied because they seemed unlikely to enroll. Even admit rates broken out by test score would not settle the question on their own, since many other differences between applicants would have to be ruled out. What these files can show is which colleges say an applicant’s interest weighs in their decisions, how many of their admitted students enroll, and how they use waitlists. Those patterns are context for applicants, not proof that any college rejects students for being too strong.
The analysis covers 237 colleges with a 2024-25 Common Data Set filing in the College Transitions Common Data Set repository and Fall 2024 data in the IPEDS Admissions survey, the most recent admissions release available. Each filing rates the “level of applicant’s interest” on a four-step scale in item C7. Every rating was checked against the filing itself (a page image, a PDF form value or a spreadsheet cell), except three where two independent automated readings agreed. That review corrected 14 ratings from an earlier automated pass, including Columbia, whose repository file turned out to be the School of General Studies filing. Columbia College and Columbia Engineering mark interest as not considered, and Columbia’s undergraduate admissions office says it “does not track demonstrated interest.”
Of the 237 colleges, 26 rate an applicant’s interest as very important or important, 104 say they consider it, and 107 say they do not consider it.
Which Colleges Say Interest Counts
Figure 1 groups the colleges by their Fall 2024 admit rate. None of the 25 colleges admitting fewer than 10 percent rates interest as important or very important, and 17 of them say they do not consider it. The important and very important ratings are most common among colleges admitting 20 to 50 percent, where 13 of 65, or 20 percent, use them. Among colleges admitting 70 percent or more, 4 of 74 do.
Figure 1. Common Data Set 2024-25 ratings for level of applicant’s interest, by Fall 2024 admit rate, 237 colleges. Sources: Common Data Set 2024-25, item C7; IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2024.
Counting every college that weighs interest at any level gives a different peak. The share is 32 percent below a 10 percent admit rate and 75 percent among colleges admitting 50 to 70 percent. A rating describes what a college reports about its process. The Common Data Set does not measure how much weight interest carries, and it does not say which activities a college counts.
How Many Admitted Students Enroll
Figure 2 plots each college’s admit rate against its yield. The median college in the group enrolled 20.4 percent of the students it admitted for Fall 2024, and 73 percent of the colleges enrolled fewer than 30 percent. A student who does not enroll may have chosen another college, deferred or not enrolled anywhere, so yield measures the offering college’s result, not where its admits went. Only the most selective colleges routinely enroll most of the students they admit. The median yield was 61.2 percent among colleges admitting under 10 percent and 19.1 percent among colleges admitting 35 to 50 percent.
Figure 2. Fall 2024 admit rate and yield for 237 colleges, colored by Common Data Set 2024-25 interest rating. Sources: IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2024; Common Data Set 2024-25, item C7.
Low yield means a college must admit far more students than it can enroll, which gives it reason to care about which admits will accept. It does not reveal what an admission office intends, and a college can value engagement without penalizing strong applicants. The colleges that rate interest highly also do not stand out on yield. Among colleges admitting 10 to 50 percent, the median yield was 23.9 percent for the 16 that rate interest important or very important and 28.8 percent for the 37 that do not consider it.
Where High Scorers Fit
Figure 3 regroups the colleges by a test-score measure. IPEDS reports SAT percentiles by section, so the grouping uses the sum of each college’s two section 75th percentiles. That sum is not the 75th percentile of total scores and can run higher than a college’s reported composite. MIT’s sections sum to 1580 at the 75th percentile, against a reported composite of 1570, and the University of Virginia’s sum to 1540 against 1520. Treat the groups as approximate.
Figure 3. Common Data Set 2024-25 interest ratings by the sum of Fall 2024 SAT section 75th percentiles, 211 colleges with IPEDS SAT data. Sources: Common Data Set 2024-25, item C7; IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2024. SAT figures describe enrolled students who submitted scores.
None of the 34 colleges in the highest group, with sums of 1550 or more, rates interest as important or very important, and 22 say they do not consider it. The important ratings are most common in the 1450 to 1499 group, where 6 of 26 colleges use them and 21 weigh interest at some level. Those 26 colleges had a median admit rate of 41.9 percent and a median yield of 19.5 percent. Moving every bin boundary 20 points up or down does not change the pattern. The highest group stays at 4 percent or less, and the peak stays between 1420 and 1500.
