<p>Do you think getting deferred is more like never having applied EA, but rather RD, or is it more like an early rejection? =\ I don't know what to think of it.</p>
<p>A deferral is NOT an “early rejection” or “polite rejection” or anything similar. The admissions committee just wants to see how you stack up relative to the RD pool. It’s best not to read too much into it. Just get the best grades you can and try to make up for any potential weaknesses you think your application may have had. </p>
<p>Personally, I’ve got my eye on Stanford RD now ;)</p>
<p>So you’re saying it’s simply like applying RD, forgetting all the EA stuff? Or would something have to change in your application to stand a chance? I am not trying to read too much into this, but Harvard is, was, my first choice, and I want to know if I still should have some hope or not. Obviously I applied to other schools too, but I’m afraid this deferral kind of hurt.</p>
<p>It is definitely possible to be accepted after being deferred EA. I think being reviewed again just means that: you’re being reviewed as though you were an RD applicant, though since you were deferred, the admissions committee might think: “Hmmm, what was it about this application that didn’t cause the person to be accepted in the first place?” This is why any new updates, especially those that reveal significant (and positive ;)) information about yourself, are essential. </p>
<p>Please don’t give up hope - our chances now are roughly equal to what our chances would have been, had we only applied RD. And only 772 people were accepted this time around, meaning that there are still over 1,000 spots left to fill since Harvard generally accepts around 2,100 students per year. Also, the RD pool on average will be less competitive than the SCEA pool. Just think of it that way :)</p>
<p>Here are some precise numbers I found from a post made by tokenadult back in Dec. 2004 (had to do a bit of googling to find them, but here they are):</p>
<p>tokenadult posted a quote that was on Harvard’s website, back when they still had EA. </p>
<p>“Early Action applicants have, on average, stronger admissions credentials than regular applicants. In each of the several recent years, Harvard has admitted between 2,000 and 2,100 applicants total. Of these, 900 to 1,200 were admitted in mid-December and - reflecting early candidates’ strength - another 85 to nearly 250 early applicants were admitted in the spring after having been deferred in mid-December. There is no incentive whatsoever for Early Action colleges to admit weaker candidates early and then have to reject stronger Regular Action candidates. Diminishing the quality of the student body would be antithetical to the goals of any institution.”</p>
<p>Going by these numbers (i.e. 900-1,200 accepted EA), it looks like this year Harvard accepted fewer people to leave more room for the RD candidates. The 85-250 figure for the deferred → accepted people was the only thing I could find. I don’t know how this year will turn out, so I’ll just assume that figure will remain the same…</p>
<p>Thank you. That helps. I guess since it’s their first year doing EA, they’re trying it out to see how the EA pool compares to RD pool. I guess since many of the students admitted EA were athletes and URMs, I’d have a better chance RD. Not counting on it, but it’s nice to know there’s still hope.</p>