<p>My son was just deferred from his ED school. I really haven't heard of many ED students getting rejected from any schools. Do most of them get deferred? Is there any way of knowing what % of deferred ED students eventually get accepted at their choice school? Are the schools just giving out false hope?</p>
<p>It depends on the school -- Stanford historically rejects far more applicants than it defers. Yale, on the other hand, does the opposite.</p>
<p>The college he applied to said they accepted 51% of its ED applicants last year, but I don't know what % were outwardly rejected, or deferred and then eventually accepted.</p>
<p>Some school, like Northwestern, will either accept or reject its ED applicants.</p>
<p>If you contact the admissions office of the school it may be willing to give you those stats.</p>
<p>When my daughter was deferred from Barnard she an admissions representative assured her that they did accept some deferred candidates, especially from our geographic area. They did not lie; she was accepted.</p>
<p>Last year DS was deferred from Dartmouth which rejected more students than it deferred. However, he was eventually rejected. Happy ending though. He loves Williams.</p>
<p>Thank you for the help---a call to admissions would be a good idea, and it's reassuring to think that there may still be a chance.</p>
<p>Sometimes it varies alot even from year to year, they might not be able to tell you much. I know Caltech's letter last year said the number accepted from the deferral list varied alot, while MIT's numbers are fairly constant.</p>
<p>The student should be the one to call admissions, not the parent. Also, the student needs to indicate that xx is still their first choice and ask whether there is anything specific he/she can do (another recommendation letter?), better/the same grades first term senior year? to improve the chance of the deferral being an acceptance.</p>
<p>Definitely varies by school. Some random ED stats:</p>
<p>Harvard (class of 2010)</p>
<p>73% deferred
4% denied</p>
<p>Yale (SCEA) </p>
<p>Class of 2010:</p>
<p>48% deferred
33% denied</p>
<p>Class of 2011</p>
<p>61% deferred
18% denied</p>
<p>Brown (Class of 2011)</p>
<p>65% deferred
13% denied</p>
<p>Dartmouth (Class of 2010)</p>
<p>28% deferred
39% denied</p>
<p>Duke (Class of 2010)</p>
<p>48% deferred
21% denied</p>
<p>Amherst (Class of 2011)</p>
<p>50% deferred
11% denied</p>
<p>WesDad, but the numbers I'd really like to see (and few schools provide) is what percentage of those kids deferred in the EA round get accepted eventually. That gives you the real picture of how much advantage EA is. At MIT for example kids who originally applied EA get accepted at twice the acceptance rate as those who apply later. (No way to know of course if they are stronger applicants.) More astonishing is that almost half the class is made up of kids who originally applied EA.</p>
<p>Apart from the longstanding notion of a courtesy deferral for legacies and the like (cf. "courtesy waitlist"), I can't imagine any reason for a college to defer anyone who DOESN'T have a meaningful chance at the RD round. It's not as if anyone thinks that deferring an ED application makes the student feel a lot better than an outright rejection, and the deferrals certainly make more work for the admissions staff. At the very least, they are going to have to look at the applications again, and chances are they are going to field calls, etc. It would be dumb to go through that unless they really thought they might decide to admit the applicant.</p>
<p>Now, "meaningful chance" may not mean a lot at Harvard or Yale, where the overall acceptance rate in the RD pool is somewhere between 5-6%. But my son has friends who were accepted at each after a deferral last year, so it certainly happens. And, in one of the weirder admissions stories I know from my kids' cohort, a friend of my daughter's applied ED to a college her counselors thought was a safety for her. She was deferred, much to everyone's shock, and that was a little bit of a wakeup call. She applied to a bunch of other schools, including even safer safeties, but there must have been something about her application that didn't ring just right, because she was rejected at all of them . . . except her original ED school. Happy ending!</p>
<p>My son was deferred at skidmore after applying ed1, but now has gotten into a lot of colleges (some of them were his reach schools). We are not sure why, but after the initial shock, maybe it is for the best. He has been offered large merit awards at a number of colleges that we thought were reaches. I know everything happens for a reason, but I am at a loss over what colleges are looking for. I think Skidmore is still his first choice, but he is really thinking everything over. Today he got a personal note from the head of the department at a great college he just got in and my son and I were very impressed. For the department chair to write a personal note was really a nice touch. I have two more kids to go through this with, but I am confused more than ever. For everyone whose kid got deferred, I am sorry as I know how you feel. But, so many doors have opened up over the last two weeks, that I know you will all be fine.</p>
<p>One reason why it's tough to give the answer to mathmom's question is that some kids who are deferred end up dropping out of the pool. They get accepted ED II, for example, and so withdraw their application. And then there's the difference between the kids who write letters and update their application, and those who mentally move on, and never contact the school again.</p>
