I’ve been deferred by 5 of my top schools: Wake Forest (Applied ED), Boston College, Tulane, Richmond, and Villanova. I have a 3.96 GPA weighted, a 32 ACT, have taken 9 APs, but I dont really have any Hook as I am not a minority or first generation college student. I have solid extra curriculars, good letters of recommendations (taken with a grain of salt as nobody actually sees theirs), and I have shown demonstrated interest at most of these schools. I have not been rejected to a single school, yet somehow I have been deferred 5 times. I think it has something to do with me applying as a Finance major, but also all of these schools are saying they are having “record numbers of early applications”. I am hearing back from UMiami sometime at the end of this week and I feel like it isn’t quite on the same level as the schools that have deferred me, but if I got in it would make me so much less stressed. Just based off my brief credentials would you say I shouldn’t be that worried about getting deferred from Miami? Ive applied to other schools as well, but this one I really like and have a good feeling about. Is their business school hard to get into?
For all of the schools you applied to, they have fairly high deferral rates, so getting deferred 5 times would be expected. On the bright side, at least you weren’t rejected!
College admissions are really random sometimes. You many think you have a great shot and you get rejected (like myself). Honestly, don’t feel discouraged by your results. Just keep working hard and I know you will end up somewhere great 
What is your UW GPA?
BC and Villanova are reachy, but I am a little surprised you didn’t get a bite from one of the other schools.
My unweighted GPA is around a 3.65, which is a bit subpar for some of the schools I applied to. Its becoming apparent to me that all of these schools care way too much about their yields and acceptance rates though. Schools like Tulane have been deferring many great students who applied early action, meanwhile they accept nearly every ED student even when they don’t always have credentials that match up. I applied ED 1 to Wake and have sent updated semester grades and additional recommendations, so I hope that my demonstrated interest will put me over the top and past other deferrals. If not, Miami and Boston College are my next favorites. I really hope I get into Miami at the end of this week just so I can know I got into atleast one school I really like.
Good luck and I wish you the best!
Wake is a reach too, but good luck in the RD round and in the meantime I hope you get good news from Miami!
Best of luck!
Hang in there. It aint over til its over. You’ll get a good offer. In the game of college admissions, there are a lot of ups and downs and twists and turns. Fasten your seatbelt.
First, go see your GC and ask them whether your application had a ‘red flag’ of any sort.
If so, quickly apply to universities that still accept applications but don’t use whatever is a red flag (recommendations, mid year report…)
If there’s no ‘red flag’, look at your essays: could thy have been written by another 6-8+ APs/3.7 student at your school? If so, rewrite one essay and send a fresh batch of applications out.
If not, check that you DO have 2 safeties, ie., their average student has a 3.5/27-28 act.
Sounds like you’re already in at Providence, LMU and Penn State - those are 3 excellent choices.
One of the deferrals may come through, but just in case, go ahead and start researching Providence and LMU and think about visiting during admitted students’ days in the spring. You could have an excellent experience at any of the 3 you have been admitted to, so don’t get discouraged.
What other schools did you apply to?
Keep us posted.