Emma Gonzalez, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas grad who became a leading voice in support of gun control, said it best when she declared, “We call BS.” Well, today, we call nonsense on Emory’s admissions office. The core objectives of Ivy Coach’s college admissions blog are to debunk misconceptions about the highly selective college admissions, to speak truth to power, and to make the stressful college admissions process a little bit less stressful for all with our tell it like it is, no nonsense approach. Which all leads us to yesterday when we wrote about how ironic it was that Emory University — the school that invented Demonstrated Interest — writes on its admissions website that the school doesn’t value Demonstrated Interest when weighing students’ cases for admission. For those unfamiliar with Demonstrated Interest, it’s essentially measuring a student’s likelihood of matriculating if accepted. America’s elite colleges, after all, seek to admit students who they think will come if admitted. They don’t seek to admit students who they don’t think will attend — no matter how great their grades and scores may be. They care about their yields.

Emory Admissions Staffer Says Emory Doesn’t Value Demonstrated Interest, Because, Well, Emory Says So

After our post about Emory’s ironic words, a staffer in Emory’s admissions office, Steven Anderson, commented on our blog and sent out a Tweet. The Tweet read, “Just a friendly note from an Emory Admission staffer—Emory does not use demonstrated interest in our holistic review process for determining admittance. This policy has been in place since the mid 2000s.” The staffer then directed us to its website, which we directed people to yesterday, where the admissions office states they don’t value Demonstrated Interest. So let’s get this straight. Mr. Anderson is trying to prove to us that the school doesn’t value Demonstrated Interest because the school says it doesn’t value Demonstrated Interest? Little does the Emory admissions staffer know that he entered a no spin zone. He’ll have to do better than that!

But the Emory Admissions Staffer Will Need to Show Rather Than Tell

Here at Ivy Coach, we encourage our students and the folks who read our college admissions blog to never take admissions officers at their word. After all, admissions officers are employees of universities. They are literally paid to market their respective schools. And if you just accepted what they say as the gospel, well, then you’d have fundamental misunderstandings about the highly selective college admissions process. You see, college admissions officers will never tell you that they discriminate against Asian American applicants. They’ll never tell you they factor in an applicant’s ability to pay even though they claim to be need-blind (if that were the case, why would so many universities ask on the supplements which admissions officers can read with their own two eyes if students need financial aid?). They’ll never tell you they care deeply about their annual US News & World Report ranking — yet, in many instances, the jobs of deans of admissions literally depend on where the school lands in the annual metric. They’ll never tell you that, under test-optional admissions policies, students with great scores have a distinct advantage over students with no scores. No, admissions officers aren’t holier than thou and they often don’t tell it like it is. Remember, not so many decades ago, admissions officers at many highly selective institutions used quotas to limit the number of Jewish admits. Heck, Emory’s own dental school got caught discriminating against Jewish applicants in its admissions process in the past, as we wrote about back in 2012. So save us the holier than thou schtick.

We Challenge the Emory Admissions Staffer to a Video Debate on Demonstrated Interest at Emory

We’d love to be proven wrong. We’d love for Mr. Anderson to prove to us and our tens of thousands of readers, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Demonstrated Interest no longer has any impact in the university’s admissions process. But directing us to Emory’s website in which the school says Demonstrated Interest doesn’t matter? Please. We weren’t born yesterday, Mr. Anderson. And neither were our readers. You’ll need to show rather than tell. And, so, we invite Mr. Anderson to a debate held over video which we will share with the tens of thousands of readers of this college admissions blog. Mr. Anderson, are you prepared to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the school that invented Demonstrated Interest no longer factors it in during the admissions process when weighing candidates’ cases for admission? If so, we welcome you to a debate. We welcome you to prove us wrong. Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!