A score above a college’s 75th percentile is a high score for that college, not a sign that an applicant is overqualified for admission. Grades, coursework, essays, recommendations and the program applied to all count. Many of these colleges were test-optional for Fall 2024, so their published ranges describe only students who submitted scores. Twenty-six of the 237 colleges have no SAT percentiles in IPEDS for Fall 2024 and are not in this figure.
What One Study Found
One published study measured how interest related to admission decisions at a single institution. Economists James Dearden, Suhui Li, Chad Meyerhoefer and Muzhe Yang analyzed the contacts that 12,501 applicants made with the admissions office of an unnamed, medium-sized, highly selective university over two cycles, in a paper published in Contemporary Economic Policy in 2017. In Lehigh University’s summary of the work, on-site contact such as a campus visit was associated with an increase in the probability of admission of about 22 percentage points for applicants in the second-highest SAT quartile and about 34 points in the highest. The estimates come from statistical modeling of observational records, not an experiment, and describe one university in the years studied. The authors noted that the incentive may not apply at the most selective colleges, where high yields are nearly guaranteed.
Survey data describe how common the practice is. Among NACAC member four-year colleges responding to its survey for the Fall 2023 cycle (185 for this item), 15.7 percent rated a student’s interest in attending as of considerable importance, 27.6 percent moderate, 25.4 percent limited and 31.4 percent none. In the years NACAC reports since 2012, the considerable-importance share ranged from 14 to 20 percent. NACAC’s scale and sample differ from the Common Data Set’s, so the two sets of figures should not be combined.
Software for tracking interest is sold to colleges. Carnegie Higher Ed, an enrollment marketing firm, says its EnGauge Scores forecast which students are “most likely to apply and enroll,” using “behavioral data (think Ping data or email clicks or call campaign engagement)” in a college’s Slate system. That is the vendor’s description of a recruitment and yield-forecasting product. It does not show which of these 237 colleges use it or that any applicant was rejected because of a score. Some colleges say they do not track interest at all. The University of Southern California’s admission office wrote in January 2026 that “we do not track demonstrated interest when admitting future Trojans,” while noting that applicants can still show their fit with USC within the application.
How Waitlists Work in These Numbers
A waitlist lets a college delay some admission decisions until it knows more about available space. A waitlist offer is not an offer of admission, but students later admitted from the list count in the college’s admissions total under IPEDS rules. Colleges also use waitlists to manage housing, program capacity and the makeup of the entering class.
Of the 237 colleges, 144 reported waitlist offers, acceptances and admissions for Fall 2024 with at least one student accepting a spot. Figure 4 shows the median of each college’s waitlist offers per 100 admitted students. Among the 25 colleges admitting 10 to 20 percent, the median was 129 offers per 100 admits, and the median college admitted 4.5 percent of the students who accepted a spot. Across those 25 colleges combined, 4,328 of 66,507 students who accepted a spot were admitted, or 6.5 percent.
Figure 4. Median of each college’s waitlist offers per 100 admitted students, Fall 2024, by admit rate, for 144 colleges reporting waitlist offers, acceptances and admits. Sources: Common Data Set 2024-25, item C2; IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2024. Medians of college-level ratios, not rates for individual applicants.
Waitlist offers fall as admit rates rise. Colleges admitting 70 percent or more had a median of five offers per 100 admits and admitted a median of 33.7 percent of students who accepted a spot. Individual colleges vary widely. Fairfield University offered 8,898 waitlist spots for Fall 2024. Of those, 2,477 students accepted a place and 22 were admitted, about 0.9 percent of those who accepted and 0.25 percent of those offered a spot. None of these figures show who was placed on a waitlist or why.
