deferred.. will anyone accept me?

Applying to College
21

<p>omg... saturnine.. that is so horrible to hear. I sincerley give you my condolence, and hope that the justice was served.</p>

<p>I wouldn't give up hope on Wiliams/Wheaton yet. I once asked the admission officers about deferrals, and they said I can enhance the application in many ways. Sending new essay of yours, and a letter that it is still your first choice would be nice addition (and GC's explanation of circumstances of yours). </p>

<p>Your stats are very competetive, and even without a good hook (I didn't have any either!), you can impress the commitee with essays and interview. If I were you, I would apply to Dartmouth (Very simlar environment compared to Williams. They also have peer recommendation & interview, which are great way to impress the commitee with your personality), Rice, Cornell(more number driven. You stand very good chance) and possibly JHU/Chicago. </p>

<p>My advice is to think of application as marketing yourself. Choose your strongest traits you want to display, and strategically complete your application to show them subtley.</p>

<p>I really hope everything turns out great. Good luck!!!</p>

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<p>Wow, thank you all so much for your comments and advice. </p>

<hr>

<p>Ohio_mom: Thanks for offering to comment on my essays.. I'll try to get them to you when they are finished. </p>

<hr>

<p>SBmom: Your wealth of knowledge regarding situations like these has provided me with so much useful information, thank you. </p>

<p>I think that I will end up writing a short, supplementary note about my situation. It would be nice if my guidance department would write it instead, but that isn't going to happen. </p>

<p>I empathize with your daughter. It seems like she has an incredible strength, and will be an asset to whichever college she attends. And you also seem to be a very strong person, and a wonderfully supportive mother. I commend you for raising a daughter brave enough to deal with problems head-on. </p>

<p>I have seriously considered attending a women's college, but after much deliberation, I have realized that (for me) it would be more harmful than beneficial. I've made so much progress on being able to be around boys/men again, that I feel surrounding myself with all women would take me a step back. </p>

<p>Thanks again for all of your input; I'll be sure to keep you posted. </p>

<hr>

<p>Hopemanjkjk: Before I forget, congratuations on your acceptance to Williams! </p>

<p>Re the deferrals: As of now, I have sent my 1st quarter grades, which should certainly help. I probably will send in add'l letters as well. </p>

<p>Re Dartmouth: I would LOVE to apply there, but the deadline is January 1st, and my transcript would not be able to get sent out before the 3rd. Do you think that Dartmouth would still consider my application if the transcript was postmarked late?</p>

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<p>Do not worry about the transcript. Apply! </p>

<p>Colleges mostly do accept late bits & pieces that are outside your control if your main app is in by the deadline. </p>

<p>Good luck. :)</p>

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<p>In fact, Saturnine, there might be value to mentioning, in your explanatory note, that you have decided against a women's college for the reasons you state. It shows a bold and healthy attitude.</p>

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<p>Sbmom, thank you for the encouragement. I think I will take your advice to mention my reasoning for not applying to a women's college in my note.</p>

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<p>The BEST way to describe these things is in an interview!!</p>

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<p>saturnine, I have started and stopped replying to this thread about a dozen times. I think you will be much better off leaving the topic out of your applications entirely. Your stats are excellent and don't need any "explaining"!! A deferral from Williams doesn't prove anything, because anyone can get deferred from Williams, but Wheaton IL should have Fedexed your acceptance in a heartbeat. I believe they accept more than 50% of applcants and your stats would be in the top 25% of their class. Your deferral there looks like a "polite rejection" to me. With your stats you should be able to craft a very strong positive application that requires no excuses or rationaliztions for not applying to a different school. Again, I see no need to explain why you are not applying to a women's school in your application to a co-ed school. I think the topic makes people uncomfortable, and you don't want to make adcoms uncomfortable. As Ohio_mom said, " - Wheaton and Williams are afraid that you will fall apart." Is that true? Were your deferrals a direct result of your essay topic? I seriously doubt you can answer that question with a phone call to admissions. They would never admit it. If you leave it out of your application entirely and then you are deferred.... at least then you will know that you are not still being victimized by something that was done to you. Good luck to you! :)</p>

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<p>Saturnine,
this may sound odd, but you could try a couple each way. Your 3.6 is really kind of a minor bobble in grades at all but the most competitive schools. The rest of your application is strong on its own - unless something raises a red flag. </p>

<p>Everyone handles things differently. My mother was raped by an uncle when she was a child. Despite this baggage, she attended college and finally obtained her masters from Northwestern. Unfortunately, I can't ask her about your situation as she died last summer. But she was of that generation of women that was very pragmatic about education and jobs, and I <em>think</em> her advice to you would be to do whatever you need to to get into a good college. SBmon's suggestions are good ones, and so are NJRes'. Since they are more or less mutually exclusive, you could try a couple of each. </p>

<p>When school starts up again, have your GC call Wheaton and ask them about the defferal. He may as well do something useful.</p>

