<p>I'm confused!
Deferral means you are still being considered for admission, just waiting until all of the auditions are done?
Does waitlist mean you are accepted IF there is room after all of the acceptances/denials are received from the school?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Merlehay, I’ve wondered about this too, as it seems like it’s used on this forum to mean exactly what you say–you auditioned and are under consideration–whereas in “normal” college admissions, it’s usually used to mean that you applied Early Decision and were neither accepted nor rejected but rather put into the regular admissions pool. I often see that someone is “deferred” from an MT or acting program that does not do any early types of admission at all. </p>
<p>Waitlist does mean what you say: you are not in the initial pool of students being accepted, but you’re on a list of people they may go to if their yield is low. </p>
<p>Anyone else have different interpretations?</p>
<p>No expert, but those are both pretty good interpretations as I understand it. My S has been placed in what two schools call “Priority Hold”. I interpret that to mean “deferral” in college confidential language. They are highly interested but are not making their decisions until more or all of the auditions are over. I really think it is odd that anyone would be “waitlisted” now so early. That means IMHO they have offered all of their spots out or they know they will offer others in front of the waitlisted student.</p>
<p>And, do remember . . . don’t lose hope if you are waitlisted. I know students in the past few years who have been accepted off waitlist into one of their top choices in early June! However, don’t wait that long and see, but go ahead and put down a deposit you may lose at another university so that you are assured of somewhere to attend that you will love!</p>
<p>The words are almost interchangeable. However, let me just say, there are many schools who do not offer invitations into the programs until the entire auditions season is complete. Therefore, you would not be “waitlisted” you would be “deferred.” It is our way of telling you that you are still being considered, but we haven’t made any decisions. Programs with very small incoming classes have a tendency to do it this way. Not all, but many.</p>
<p>What I’ve noticed this year for the first time is that some students/parents are reporting being waitlisted already. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a waitlist compiled before the due date for applications has been reached, let alone all auditions completed!</p>
<p>^^I’ve seen that too, and there’s been discussion about how odd it seems to be calling it a waitlist at this point. Apparently some schools actually were using that term even in December!</p>
<p>I have noticed on the MT Forum that these two terms tend to get mixed up and sometimes used incorrectly. A few posts on this thread have the basic idea down. While I agree with most of kjgc’s post, I do NOT agree with his statement that these two words are almost interchangeable. In college admissions terms, they mean DIFFERENT things (if used correctly). </p>
<p>DEFERRALS are an outcome in regular colleges of Early Decision or Early Action where the acceptance decision on the applicant is not made early but is “deferred” to be made with all the Regular Decision applicants in the spring. Deferral does not mean rejection and in some cases merely delays acceptance from December/January until March/April. In BFA audition based programs, it doesn’t necessarily mean the school has an ED or EA round but it still means that the applicant is in consideration until all the auditionees have been considered. </p>
<p>WAITLISTS are for applicants who are neither accepted nor rejected. Applicants are assigned to the wait list when final acceptance and rejection letters go out (often in the spring). An offer might be made from a wait list IF a college or program doesn’t yield the number of available slots on May 1 (and these offers tend to go out after May 1 in many cases). Someone on a wait list will be considered if slots are available, and has already met the criteria for acceptance if room allows. A deferred student, however, is merely still in consideration for acceptance prior to all the admissions decisions being reached on the entire applicant/audition pool. </p>
<p>Frankly, those who are saying they are waitlisted this early in the season are either using the term incorrectly, or the BFA program is using it incorrectly.</p>
<p>(PS, I cross posted with the two posts previous to mine and agree!)</p>
<p>I speak as someone who is accepting to a BFA MUSTH program, not college admissions. They are separate items for many, many schools. Since we deal with our own programs, perhaps we do not use the words the same way admissions does.</p>
<p>I realize that, Ken, but these words when it comes to admissions speak have certain definitions and it would be better to be consistent in this fashion, in my opinion as these are widely accepted terms. To use them in another fashion, may confuse applicants.</p>
<p>In very basic terms, a deferral is when the admissions process, even for an audition based program, is still in process and not all students have been seen or considered yet. A waitlist occurs after or at the same time that all final decisions of admission go out and all applicants have been considered at that point. This is how the majority of people view these terms, even if you don’t use them in this manner.</p>
<p>So Soozievt, if I understand correctly, then my S’s "waitlisting"at Rider is actually a deferral, since he was among the first group to audition? I am a college professor and I also wondered about this…thinking this was an incorrect use of the word.</p>
<p>Why not just have your child call the department to better understand what it means? I agree it is unlikely that departments are filled at this point and it likely means they are waiting until auditions are finished to make their final decision. It would be great if there were consistency of terms between all the MT programs and coordination with the terms used in academic admissions.</p>
<p>^^I mean it is unlikely that programs are filled at this point, not departments…posted before my cup of coffee.</p>
<p>mcpcwhite…I can’t tell you for sure the deal at Rider, but it seems to me that they, like many programs who accept on a rolling basis, deferred some students (meaning they are still in consideration) until the rest of the audition season is completed. That is what most colleges would call a deferral, NOT a wait list. The term “wait list” would be more for when ALL admissions decisions have been reach on ALL candidates and they develop a wait list that they may go to if they don’t yield enough students for the slots available. But it seems to me that your kid has a deferral and is still in consideration as they are not going to accept all their slots until all auditions are completed but may accept some on a rolling basis (like some schools have ED or EA and so accepted some early on as well). In my opinion, Rider is using the term “wait list” in error and it is not consistent with current practices in admissions terms. In any case, a deferral is very good as it means your kid is still in the running but they can’t give out too many acceptances this early on as they still have so many auditions to go.</p>
<p>My guess is that Rider is calling it “waitlisted” because they have decided that they will offer your son an acceptance IF they don’t yield enough students from their first choice “accepted” pool. Deferral would imply that they are putting off the decision, but I think they have decided. This may not be in keeping with the traditional use of the term but it makes some sense.</p>
<p>Explanation from Rider admission office: those who are “waitlisted” are still under consideration and have not been excluded from the decision process. That sure sounds like a deferral to me, in the academic world I know, at least. :)</p>
<p>^^^Agreed!!</p>