Deferred and Confused

Hey guys,

         Recently I got deferred from Princeton EA. This actually surprised me because I thought I would get rejected. I'm an unhooked asian male with a 3.74 gpa (unweighted) in a very average public school. Maybe they deferred me because they like me but my gpa was just too low?  I know that speculation is hopeless, but maybe I would've gotten in if I had at least a 3.90 gpa. I'll never know.

Anyway, with such a low gpa and already low chances for deferred applicants to get accepted in the regular round, is there anything I can do? So far, I plan to write a letter to them and keep up my grades. If all goes as planned, I have a very good chance of getting all A’s this semester. Do you think in my case, this would have a pretty significant impact?

I also heard that I can ask my counselor to call the admissions officers and inquire about how close I was to getting accepted or what I can work on. Is this true? It seems a bit pushy, and I don’t want to come off as clingy.

And yes, I’m fully accepting a rejection. I’ve moved on and I’m applying to other schools for RD. But I still want to maximize my chances for Princeton. Because a deferral is still not a rejection. (maybe just a polite rejection :p). Thanks!

Sorry @JuicyMango, I know getting deferred sucks.

I truly believe you should focus 100% on your other apps. With an ~80% deferral rate, the RD round is brutal.

Unless you have something big coming in (e.g. a paper getting published, research work that is just completing, or you set a world record), it is highly unlikely good grades and a LoCI will help much. Just move on and be amazing at another a some college.

Here is a good blog post on a Prinception student talking about his deferral: https://admission.princeton.edu/blogs/deferred

Note that he completed an independent research project between SCEA and RD.

One interesting thing is my son (Class of 2020) did an independent research project too. Maybe Princeton admires that quality in applicants?

Good luck!

-psy