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<p>Hippodrome123: An interview would probably be effective if I could pull it off, but talking about my situation in person might cause me to break down. I'm afraid that while talking about this in an interview I might have to fight off tears.. and I don't want to risk leaving that kind of impression. </p>

<hr>

<p>NJres: Thanks for commenting. I agree that it is very hard to pinpoint the cause for my deferrals. For Williams, it could have been any number of things. The deferral from Wheaton, on the other hand, was almost certainly a direct result of my essay topic. Ah, it's just too bad that I can't turn back time and redo my essays. Oh well. </p>

<hr>

<p>Ohio_mom: The 3.6 probably isn't as bad to the adcoms as it is in my mind, but the fact that it came at the most important time in high school (second semester of junior year) really doesn't help. I'd like to think that I was deferred (instead of accepted) so that the colleges could confirm that my grades were back on track.. but unfortunately, that probably isn't the case. </p>

<p>How would you suggest trying to split the applications between acknowledgement and avoidance of the rape topic? I'm using the CommonApp for most of the applications, so should I just randomly pick half to recieve one version, and half the other? </p>

<p>I'll try to get my guidance counselor to contact Wheaton.. although I doubt that he'll be able to do anything to change their minds and let me in.</p>

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<p>My friend got deadline extension at Dartmouth (but because he is minority). Call/Email them and express your sincere interest in the college, and tell them that you just found about it recently. They don't really start reviewing the applications until Febuary. After all, Williams accepted about 30 late applications for ED round. I am pretty sure Dartmouth will be lenient on this.</p>

<p>About your trauma topic:</p>

<p>It is incredible, and very respectable that you had strong resolutioin and will to focus on your life even after such a horrible event, and those aspects will definitely count for you. However, you want to show your strong side. Pretend you are not concerned about it and sound optimistic in your main essays. However, subtley mentioning it in your peer recommendation, or Couselor recommendation can let colleges know that you are a very strong minded person.</p>

<p>I still feel very bad talking about this... but this was just my 2 cent.</p>

<p>I hope everything will be well!!!</p>

<p>Good Luck!!!</p>

31

<p>"How would you suggest trying to split the applications between acknowledgement and avoidance "
I would choose schools that might be expected to have something resembling a backbone for the acknowledgement. My suggestions would be Brandeis, Oberlin, UChicago and Dartmouth. For UChicago, use the fifth prompt as something like - life is full of risks. Write a risky essay about something that is meaningful to you. The rest of the UChicago app is not that hard. </p>

<p>I would choose good schools where you are way far in the top quartile of applicants for the avoidance essay. Mention that your 2nd quarter junior was rough for personal reasons, but you are back on track. Schools like Union and Colgate from your list, Case and Allegheny from mine.</p>

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<p>Isn't the Wheaton in Ill an Evangelical institution? If so, it is the only religious school that you applied to (unless Concordia is). Maybe the deferral there involved you not being a religious "match?" When it comes to religious beliefs, Evangelical Christian schools want a very homogeneous student body (and faculty). They are quite different from Catholic institutions in this regard; I know Loyola & Holy Cross student bodies/faculty have diverse religious backgrounds (or lack thereof). Not so Evangelical schools. </p>

<p>NJres explains the Williams deferral quite logically (let's face it, someone with even better stats is "deferrable" or "rejectable" at Williams for a variety of reasons...) </p>

<p>So it could be that <em>both</em> your deferrals had nothing to do with the essay.</p>

<p>On another note, ohiomom brings up a good point-- some schools are a little more liberal, quirky, and edgy, and thus would be less uptight about a frank essay whereas other schools are a little blander and might be made more uptight. </p>

<p>In "The Gatekeepers" there is a lengthy discussion of one student's application to Wesleyan and several other highly selective schools. Her stats were apx 35-40% for the schools. Her essay discussed a suspension that resulted from having accepted a pot brownie on a school field trip, and how she was the only student who turned herself in after the incident; she later became president of the school's honor board. </p>

<p>Though she had clearly made a fairly typical dumb HS student decision, and her honesty in the aftermath & recovery was stellar, it was still a big "red flag" for the adcoms-- despite the fact that they are all aware that plenty of pot use goes on at all these schools! And Wesleyan is a "liberal/quirky" school! Ultimately, this student <em>was</em> accepted by Wesleyan & Cornell, but she just squeaked in the door.</p>

<p>So it is hard to predict!!</p>

<p>Again, the best thing to do is listen to your inner voice about the way you think this should be handled. I understand your desire to be upfront-- 'this really happened and I handled it.' On the other hand, the assault is irrelevant to your merits as a student or person, so you can absolutely leave it out. </p>

<p>Probably the best thing is to think of your application as a whole and decide what portion of it (if any) should be spent on this information. Your app is <em>you</em> for the adcom, so consider what you want them to see; what is accurate; what feels right to you. Don't make it 50% of what they see if it is not 50% of who you are.</p>

