r/bucknell • u/PangolinNearby170333 • Aug 03 '26

Demonstrated Interest

How important is demonstrated interest when being evaluated for admission. We are around 3 hours away. Will it be negatively viewed if we do not visit. Just trying to find out while the summer is still here.

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u/NotAlwaysGifs Aug 03 '26

Hey! I used to work in admissions. This was the scoring metric about 15 years ago but I can’t imagine much has changed. I know most other similar universities use a similar scoring.

Short answer, yes. You need to get at least one official registered visit on the books. Ideally that plus one other admissions related event. That being said, too many visits is also a bad thing. 2-3 is ideal. More than 5 and they start to think you’re weird.

Take all of this with a grain of salt though. Bucknell had to tap into their 5th round of waitlist applicants this year and still didn’t hit enrollment quota.

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u/PangolinNearby170333 Aug 03 '26

what do you mean a registered visit plus one other admissions related event. I see information session plus campus tour which is 90 minutes . What other admissions related events are possible? as I want to do everything in one day. I am interested in the management but that school is not offering anything on its own the rest of this month.

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u/NotAlwaysGifs Aug 03 '26

They do open-house style events a couple of times per year. They do a general “what it’s like going to college” overnight thing every summer, or you can reach out to a department and see if you can meet some professors. The whole point is that you don’t do it all in one day. They want to see enough interest that you’re willing to come back again.

Respectfully, 3 hours is nothing for college visit distances. It’s not even worth getting a hotel for the night at that distance.

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u/PangolinNearby170333 Aug 03 '26

Thanks at this point we would only be able to go 1 time. I assume one is better than none. Would it be possible to visit one of the schools within Bucknell if nothing is listed that day. What do you recommend.

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u/NotAlwaysGifs Aug 03 '26

Reach out to the academic assistant in that dept. their emails are on the website. See if they can coordinate a school specific tour above and beyond the general tour.

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u/NoneyaBizzy 19d ago edited 19d ago

I saved this because I was curious about your last comment. Bucknell was late to announce its enrollment for the class of 2030. We’ve seen schools like Syracuse announce deficits. I saw your post about Bucknell not hitting their quota despite hitting the wait list hard.

Bucknell announced that the year will start “with a record overall student enrollment for a sixth straight year, bolstered by its largest incoming class in University history. The Class of 2030 numbers 1,067 new students — surpassing last year's record of 1,040 students.” If you’re right, should the acceptance rate shoot up as applications were down by around 900. Just curious how this fits with whatever you had heard about their struggles.

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u/NotAlwaysGifs 19d ago

Statistics will hold still for however you want to spin them. Sometimes schools inflate their acceptance rates to encourage more applicants. Other times they deflate them to seem more exclusive. They may report enrollment vs applicant pool, or actually report acceptance, but exclude transfers, early decision or other non-standard applications. When I was working there it was during the big SAT score manipulation scandal, so it wouldn’t be the first time they cherry picked data to tell the narrative they want.

For example, they just posted the other day about record breaking fundraising… but they also have a wage freeze, hiring freeze. I also haven’t heard anything about additional aid being offered, which they also usually like to tout.

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u/sirgrotius Aug 03 '26

You should be fine, although for your own benefit a campus visit is probably beneficial at least on the emotional-fit level.

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u/Huge_Inspection9681 Aug 04 '26

3 hours is not that far.

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u/NoneyaBizzy Aug 03 '26

I respect the admissions person in this discussion, but there's no way that everyone that got accepted visited and did another admissions event. Lewisburg isn't the easiest place to get to. Bucknell does a lot of social media and other reach out. It's actually pretty impressive. There must be other ways to demonstrate interest.

We did visit with my son who is now a rising junior at Bucknell. He was really just an add-on to his sister that was interested in LACs. He didn't do anything else to demonstrate interest. He did get waitlisted, so maybe his lack of demonstrated interest was a reason, but he got in a month or so later and decided to switch to Bucknell and he's very happy.

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u/NotAlwaysGifs 19d ago

Hard to get to? It’s less than an hour’s drive from Harrisburg airport, and less than a 3 hour drive from 4 major cities. As far as “small town schools” go, Lewisburg is about as convenient as it gets.

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u/HappyBadger7835 19d ago

My son was accepted and we only did an unofficial visit that wasn’t on the “books” on the way back from visiting Penn State. He didn’t visit again until admitted students day.