<p>It's a roller-coaster. It sounds like things are working out. You can keep your fingers crossed for Skidmore, but now you have options.</p>
<p>There is no way to figure it out IMO. For example, S got deferred, then rejected at Dartmouth but accepted at Brown RD. </p>
<p>We didn't really find ED the advantage others have for either child, but I think we are an anomaly.</p>
<p>I think it's very hard to calculate the percentage of EA/ED deferred students accepted this year RD. It appears that most schools experienced a major increase in early applications and are unsure of what that means for RD. </p>
<p>Is there a trend this year for the majority of the most qualified students to have sent in applications earlier than previous years? With all the news about how there are more students than ever competing for almost the same number of seats, maybe those kids didn't want to take any chances. How many of the kids who would have applied ED to Harvard, Princeton, etc. that applied to EA schools like MIT/Chicago and got accepted will decide that's the school they love, then not bother at all with H-P?</p>
<p>The dynamics are so different this year that predictions are futile. So far my D has been accepted to 3 schools she's very happy with and deferred from 2 dreams. After seeing so many rejected outright ED/EA, she's very happy and hopeful with her deferrals. So to answer the OP's original question, yes...many do get rejected EA/ED and apparently, more than usual were deferred this year if you go by CC and what I've seen from the kids I know. Last year my older D was rejected ED and so were almost all of her friends. I think there were only 2 deferrals in the bunch. (By the way, many ended up at Ivies or top LAC’s).</p>
<p>jollymom-
I don’t think you should look at the deferral negatively. Yes, you have to be realistic that Skidmore isn’t the only school your son would be happy at, but you shouldn’t count it out either. My D applied there RD and thinks it’s definitely a place she could be happy at. In some ways, it’s probably best, even though it doesn’t feel like it at the time, to wait until after all your decisions and financial offers come in before committing to a school. Unless you can afford to pay full price, have spent a significant amount of time at there and would never second guess your choice in a college, a student is much better off waiting to make a commitment. I know it would be lovely to have the holidays and the rest of senior year knowing where they are going, but on the other hand they don’t have all that time to get buyer’s remorse either!</p>
<p>Thank you for all your replies, they are truly helpful. I know that while a deferral seems like a rejection, it isn't. To answer you, no we need financial help no matter where our son goes, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise regarding Skidmore. We went there four times and really thought he had a great chance of getting in. Maybe, students who need financial help are put to ra. Who knows? I am really happy that there are many out there in the same position as me. And, good luck to your daughter at Skidmore. I still see my son there as it just seemed like a great match for him. If not, there are many colleges that already want him and have offered great packages.</p>
<p>Re: MIT, I don't think it's true that EA confers an advantage in admissions; in fact statistics show that one's chances at MIT are the same EA or RA, and that the percentage of those accepted after EA deferral is also the same (around 10%). This year, MIT accepted 522 people EA; last year 390. The increase may be attrubuted to a rumored increase in class size from 1000 to 1100, and to accounting for a potential lower than average yield this year (many accepted may eventually choose Harvard or Princeton in April).</p>
<p>I think most elite schools are cognizant of the perceived advantage an early application may confer, even if they don't eliminate their early programs (which allow them to control yield better). My son was accepted at all three EA schools he applied to (one reach and two match schools), and the obvious advantage for him is that "the pressure's off" for the rest of his senior year - even though he'll hear from the rest of the schools applied to in the Spring.</p>
<p>My son applied to 7 schools last year and one was ED at Bucknell. He LOVED the school; visited several times, had correspondence with the engineering dept and went on an overnight. It was by far his top choice. Well, he was deferred at Bucknell. He took it very hard. He was accepted to every other college he applied to so we were able to compare financial packages. He was subsequently denied admission to Bucknell but by that time the love affair was over because of the initial deferral. He knew his chances of getting in at Bucknell after receiving the deferral were slim. In the end he is very happy where he is (University of Delaware) and it turned out fine.</p>
<p>Depends on the school.
Stanford and Dartmouth definitely reject a lot of early applicants. In Stanford's case, a lot of them are extremely qualified applicants who end up going to a HYPM-school. Stanford is just weird.
Some like Duke and Yale are in the middle (defer a little more than reject, I think).
I think you have to be really at the bottom of the applicant pool though to be rejected from Harvard, Princeton, or MIT.</p>