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<h2>Hopemanjkjk: I will definitely try to contact Dartmouth and see if they can let some things roll in a little late. Regarding the trauma topic, getting a close friend to subtley mention it in the peer rec might be a good idea. Thanks. </h2>

<h2>Ohio_mom: Thanks for the advice on application strategy. I'll be sure to send apps to Dartmouth, Brandeis, and possibily Oberlin and UChicago.</h2>

<p>SBmom: Both Wheaton and Concordia are religious schools. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the possibility of my not being a religious "match" for the schools. I am a Christian, religious person, and therefore would fit the typical religious background of Wheaton. (I only applied to two religious schools because a strong academic program took priority over a religious student body.) Anyway, the anecdote about the Wesleyan applicant is quite interesting, and a great example of why not to write risky/controversial essays. I especially liked your advice: "Don't make it 50% of what they see if it is not 50% of who you are." I'll certainly keep that in mind.</p>

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<p>I just meant if you were a Christian from a liberal episcopal or Catholic or other tradition, there might not be a match at certain Christian schools. Maybe this was not a factor, though. I was just searching for another possible reason someone with your excellent stats might be deferred... puzzling....</p>

35

<p>Some colleges Defer/Waitlist over qualified candidates because they are afraid of low yield rate. I wouldn't be surprised if this was your case with Wheaton. For example, Cornell waitlists candidates taht are likely to goto Harvard,Yale,Princeton, etc.</p>

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<p>Saturnine, If you decide that you do want to include the current essay in your applications to some or all of the schools on the list, perhaps you would like some of the people here to read it first, if they were willing. With all due respect--and you are due A LOT, sometimes it is hard to be an objective judge of a piece of writing about a very traumatic event.</p>

<p>By the way, I don't think that all women's colleges are devoid of men. What about Barnard?</p>

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<p>Good Point: Barnard, or maybe a former all women's college that is now coed, like Vassar, Goucher or the Wheaton in Massachusetts...</p>

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<p>Wheaton's "official" acceptance rate is around 50%. BUT, if you break it down by gender, I wouldn't be surprised if Wheaton accepts less than 30% of females. See, a lot more girls apply than guys, but they want to keep it half and half, so they accept a greater percentage of guys. Wheaton is already a very competitive school, but if you look at it this way, it is super competitive for women. </p>

<p>Also, I would say that religious aspects of your application, such as religious extracurricular activities, pastor recommendation, and the faith essay are looked at quite a bit. You can have great academics and test scores, but if these other things are kind of lackluster, it might raise a red flag. They would think you're not sincere about the intense Christian atmosphere that is such a huge part of Wheaton. </p>

<p>Saturnine05- maybe if you take a look at some of these parts of your Wheaton application that might clear some things up about your deferral. Are you involved in youth groups and mission trips? Is your pastor recommendation from someone who knows your spiritual life very well, or just a generic recommendation from a pastor who does not know you personally? In your essay, did you talk about your traumatic experience in terms of your relationship with God? It's been my impression that you really have to have these parts of your application together in order to be considered a serious candidate by Wheaton.</p>

<p>I am truly sorry about your experience with rape, especially by someone who is in a position of trust. No woman should have to go through that, and all to often the perpetrators get away with little or no punishment. It sounds like you are dealing with it better than most would, though, and I pray God continues to help you through this rough time.</p>

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<h2>SBmom: Thank you for suggesting those colleges, I'll be sure to look into them. </h2>

<h2>Hopemanjkjk: I doubt that Wheaton would have deferred me for being overqualified; they accept many students with my basic stats.</h2>

<h2>Searchingavalon: I'll be sure to post my essay on here when it is finished. I would greatly apprieciate any feedback. </h2>

<p>JML87: Thank you for commenting. As you pointed out, the lower acceptance rate for females may certainly have been a factor in my being deferred. </p>

<p>But regarding the religious aspects of my application, I thought that my faith and involvement would shine through quite well. (VP of youth group, member of church's interpretive dance troupe (which, by the way, was the topic of my "most significant EC" essay), 4 mission trips, plenty of church-related community service, member of church choir). Anyway, my pastor rec was done by someone who knew me and my spiritual life very well, so that should have been good. In my essay for Wheaton, I did focus on how my relationship with God was affected by the trauma.</p>

<p>Sorry if I sound immodest or arrogant with any of the above, but I still am upset about having not been accepted into Wheaton. I guess that God, for some reason, didn't want me to end up there. Oh well.</p>

40

<p>Sarturnine,
suggest that you PM your essay around for comment - I know I'm not the only parent helping out in this fashion. My other cc 'kids' are almost done, and my son's app is safely in a Chicago!</p>

<p>I looked at Wheaton's website today and since I have nothing nice to say about them I will say nothing at all.</p>