Deferred ED

<p>I know this may be a time of disappointment for you if you were deferred ED William & Mary, however do not despair. My son was deferred last year. We took this time to visit other colleges and as W&M suggest he applied to several other institutions that interested him. He also sent in supplement materials for his application packet. Throughout the next several months he had wonderful opportunities presented to him. He received a Presidential Scholarship worth the tuition at a private school. He was accepted to almost every school he added to his list, this included UVa, Wake Forest, Villanova, Boston College, to name a few. In the end he was waitlisted W&M regular decision. There is a college out there for everyone and just because you were deferred W&M does not mean you will not get in to other equally wonderful schools.</p>

<p>Great post woosah – from someone who’s been through it. It’s important to remember that if you don’t get in ED, it’s not the end of the world, and may in fact work out better in the end. I’ll try to convey that to D if she gets deferred from her ED school…</p>

<p>Excellent sentiments. I wrote a blog on this last year that many of those who are deferred/denied (or the parents of those who are) might appreciate and find comforting.</p>

<p>[W&M</a> Blogs It’s Not You, It’s Us](<a href=“http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/03/25/its-not-you-its-us/]W&M”>http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/03/25/its-not-you-its-us/)</p>

<p>good post woosah. I was also deferred ED at a school way back when…</p>

<p>What are the chances for someone who got deferred? I was deferred and I am looking into other colleges, but I want to know if I should even keep my hopes up for WM. I don’t want to look forward to something I don’t have a chance of getting.</p>

<p>aknahal11: If you were my child, I would tell you to widen your search and apply to other colleges this month; you want to have a choice in the Spring when it is time to send in a deposit and make a choice. I do not know what WM’s rate of admission is for those applicants deferred ED, but you are one person and not a statistic. Certainly, I would tell you to be very realistic about WM which is to say, they had some reservations about your application when they read it. So, this is your time to re-evaluate what you want and how you can plan for yourself next Spring.
There are many folks here who would be happy to make suggestions about other colleges. I do not mean to be a negative nelly: I am just advising that you need to take care of yourself and not put all of your eggs in William & Mary’s basket!</p>

<p>Those students who were deferred were deferred because we do believe that they were a competitive applicant in many respects. Unfortunately, they weren’t as competitive as others in our pool but we believe they were correct to apply to W&M and we want to recognize that by deferring rather than denying them during the early decision process.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, less than 10% of those deferred are eventually admitted which is why our letter encourages you to begin considering and apply to other colleges.</p>

<p>If you still have a strong interest in W&M send in other materials for your application file. However, go visit other colleges. Expand your list to include schools that you may not have even considered previously. Also, make sure you have safety and mid schools on the list. Think of areas you may want to major in and seek out schools that have those majors. Your guidance office or college and career center should have resources for you to peruse. If you wanted W&M because it is a liberal arts college, check out other liberal arts schools. There are so many with wonderful programs. Also, do not discount schools based on the hearsay of peers. Do what is best for you. The month of December was filled with college visits and essay writing for my son, however I saw a wonderful change in him. He found other schools that he wanted to attend and became very excited about the options and opportunities that were out there. Continue to have hope, but not just for W&M, but for your future. This advice may not sink in right now, but it will one day. Every time I see my son he loves where he is and in as much it was hard to swallow being deferred W&M he knows that the school he is at is where he belongs.</p>

<p>I beg to differ. If 90% of the deferred applications are not accepted RD, then it is not realistic to say the application was competitive. For most, a deferral is a polite non-acceptance.</p>

<p>Absolutely , woosah.</p>

<p>For most, a deferral is a polite non-acceptance. </p>

<p>mom4college. do you believe this is true for William and Mary or for every school…??</p>

<p>elizabethj, </p>

<p>I only have the stats from WM (10% of ED deferrals are accepted RD); I cannot speak to any other school. And some people are in the 10%. But it seems to me that a deferred ED applicant’s chances are 10%, not 34% (or whatever the acceptance rate is for RD applicants). And, if the ED acceptance rate is about 50%, then a deferred ED student has not been successful at 50%, so reducing the likelihood to 10% would make me… look at other schools that offered whatever it was that I liked about WM! <smile> If I became one of the 10%, that would be great, but I would also ensure that I had some other options come April. A lot can happen in three or four months.</smile></p>