The 26 Colleges That Rate Interest Important
Table 1 lists the colleges that rated an applicant’s interest as very important or important in their 2024-25 filings, with the 2025-26 rating where a filing was available and checked. Three rate it very important in 2024-25: Dickinson, American and SUNY Geneseo. By 2025-26, Pitzer, the College of New Jersey and Elon had moved from important to very important. Thirteen of the 26 admitted between 25 and 50 percent of applicants. West Point, a service academy where most applicants need a nomination, has an admissions process unlike any civilian college’s; without it, two colleges admitting 10 to 20 percent rate interest important, Bates and Tulane.
| College | 2024-25 rating | Admit rate | Yield | Waitlist offers | Accepted | Admitted from waitlist | 2025-26 rating |
| United States Military Academy (service academy) | Important | 12.5% | 77.9% | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | Not in repository |
| Bates College | Important | 13.3% | 36.5% | 1,940 | 883 | 34 | Important |
| Tulane University | Important | 14.0% | 40.3% | 4,192 | 2,290 | 432 | Important |
| Pitzer College | Important | 25.2% | 35.8% | 570 | 209 | 34 | Very important |
| Lehigh University | Important | 25.9% | 28.4% | 4,075 | 1,717 | 113 | Important |
| Trinity College | Important | 29.2% | 24.8% | 1,728 | 990 | 10 | Important |
| Kenyon College | Important | 31.0% | 18.3% | 1,591 | 797 | 43 | Important |
| Fairfield University | Important | 33.3% | 23.7% | 8,898 | 2,477 | 22 | Not in repository |
| University of Rochester | Important | 40.1% | 15.4% | 1,696 | 934 | 123 | Important |
| Dickinson College | Very important | 42.1% | 21.1% | 252 | 76 | 24 | Very important |
| Southwestern University | Important | 43.1% | 13.8% | 70 | 13 | 13 | Important |
| Bentley University | Important | 45.1% | 21.3% | 1,665 | 410 | 225 | Important |
| Auburn University | Important | 45.9% | 24.1% | No waitlist | No waitlist | No waitlist | Important |
| Rollins College | Important | 47.5% | 13.5% | 611 | 68 | 27 | Important |
| Santa Clara University | Important | 48.0% | 17.7% | 5,871 | 3,312 | 197 | Not readable |
| St. Olaf College | Important | 48.3% | 26.8% | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported | Important |
| Florida Institute of Technology | Important | 57.7% | 9.4% | No waitlist | No waitlist | No waitlist | Not in repository |
| University of Pittsburgh | Important | 58.1% | 13.0% | 9,657 | 4,338 | 3,754 | Important |
| American University | Very important | 62.0% | 15.6% | 4,079 | 948 | 328 | Very important |
| College of New Jersey | Important | 62.3% | 19.7% | 696 | 2 | 1 | Very important |
| Elon University | Important | 66.3% | 13.4% | 3,984 | 815 | 101 | Very important |
| SUNY College at Geneseo | Very important | 66.4% | 9.6% | 1,222 | 275 | 136 | Very important |
| Eckerd College | Important | 75.8% | 12.3% | 111 | 109 | 3 | Not in repository |
| DePaul University | Important | 75.9% | 10.8% | 809 | 282 | 228 | Not in repository |
| Gonzaga University | Important | 81.7% | 17.5% | 615 | 243 | 59 | Important |
| Appalachian State University | Important | 90.1% | 18.2% | 1,391 | 566 | 547 | Not verified |
Table 1. Colleges rating level of applicant’s interest as very important or important, Common Data Set 2024-25. Sources: Common Data Set 2024-25 and 2025-26, items C2 and C7; IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2024 (admit rate, yield). “No waitlist” means the college reported no waitlist policy; “Not reported” means the waitlist items were blank; “Not in repository” means no 2025-26 filing was available; “Not readable” and “Not verified” mean a 2025-26 filing exists but its rating could not be confirmed.
College Transitions’ earlier analysis, The Invisible Lever, describes the kinds of interest colleges track. Its classifications came from a different pass through the filings, and two differ from what the current filings show. USC is listed there as considered, and its 2024-25 and 2025-26 filings mark interest as not considered. Columbia is listed as not considered, which matches the Columbia College and Columbia Engineering filing used here.
