Any rejections from EA pool

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>vinceh, i think deferring all EA applicants who were not accepted (or the vast majority: 90% of those not accepted i’m guessing) is a horrible thing to do because EA is supposed to give the student applying an early decision (accept, defer, deny). A deferral is fine, as long as it actually says something. if everyone gets deferred, how does that help the applicant in any way? it sends them the wrong message that “ooh, i have a decent chance at getting in!” clearly, umich deferred a lot of applicants who werent in the ball park. i personally know 2 people with a 22 and a 23-24 on their act, not taking challenging courses, etc. who got deferred.</p>

<p>their early response just simply isn’t helpful. if they rejected more people and deferred less, then it would be helpful.</p>

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Michigan is getting a steady and healthy growth in application each year, growing more than 30% (+7700) from 2005 to 2010. By going to the common application, Michigan is probably getting at least a 10% growth this year.</p>

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As a public institution, Michigan’s undergraduate admissions is understaffed. So they just defer everyone (10,000+) to make more work for themselves?</p>

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Are you questioning the integrity of the Michigan admissions office? I have nothing more to say to you.</p>

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You are speculating and you are wrong in both counts. Michigan is definitely admitting more than 10% of the EA applicants. And based on past records, Michigan is definitely rejecting part of the EA application pool. Why would this year be different from last year?</p>

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<p>Horrible how? Didn’t everyone who applied EA get one of those decisions? Where did Michigan fail to hold up its end of the bargain? </p>

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<p>In what way, shape or form is an applicant better off knowing that others have been deferred or denied? If we knew right now that 874 EA applicants to Michigan were accepted, 486 rejected and 2,394 deferred, how is your deferred status changed at all? As I tried to point out in posts #17 & #24 it doesn’t matter how many people are in the deferred pool, what matters is your status in the pool. If you’re the only 3.6/2000 SAT and the rest of the pool is 2.8/1500 at best, then you’re chances of getting in are sensational regardless of how many 2.8/1500 are deferred.</p>

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<p>That’s the applicant’s interpretation. Not getting rejected during EA means you still have a chance, it doesn’t mean you have a "decent’ chance.</p>

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<p>This is the quote that bothers me the most. Where on Michigan’s web site, or the web sites for any other college that practices EA, does it say that EA accept/defer/reject results are supposed to be helpful? To my knowledge there is no school that publishes detailed academic data of their EA accepts, deferred or rejects; without that data it’s of no value at all to know if .1% or 99.9% of an EA class was rejected or deferred.</p>

<p>The primary beneficiary of an Early Action Policy is the university. I will assume that the goal of a major university like Michigan is to accept and matriculate the strongest academic class possible. If that’s even half-true then it’s in their best interests to only accept those students whose academic profiles would garner them an acceptance no matter when they applied. </p>

<p>After accepting the “best and brightest” it’s in the university’s best interests to wait and see how the entire applicant pool looks before making any other admissions decisions. Of course a large number of deferreds aren’t going to accepted, but until a school sees exactly the profile of all the applicants, what incentive - besides work-flow management - do they have to reject? So by rejecting the hopelessly underprepared but keeping even many marginal candidates, the Admissions Office leaves itself the biggest possible pool to work with when finishing up the acceptances by April.</p>

<p>Finally, EA is not Early Decision, none of this is binding on either side. The secondary group that benefits from EA are the “smart” kids who now have their “safety” school. EA is not a guarantee, it’s an effort to get those high-end performers who would have been accepted anyway; everyone else has to swim in the regular decision pool.</p>

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<p>eziamm,</p>

<p>All four rejections were out-right rejections, no deferrals involved (at least according to parents of two of the students and highly reliable scuttlebutt on the other two candidates).</p>

<p>Condescending? Impatient maybe, but hardly condescending. If I’d wanted to be condescending I would have mercilessly shredded the “logic” that says “People on other forums post rejections. There are no rejections posted here, therefore there were no rejections”. </p>

<p>P.S. If you’d like to understand why that argument is wrong go to Wikipedia and read up on “False Dichotomy” or “Argument from Ignorance”.</p>

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<p>^or, if you’d like to learn an even fancier phrase, try “faulty syllogism.”
:wink: Cheers!</p>

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<p>I thought false dichotomy was condescending enough. ;)</p>

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<p>@GoBlue81
I’ll just reword what I said since you did not get anything. One incentive to defer a lot of students is that people may later think that they were “close” to getting accepted. Thus, more people than usual may apply the next year. Whether any university practices this or not I do not know, but it is a possibility that it further increases the # of apps next year, which I believe every university wants for various reasons.</p>

<p>“As a public institution, Michigan’s undergraduate admissions is understaffed. So they just defer everyone (10,000+) to make more work for themselves?
Are you questioning the integrity of the Michigan admissions office? I have nothing more to say to you.”</p>

<p>Yes, I am questioning whether UMich really does read all of the deferred apps a second time. I don’t see why that is so appalling to you. Like you said, they are understaffed, and with the record # of apps they are projected to receive this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t.</p>

<p>“You are speculating and you are wrong in both counts. Michigan is definitely admitting more than 10% of the EA applicants. And based on past records, Michigan is definitely rejecting part of the EA application pool. Why would this year be different from last year?”</p>

<p>Again, you failed to understand what I said. I said that of the non-accepts, it seems that a very high # of students were deferred. That is all.</p>

<p>@vinceh
“Horrible how? Didn’t everyone who applied EA get one of those decisions? Where did Michigan fail to hold up its end of the bargain?
In what way, shape or form is an applicant better off knowing that others have been deferred or denied? If we knew right now that 874 EA applicants to Michigan were accepted, 486 rejected and 2,394 deferred, how is your deferred status changed at all? As I tried to point out in posts #17 & #24 it doesn’t matter how many people are in the deferred pool, what matters is your status in the pool. If you’re the only 3.6/2000 SAT and the rest of the pool is 2.8/1500 at best, then you’re chances of getting in are sensational regardless of how many 2.8/1500 are deferred.”</p>

<p>The size of the deferral pool does make a difference because there would be more competition within your score range. If you got a 2100 SAT and they rejected a bunch of 2100 SAT-ers because they didn’t take challenging courses, ECs sucked, etc. then one would think you stand a better chance. But you’re right, I failed to see that your status in the pool is what matters in the end, especially since Michigan is a large school.</p>

<p>"That’s the applicant’s interpretation. Not getting rejected during EA means you still have a chance, it doesn’t mean you have a “decent’ chance.”</p>

<p>Yes, that is also true. Many people take it this way, but it isn’t UMich’s fault, correct.</p>

<p>“This is the quote that bothers me the most. Where on Michigan’s web site, or the web sites for any other college that practices EA, does it say that EA accept/defer/reject results are supposed to be helpful? To my knowledge there is no school that publishes detailed academic data of their EA accepts, deferred or rejects; without that data it’s of no value at all to know if .1% or 99.9% of an EA class was rejected or deferred.”</p>

<p>I remember reading somewhere that the decision is supposed to be helpful. I guess to me, personally, as a deferred student, if they rejected more people it would seem that they saw something unique in my application and thus, are keeping me in the running. But like you said earlier, all that matters are that my stats be at the top of the deferral pool.</p>

<p>Whew, long post.</p>