Deferred from UMich LSA, should I even bother applying to harder schools?

Applying to College
1

<p>I was deferred from UMich LSA as part of EA. I was thinking about applying to some of the following as part of RD, but someone told me I should not even bother as I did not even get into UMich. How true is this statement?</p>

<p>NYU Stern, Williams, UChicago, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, Northwestern, Brown, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Duke</p>

<p>Here are my stats if anyone is interested?</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.7/4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.09 (As of end of Junior Year)
Class Rank: 25 of 300
SAT Score: Try 1: 2080, Try 2: 2250, Superscore: 2300
School Type: Suburban, Diverse, Public NJ</p>

<p>GPA Trend: Improvement from Freshman to Sophomore year and big improvement between sophomore and junior year.</p>

<p>As of Junior Year: taken 6 AP classes and 9 Honors classes (covering all the academic subjects, some electives, and 1 world language [world language honors starts at level 4] )</p>

<p>Passed 6 AP exams with scores of 4 and 5 (not the same exams necessarily as my classes)</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule: 6 AP classes</p>

<p>Subject Tests (Estimate):</p>

<p>Math: 740
Biology: 770</p>

<p>Extracurricular---</p>

<p>-Eagle Scout Candidate (Project in-progress)
-President of a Science related club (one of the largest student organizations in the district, if not the largest)
-Captain of Debate Team (Varsity)
-Held multiple leadership positions in Boy Scouts since 9th grade (6-month terms, the highest position being equivalent to Vice President)
-DECA awards at State and Regional Level
-Science Olympiad Medals at Regional Level
-National Honors Society
-String Orchestra all 4 years (every year since 4th grade)
-Tri-M Music Honors Society
-World Language Honors Society
-Model Congress (Award)
-Model UN</p>

<p>Volunteer Work---</p>

<p>-Volunteer at an after school program
-Volunteer at School Library
-Volunteer at local elementary/middle school science fair multiple years (two years as a mentor included)
-Summer Volunteer at County Library summer before 9th-11th grade
-Total Volunteer Hours: 280-350</p>

<p>Other/Misc./Experiences---</p>

<p>-Worked full-time in the summer after junior year as an intern in a local firm helping to develop some innovative financial software (Provisional Patent Application under process)</p>

<p>Background---</p>

<p>-Race: Asian/other, South Asian</p>

<p>-Family Income Bracket: 120-160k/ annum</p>

<p>Recommendations/Referrals (Estimate)---</p>

<p>Recommendation 1- 9/10
Recommendation 2- 8/10
Counselor Recommendation- 8/10</p>

2

<p>What UMich was looking for EA, and what the other places are looking for could be very different things. If you are interested in some of the others, go ahead and apply. There really, truly, is no relationship between what goes on in the UMich admissions office and in the others.</p>

3

<p>Thanks @happymom1 , anyone else have any input?</p>

<p>By the way, I know I put subject test “estimate”- ignore that- those are my real scores.</p>

4

<p>Indeed. UMich seems to have deferred a lot of high stats accomplished kids this year. Like many schools, they may want to see demonstrated interest from their deferrals in order to decide who to admit (they don’t want to admit kids who will turn them down).</p>

<p>And yes, what adcom A looks for may have little relationship to what adcom B looks for.</p>

5

<p>I had similar stats and I also got deferred. My reasoning is that UMichigan wants to keep up yield rates up. They will most likely accept you next year after all of the ED and EA applicants withdraw their applications. I’m also applying to the same colleges that you are applying to. I say, go for it. I’m disappointed but that shouldn’t hamper my confidence. Neither should it hurt yours. </p>

6

<p>Go for it. Michigan is controlling over-enrollment in the past few years by cutting back on EA admissions in 2014-15. It’s not you or your stats. It’s the fact that their yield was too high to even house all of the freshmen this year. </p>

7

<p>A deferral is not a rejection. Are you IS or OOS for Michigan. If OOS, then many qualified students were deferred - for now. it is rumored they had about 30000 EA applicants. Also, they over-enrolled last year so they are under-enrolling a bit this year to even it out as stated above. Not much to do with other schools IMO. Good luck and keep your head up!</p>

8

<p>Why do you think you were rejected? Were your essays good? Because stats wise you’re a pretty qualified applicant.</p>

9

<p>@PromotionMan‌:
He wasn’t rejected. He was deferred. UMich is definitely deferring a lot of high-stats accomplished OOS candidates this year. Likely want to see demonstrated interest from them. They have no interest in serving as a safety school for OOS students, it seems.</p>

10

<p>@PurpleTitan‌ I meant deferred, sorry its 1AM where I’m at. So is geographic priority the primary reason for his deferral here? Would a 2400 4.5 extremely qualified candidate also be deferred if he/she were OOS?</p>

11

<p>@PromotionMan‌ UMich deferrals were all over the place. I saw some 36 ACT’s with 4.0’s get deferred (well, if they weren’t lying about their stats), as well as some people with 28-30 ACT’s get in. There’s not a huge pattern yet. </p>

12

<p>@singermom4 I’m OOS</p>

13

<p>@PromotionMan, I felt my essays were good- perhaps not the compelling type… I got people to look at them, and they all liked it save a few mechanical errors- which I fixed before sending them off. I would say essays were 8/10 and 7/10. 10 being an essay compelling to the point of the Gettysburg Address and 1 being an essay of the level of an average 8th grader.</p>

14

<p>Are you majoring in computer science? If so the competition is brutal. Your stats are fine, but consider refining your list to three dreams schools, state flagship, and two safeties. Best of Luck.</p>

15

<p>@SamRam- Yes, I was. I had also applied Preferred Admission to Ross (but I doubt that is happening now).</p>

16

<p>You should find 2 schools you like, can afford, and know you can get into + 2-3 schools with admission rates at 40% or more.
Once you have those, you can apply to as many reaches as you wish.
Visit UMich, or email admissions to ask questions/be put in touch with a student.</p>

<p>NYU Stern, Williams, UChicago, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, Northwestern, Brown, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Duke => all are reaches. You may want to keep UChicago, Northwestern, Duke, UCBerkeley/UCLA(only if your family has 55K per year: no financial aid) because you’ll get a tiny boost from being from far away, as opposed to NYU, Princeton, Penn… All of these are definitely reaches though so only apply there after you’re done with schools you like/can afford and the 2-3 schools with admission rates at 40%.</p>

17

<p>Thanks @MYOS1634 I have already gotten into Rutgers (Engineering, Pharmacy and SAS) and I have one safety which I am waiting to hear back from.</p>

18

<p>@MYOS1634: Chicago/NU/Duke/Cal/UCLA won’t give a geographical diversity boost to someone from the Northeast because so many from the Northeast apply to those schools.</p>

<p>He should keep all the ones he wants to keep.</p>

19

<p>What I recommend, since your stats and ECs are on point, is to read over your Common App essay, get more opinions on it, and try to improve it. You can definitely get into all those schools! Its just you never know with them since SO many people are applying</p>

20

<p>@MYOS1634: In fact, the opposite is often the case, where elite RUs give a boost to applicants from their neck of the woods as part of their “good neighbor” policy.</p>

<p>Harvard definitely does that for kids from Cambridge & Boston, as does UPenn for Philly area kids, WashU for StL area kids, NU&UChicago for Chicago kids, and Duke for kids from the Carolinas. Likewise, Stanford seems to favor kids from the west and Cornell seems to have feeder relationships with several NY high schools.</p>