What Families Can Take From This
High scores remain an asset at every college in this data. Students should follow each college’s testing policy and decide whether to submit on the merits, never lowering or withholding a strong score out of fear of yield protection. Policies also change, so check each college’s current admissions instructions alongside its latest Common Data Set.
| What the data show | What it means | What to do |
| The college rates interest very important or important | The college reports weighing interest, but the CDS does not say how much or which activities count | Engage in ways open to any applicant: a substantive virtual or campus session, relevant questions, and a specific supplemental essay. Travel or repeated emails are not shown to guarantee anything |
| The college rates interest as considered | The college reports considering interest; the CDS does not quantify its effect | Read the college’s own instructions on what it tracks, and put most effort into the application itself |
| The college rates interest as not considered | The college’s filing says interest does not enter the decision | Visit for your own reasons. Show fit within the application, which USC, for example, says still counts |
| You are deciding on an early round | Early decision is binding; early action usually is not, with varying restrictions | Apply early decision only to a clear first choice after checking affordability; higher early admit rates do not promise the same advantage to every applicant |
| You are waitlisted | Waitlist admission rates vary widely, from about 0.9 percent of accepting students at Fairfield to a third at the median college admitting 70 percent or more | Follow the college’s waitlist instructions, including whether it accepts updates, and secure a place elsewhere by that college’s reply deadline |
| You were denied despite strong scores | Public data cannot identify the reason for any decision | Do not conclude it was yield protection. Build a list with affordable colleges where admission is likely, since strong scores do not make a selective college a safety |
Table 2. Reading a college’s interest rating and admissions data. Sources: Common Data Set 2024-25, items C2 and C7; IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2024.
Sources and methods
Ratings come from item C7, “level of applicant’s interest,” in 2024-25 Common Data Set filings (the edition covering the Fall 2024 entering class) in the College Transitions repository. C7 reports the rating a college gave when it completed the form, not a measured effect. Each rating was checked against the filing: 175 by page image (68 of them also matched by two independent automated readings), 37 by PDF form value, 21 by spreadsheet cell and 1 (Columbia) by its own published filing as reviewed by an editor, with three resting on two agreeing automated readings. Two repository files that contain another college’s filing (Bard and Worcester Polytechnic Institute) were excluded. Waitlist counts come from item C2. Admit rates, yields and SAT section percentiles come from the IPEDS Admissions survey for Fall 2024, matched by institution name and checked by UNITID where names repeat. The 237 colleges lean toward selective institutions and are not a national sample. All medians are medians of college-level values. A college-level data file with UNITIDs, source links, verification method, raw counts and missing-data flags accompanies this article.
- Dearden, Li, Meyerhoefer and Yang, “Demonstrated Interest: Signaling Behavior in College Admissions,” Contemporary Economic Policy 35(4), 2017. https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12216
- Lehigh University News, The impact of demonstrated interest on college admissions (Apr. 11, 2018). https://news.lehigh.edu/the-impact-of-demonstrated-interest-on-college-admissions
- NACAC, Factors in the Admission Decision (Fall 2023 cycle). https://www.nacacnet.org/factors-in-the-admission-decision/
- Carnegie Higher Ed, EnGauge Scores product page. https://www.carnegiehighered.com/carnegie-engauge-scores-product-feature/
- USC Undergraduate Admission blog, on demonstrated interest (Jan. 21, 2026). https://www.admissionblog.usc.edu/p/why-we-dont-track-demonstrated-and
- Columbia Undergraduate Admissions, request for information page (demonstrated interest statement). https://apply.college.columbia.edu/register/request
- Columbia University Office of Planning and Institutional Research, Common Data Set. https://opir.columbia.edu/cds
- NCES IPEDS, admissions definitions (example institution report). https://nces.ed.gov/IPEDS/DFR/2025/ReportHTML.aspx?unitid=130776
- MIT Institutional Research, 2024-25 Common Data Set. https://ir.mit.edu/projects/2024-25-common-data-set/
- University of Virginia, Common Data Set 2024-25. https://ira.virginia.edu/sites/ira/files/2025-03/CDS_2024-2025_508.pdf
- Fairfield University, Common Data Set 2024-25. https://www.fairfield.edu/_files/documents/pdfs/1594711008_about_offices-and-departments_institutional-research_common-data-sheet-2024-25_02242025.pdf
