I have been told that Colgate either accepts or denies early decision candidates, but never defers them. However, their website seems to say differently. Does anyone know which is true?
Unless whoever made this assertion works in the Colgate admissions office you cannot believe them. Why don’t you ask the office yourself? An email will do. This is a routine question, after all.
Good luck with your college search!
The website does not seem to say differently - it out-and-out states differently. Why would you think that Colgate would misreport the statistics?
https://www.colgate.edu/admission-financial-aid/first-year-class-profile
Why do so many people want to believe what they hear from other people instead of what the college website states? This is a common situation on CC.
Please let me clarify. Someone in the Admissions Office at Colgate told my guidance counselor that they did not defer early decision students. However, the website states that they do. I did not know if perhaps the Admissions representative was misinformed, or if I had misread the information on the website.
Colgate definitely defers ED candidates it does not accept. Most schools do this, often more than they rejet them. Take a look at the ED thread from last year.
So this is third hand information. Such info tends to get distorted as it passes from one person to another.
The primary reason for applying early decision to ensure a place. Your ED commitment also ensures you get the most favorable treatment you will get with your application. So if you are deemed not qualified for acceptance under ED, even if they defer you to the RD pool, your odds are considerably lower. So if you didn’t make it in as an ED, it is safe to assume you will not be admitted.
@akin67 , not necessarily true. I know kids at plenty of schools who were deferred ED and then admitted RD . Also know ones who were deferred and then rejected. Let me give you 2 firsthand examples…
In one case, kid was a quadruple legacy. Deferred, then rejected. I thought this was a "soft let down " but fits the situation you describe above. In another, kid was on a real upward trend with grades, and it kept getting better. This, btw, is a common reason gor deferring - a “late bloomer” -and a desire to see if it is real and sustained. In addition, this kid won a major award in his sport. This additional info, all good, was enough to convert an ED deferral into an RD acceptance. And the school knew that he was very interested, so not a whimsical applicant. Smaller schools are usually eager to snag top applicants in the ED round (no Tufts syndrome concerns ), and to compare the next tier to the RD pool before deciding. But being deferred in the ED round does not have to be a long road to no.
With that said, if an ED applicant is deferred, it is extremely helpful if he/she can add something to the application to strengthen it for the RD round because they already know that the interest is there.
I do agree with your assessment. If the student can demonstrate marked improvement in an area previously deemed to be weak, or demonstrate some notable accomplishment not previously known to the admissions staff, then yes. Absent these types of improvements in the students application, I still believe that the student has a much lower probability of admission relative to their ED application.
gardenstategal is correct. it doesn’t mean if you get deferred in ed, you will be rejected in rd.