Admission in an American college or university depends on several parameters, some subjective and other objective. We will not step into the controversy of assigning weightage and importance to various parameters as the importance assigned to them varies in different colleges. We will only try to understand these parameters and try to work on excelling and meeting all their requirements.

Subjective Parameters include what profile you present through your essays and SOP, the neutral 3rd person critique presented by the Letters of Recommendation written by your college professors, interviews, campus visit, etc.

Objective Parameters include your academic grades, and scores on standardized tests such as GRE, TOEFL etc.

Pre-Admission Campus Visit

Physically being on a college campus, talking with students, reading in the library, and dining at an on-campus cafeteria can help a prospective student determine if the school feels right. Moreover, if the Pre-Admission Campus Visit is done officially, then it proves your interest in the college to the admissions committee and improves your chances of selection. This parameter in selection is termed as demonstrated interest by the admission committees. The interest suggests to a college that an applicant, if admitted, may be more likely to attend and, as a result, a college may be more likely to admit such students.

The consensus view among guidance advisors is that it is a good idea to visit colleges, preferably when college is in session and not during a summer break, with a chance to meet an actual student in the form of a tour guide, and taking notes for reference later when applying. Sometimes a college will waive the application fee based on the college visit. A benefit is seeing a school as it really is—not just glossy pictures from a brochure or a promotional video from a website. Another suggested that students should ask themselves, when visiting a particular college: "can I see myself here"? Reporter Jenna Johnson in the Washington Post suggested that students contact a professor in an area of interest at the college before visiting, and try to meet with them briefly or sit in on one of their classes. Reporter Brennan Barnard in the New York Times recommended that student visitors should ask good questions (by avoiding factual questions better answered by the college's website), and ask for complimentary passes for dining or free food. Barnard recommends going beyond the usual tour to ask random strangers about life on campus and reading the student newspaper. He recommends arranging to speak with a professor in the department of interest as well as athletic coaches and music directors, possibly by emailing them in advance of the visit, to try to meet them even briefly. A follow-up "thank you" note to the host is a good idea (avoid texting abbreviations.)

Counselor Michael Szarek commented on the importance of campus visits in dispelling false impressions: “Half of all college classes are not outdoors. Half of all college classes are not gathered around an electron microscope. Sometimes the leaves are brown, or even fall to the ground. So, use the viewbook to get a sense of the institution and what the college thinks are its strengths. But always rely on the campus visit.”

However, one account suggested colleges structured the official campus visit with the same boring format which rarely includes a faculty member.

An official campus visit starts with an “informational session,” conducted by an admissions officer. This is followed by an hour-long campus tour, which is led by a student with a talent for walking backwards. On the campus tour, we are always shown a dorm room and a dining hall. We are always taken to a library and told how many volumes it contains. We are informed how many students study abroad (a lot), how many student clubs there are (ditto), and how small the classes are (very small.) Structure Campus visits, offered officially by a college, usually include an hour-long guided tour by a student representative.

Several reports suggest that some colleges may be more likely to admit a student based on its interpretation of a student's overall interest in attending, sometimes referred to as demonstrated interest. Actions by an applicant can signal sincere desire to attend a college, and these might include personal visits, visits to College Fair booths, meeting college representatives when they visit the high school for interviews, answering emails, reaching out to college faculty members, and so forth. The interest suggests to a college that an applicant, if admitted, may be more likely to attend and, as a result, a college may be more likely to admit such students. An effect of basing admissions decisions on likelihood to attend can be to boost a college's yield rate—the percent of accepted students who choose to attend—which is an increasingly important metric for colleges that seek to perform well in surveys like the US News college rankings.