My daughter got deferred from Early Action! Her GPA was 3.7 and she had a 32 ACT score, plus otherwise excellent application. However, she has a second chance through ED2 or regular decision. We are shocked that she was deferred. Anyone else deferred and what are your stats and thoughts? Perhaps too many from her school applied so they are forcing her into ED2 which makes it easier for them. Or everyone is choosing it as a back-up to UCs so they want students to commit if they are serious. We are not Catholic. We do live near the campus in Silicon Valley.
What should we do? Speak with an admissions officer?
You can show interest through emails and campus visits(virtual or in -person). Nobody can force you to ED2. You can stay in the RD pool. Without knowing the major she applied, it is hard to say if this was unexpected. CS/Engineering can be competitive …
Not a bad idea to talk with an admissions officer, but I’d try to see if her guidance counselor would be willing to make the call and have that conversation instead of doing it yourself.
What’s her intended major? Why does she want to go there?
Being a bit too literal, raj—of course they aren’t “forcing” her. Read between the lines. Some colleges do push students from EA to ED2 because they know they really want to attend their college so they would rather offer the EAs to athletes and students with higher stats in hopes that they go, which will increase their freshman profile stats. The major is Arts & Sciences and they said they look at acceptance into the program, not the major. I truly think it’s something other than her application and the test-optional, unknown admissions game has reached a higher level with top students applying to more colleges than in the past. Also, when colleges accept more in ED, they accept less in Regular Decision, which makes their acceptance rate lower. It’s a numbers game. We are still grateful for the ED2 offer, of course, and are crossing our fingers.
Thanks. Got your point. In this case it might be something to do with the local high school. Maybe too many of the students there use scu as a safety. Also it is possible, scu may want a diverse class and not too many from the local area.
Yes, agree. Many students want to leave the area but apply to SCU as a back-up yet choose UCs if they are accepted. We definitely want SCU, not interested in the UCs.
SCU was definitely in the running for us last year. D21 was accepted EA and it was her only early decision app. It was nice to have one in the pocket before the chaos of UC and CSU decisions last year.
There were at least 2-3, maybe 4 schools above SCU on her priority list, but she was definitely high on SCU. Ultimately, she got into her 1A or 1B, which was SLO. And she declined SCU.
Part of the issue with SCU for her and her only was that SCU didn’t have her exact major and SLO was more of a hands-on experience. I don’t think the distance was an issue, since we’re local, maybe 20-30 minutes away from SCU.
I see people applying to SCU, also applying to LMU, Pepperdine and University of San Diego. Not sure if these are viable options for your daughter as other choices.