<p>Hi. I was deferred like many of you. MIT is my dream school, and I'm extremely disappointed. I feel like I'm such a perfect match and don't understand why I wasn't admitted. I guess the only thing to do is to keep working and try not to think about it.</p>
<p>I always thought that if you wanted something enough and worked for it enough, it would happen. Now I'm not sure. </p>
<p>I'm not giving up hope, though. I've been through a lot of garbage, but I pushed through it. I haven't let anything prevent me from succeeding.</p>
<p>I'd like to hear from some of the other deferred people who really wanted to get in.</p>
<p>Here I am. I've cooled off somewhat because getting into Caltech made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, but I still think I am a better fit for MIT, and vice versa. I really wanted in, and still do. Apparently (the comp sci teacher says so) I did particularly well on the past weekend's USACO, so I'll send them the evidence, and I'll continue to feed them things like that.</p>
<p>I have looked for reasons for my deferral high and low, but decided that I'm just unspectacular. I have lots of little things going for me--having made the USAMO and other math contest happinesses, a catchy introduction to my essay, high test scores, general aura of excitedness--but I have plenty of things working against me, too--a history of slacking has left me with a 3.9 GPA, which is not very good in this cutthroat public school, and I was extremely nervous and jittery at my interview and occasionally said things I later didn't like. Possibly even, my interviewer thought I was only pretending to prefer MIT to Caltech. Or maybe this is one of the cases that McGann talked about where there is no reason at all. Hopefully, the good will outweigh the bad in the RD round.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got deferred too.</p>
<p>I wish they would send you something just saying, "this is what you needed in order to get in, and if you do it, your chances will increase," but god knows admissions aren't that fair.</p>
<p>I know it's stupid to blame anything, because I'm not even rejected yet, but I didn't even know about research and USAMO tests and blah blah blah until I found CC. I have a job at a Target, and I need the money, so I couldn't give that up to go research somewhere...I hope that they see that I needed to work instead of research. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think we should keep our chins up and just try to stay positive...like Matt said on his thing, and Archcow alluded too, he said "I couldn't believe some of the applications we had to defer." Hopefully everyone here belongs to that group.</p>
<p>Don't worry, guys. My cousin got deferred from MIT but was later accepted RD. He ended up graduating as one of MIT's top students and was accepted there for graduate school with a substantial scholarship. But despite his success, he said that he regrets that he didn't get a more well-rounded education and said that there are still plenty of better colleges out there.</p>
<p>Best of luck in your reevaluation in regualar decision!</p>
<p>I'm deferred too and amazingly bummed about it. I think I'll retake my SAT I in January, as I only took it once. I'm not sure it that will help but at least I'll feel like I'm doing something. I really love MIT and Boston.</p>
<p>I know there are at least a few '08ers on this board who were also deferred early action, including myself. We are proof that there is still hope. The most probably reason for my deferral was that I had no research or outside scientific experience to make me stand out. Like many of you, MIT was my first-choice all along and when I was deferred, it definitely was a bit disheartening. It did force me to cafefully weight the other options, which is not a bad thing, but I still was hoping for an acceptence.</p>
<p>I wound up writing a reasonable-length letter to update MIT on what I had been doing since I applied and show them that I was still comitted to my courses and EC's. I got another teacher recommendation from a teacher who knew me very well during senior year, which I think was helpful.</p>
<p>It does suck having to wait for another few months. Put your mind on other things. I remember the weekend before RD notifications, somebody posted something on CC saying that if you couldn't log on to some website, it meant you were rejected...so I spent the last weekend convinced that I did not get in. You hope for the best, but you also realize that there isn't just one school that fits you.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that you are all in the most competitive applicant pool and that getting in is VERY tough. Not getting in does NOT mean you don't deserve it.</p>
<p>Best of luck and don't let a deferral stop you from enjoying your senior year!</p>
<p>The only thing worse will be getting "wait listed" after RD.</p>
<p>And then finding out that they aren't taking anyone off the wait list because their yield from EA and RD was so high they are over subscribed!!!!
(No one got in off the wait list last year.)</p>
<p>They do send you a nice letter though, saying how it's MIT's loss that they don't have room for all the great students like you, and to keep them in mind for Grad School.</p>
<p>If you get waitlisted, how does it work exactly? If you choose to remain on the waitlist, are you basically screwed if they don't accept anyone? What happens to all the other colleges you got into?</p>
<p>The letter tells you that they can't offer admittance. </p>
<p>It advises you that you need to make other plans and sign up at another college.</p>
<p>But, if they don't fill the Class with the people they admitted from EA and RD they "might" need to accept a few more. They provide a way to answer them to accept a place on the wait list. (Post Card or E-mail)</p>
<p>MIT had planned to use the Wait List last year (Class entering fall 2004).
They were suprised by the number of Students that decided to attend from EA and RD. That overfilled the class and resulted in crowding.
This year they have accepted even fewer students EA (and this points to them accepting fewer RD ) in an effort to be able to use the wait list to fine tune the number of first years that attend. </p>
<p>This is an article on the Class of 2008
<a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N66/66earlyad.66n.html%5B/url%5D">http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N66/66earlyad.66n.html</a></p>
<p>Good Luck in your College Search. You need to have a "Plan B" in Place</p>
<p>For all of my fellow deferees, read Ben's latest post on his blog.
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/benjones/www/blog/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/benjones/www/blog/index.html</a></p>
<p>Also, whenever I remember that I get deferred, I go back and read what Matt wrote on his blog a while back when most of the decisions hadn't been received yet:
On the topic of the strength of the early pool, I must say just how difficult it was to narrow it down from more than 2800 applications to the 383 we could admit. There were some applications I couldn't believe we had to defer. I fully expect that this year's deferred applications will look quite strong during regular action.</p>
<p>I heard from my friend said that her dad (who is an EC) got an e-mail that said that MIT accepted the lowest number ever of EA applicants this year b/c they didn't want future applicants to think that someone has an advantage applying EA over RD so they've got a pile of EA applicants that they're waiting to admit in March. I'm going to be praying for the next 3 months that what she said was true and that I'm in that pile.</p>
<p>Looking back at my first two posts on this thread, I seem kind of depressed. </p>
<p>Well, I'm not. I'm staying optimistic and worrying a lot less. I hope everyone who really wants and deserves to get in does. </p>
<p>Ho, ho, ho, happy Christmas!</p>