My son’s early action was deferred until regular decision to Case Western. He is to update Cw on his grades …at a later date. he has a 4.0 all AP courses an ACT score of 35. Active in EC’s, volunteer hours and had a part time job. I don’t get it.
Wow. Does he have horns or something? 
I’m beginning to think a lot of admissions to these selective schools is more based on luck than performance.
Nope he is a great kid polite respectful who has overcome major learning disabilities in reading and writing and got a perfect score on the writing portion of the ACT. Also is a avid reader of history and philosophy. Takes Engineering classes at his high school. Great at math and science too. Volunteers with special needs children. Very frustrating.
I think the issue is that there are just so many qualified kids out there applying.
Well, if he would attend if accepted he could send an email to his admissions rep and tell he or she just that. If you want to compare colleges he could simply send a note of continuing interest.
You can have your school guidance counselor reach out to CW to see what is what. Sometimes the colleges will give the GCs some info.
Has he shown a high level of interest, which CWRU lists as important?
They may think he is an overqualified applicant looking for an early “safety” if he applied EA (rather than ED).
An EA program at a college that also offers ED (such as CWRU, UChicago) is really a farce. If the applicant is overqualified, it will most likely defer (or even reject) because it knows he/she would have other choices and it’s likely not his/her first choice. The EA program is there to increase the number of applicants to the college to make it appear more selective (for ranking purpose). Admitting such applicant would likely reduce its yield (which is again detrimental to its ranking).
Yield protection. They assume high stats kids are using them as a safety unless they have reason to believe otherwise.
In the CW EA admission thread on this site, the admission decisions didn’t follow stats well. There were quite a few rejected (not deferred) with near perfect stats, and there were some accepted with ACT <30. As others have touched on, I expect much of it relates to CW wanting to take applicants for which CW is a top choice, rather than just using it as a backup for HYPSM… I’m not saying this was your son, but he may not have demonstrated CW being a top choice in his interview and such, which CW marks as “important” in their CDS and gives a similar impression on the website. The CDS also mentions considering level of interest.
I think there are 3 possibilities. As others have said, one–most probable, IMO–is that Case thinks it’s unlikely he’ll enroll.
Another is that some part of his application–a letter of rec, test score–was missing from his file.
The third is that one of his recommendations was negative.
As I said above, the first seems most likely.
There are lots of reasons kids can be deferred. It just means they want to evaluate him in the context of the RD pool. It doesn’t mean he did something wrong. Nor that they suspect anything.
They didn’t reject him. They aren’t protecting yield. How does re-reviewing suggest they’re so worried he doesn’t want the college? Again, they haven’t said no thanks.
He visited and had an interview. He really likes CW it is on the top of his list. His recommendations are great. Several teachers wrote letters the GC chose the best ones. S read her rec to him in which she wrote and said she meant that he is one of the brightest students she had worked with. He loves to learn and read. He is gong to write a letter and have his GV reach out. I just worry about scholarship opps if they do accept him as that is an important consideration too.
This could be the “Tufts Syndrome” (alleged admissions practice where a university or academic institution rejects or wait-lists highly qualified students on the grounds that such students are bound to be accepted by more prestigious universities or programs)
In other words… they think he thinks it’s his “safety…” and they don’t want to be anyone’s safety…
"He is to update Cw on his grades …at a later date. he has a 4.0 "
Gee, I wonder what his grades will be??
@ambkeegan His essays were good? What are his other schools? Does he have a good list?
Did he apply to an impacted major?
Would he have attended though? CWRU is as above, a safety school target for high stats kids looking for an early school with potential merit, the application is free, this all plays into the hands of the stats manipulations. The high stats kids, like yours. expect (expect!) merit $$. In reality he won't attend if they offer him a place without it, right? The lower stats kids will attend and not get merit. Hence the 30 ACTs etc.
Yes we are looking at Merit scholarships. We live in the Midwest. It is actually an option. He liked the school. I’m getting a negative vibe about CW here. What’s up? Sure he will throw his hat in some more highly selective schools and large universities with top engineering programs but I know valedictorians with great stats that don’t get into highly selective schools too. I heard CW was generous with scholarships which is a plus for us. CW is also drivable. Some of these schools are very far away for us also. Don’t know though until he has some choices. He has already been accepted into a couple of safety schools One that has provided his package.
We can’t afford a private school without scholarships. The money for these seem to be tighter than when my older ones went to College.
Grades will continue to be straight A’s in either AP or dual credit classes. ;). My son has worked so hard to accomplish what he has. In grade school he was at the 15% for reading and writing with LD’s. I had to fight to get him tested. Ended up getting a 2nd part time job in addition to my demanding full time job to get him tutored and pulled him out of public school.