<p>oh okay!! i was just asking because i was deferred for Wake Forest and I was worried that I would literally have zero chance!</p>

<p>But also don’t take deferrals or waitlists as personal rejections. I was waitlisted, got in, and have been successful in any metric of the word ever since. College is what you make of it.</p>

<p>mom4college,</p>

<p>Students who were deferred did have many aspects of their application that were competitive. Overall, they may not have been quite as competitive as those that were admitted, but they were far more competitive than those who were denied early decision. To have denied them early decision would have been to totally ignore those competitive aspects of their application which does them a disservice in our opinion.</p>

<p>We realize that the choice to defer/waitlist students is a tricky one and often one with much debate on both sides of the spectrum. We do our best to institute an application review process that takes into account an applicant’s accomplishments and successess and tries to respond to them as properly as possible. </p>

<p>We realize that many disagree with the use of defer or waitlist and that many agree and we also realize that we won’t make every applicant happy but we do our best to make the right decisions based on our pool, our institution, and our applicants.</p>

<p>What can I do to better my chances at WM (I got deferred). How much of a difference would improved SAT scores and my mid-year grades really have if less than 10% of people are admitted. I am starting to believe, after reading these comments, that a deferral is simply a polite rejection. And I feel like I have absolutely no chance of getting in because of the people in my school that are applying RD but have no intention of actually going there (applying maybe because their parents are making them) yet have very strong profiles. Getting deferred is just telling me that my application will be reviewed again and when compared to others will be rejected even though I applied ED and supposedly had a competitive qualities. </p>

<p>Just one question, I plan on going to Mary Washington and I was wondering if I get rejected from WM, will I still be able to apply to transfer if I wanted to? How does the admission office view someone who was rejected applying as a freshman?</p>

<p>While it’s true that there aren’t that many deferred students who are admitted, we do review your application again during regular decision in earnest. If you do have any new academic information (including first-semester grades and improved SAT scores), you should send them to us and they could improve your chances depending on how dramatically different the new information is from your original materials.</p>

<p>Deferral is in many ways akin to being waitlisted. It’s a recognition of the fact that you are a competitive applicant and that if we had more spaces in our incoming class, we would admit you. </p>

<p>As for those applying RD from your school, we consider any applicant interested in attending W&M. We realize some are more interested than others but high school seniors are known to change their mind on their college search often and so we give those students the benefit of the doubt that they may become quite interested in W&M.</p>

<p>As for transferring, we welcome transfer applications from those not admitted as freshmen. Being denied is in no way a strike against you in the transfer application process and we always appreciate a student’s continued interest in W&M.</p>

<p>I was denied when I applied RD for my freshman year. I attended VCU for a year in their Honors College and applied to transfer to W&M for sophomore year. I was accepted and am here now, so the same path may work for you. UMW is a good school as well – I have a friend there majoring in psych, she works hard and likes her professors. Good luck with whatever you decide!</p>

<p>As I’m finishing up my other applications post-deferral from William and Mary, I am still hopeful for acceptance into the school I fell in love with. Therefore, I have a few questions. </p>

<p>The first question is in response to a ‘success-story’ I heard from a friend today: She told me that on a college visit to TCNJ, the tour guide explained how she applied early decision, was deferred, then called the school to inquire as to why she was deferred and not accepted/denied. The school pulled out her file and informed her that they wanted to see a higher critical reading SAT score. Does W&M offer such a generous action? If I were to call the admissions office, would I be embarrassed to find out that my file is completely secure and I may not inquire as to what would boost my chances/what caused me to not be as competitive in the applicant pool? </p>

<p>My second question is an inquiry: how many students were accepted vs deferred vs denied? Is it more along the lines of 50% - 25% - 25%, respectively, 50-15-35, or 50-35-15?</p>

<p>Lastly, does W&M accept January SAT scores? The results would not come in until mid-February, and therefore might not get to the school until March. Wondering if it is worth effort to take the test once again.</p>

<p>Thank you very much for your time!</p>

<p>Hey I know the 2nd question! W&M said it was about 50-30-20: 50 accepted,30 deferred 20 denied. There were 1100 applicants this year, about twice as many instate vs. out of state. It’s on their website in the comments of the “admit it” blog.</p>