<p>Deferred Students
I am one of many students who had the tension build up twice while waiting for a decision from W&M, only to be disappointed both times. I understand why students are deferred, and why many do not ultimately get accepted. I also understand that many of the deferred students who are ultimately accepted have sent in supplemental information or had astounding mid-year grade reports. Those deferred students who have no new information for the RD round are usually rejected or if lucky, wait-listed. I respect the decision made by the admission committee, and I understand how hard they work, but I think that they need to be more upfront with the deferred students. Instead of just keeping them waiting for four-five months, they need to encourage the students to take that time to use as an opportunity to prove that they are W&M material. I considered sending in supplemental essays, teacher recs (I only sent one) and letters, but assumed that I actually had decent chances RD, and an advantage over RD applicants, neither of which is true.
Next year, please let the students know that if they are deferred there is very little chance they will ultimately be accepted unless there are special circumstance or new information, and encourage them to supplement their application, without overloading your office of course.</p>
<p>emc, we understand your disappontment and we’re sorry the news couldn’t be better especially given W&M was your number once choice. We do try to be up front with those who are deferred. Maybe not in the letter as we believe that should be a very succinct communication but those who contact us are told that very few ED students are inevitably admitted.</p>
<p>Generally, those who were deferred ED and are admitted have significant new academic information (generally that means first-semester grades and new standardized test scores) both of which show tremendous improvement. Likely your first-semester grades were sent to us automatically. It is not additional recommendations or essays that tend to make or break those decisions but almost always it’s significant new academic information.</p>
<p>We wish you all the best as you continue your college search.</p>