I understand your frustration @ambkeegan. My D got an unexpected deferral from Furman University yesterday. She has a 35 ACT and 4.0 UW, so stats-wise Furman should have been within her reach and we were hoping for a merit scholarship as well. In our case, she may not have shown enough demonstrated interest because her only “official” visit was with her school group. But she knew the school well through unofficial visits and knowing people who attend, so probably didn’t think enough about making sure they knew how interested she was. Her essays also may not have been great - not sure. She has other admissions, so I’m trying to get her to not dwell on it, but it is a bit of a gut-check and a reminder that none of this is guaranteed. Good luck to your son - sounds like he’ll likely have lots of options in the end.
Also I wonder if it has to do with the potential majors…if they have 2000 Mech E applicants and they need 100, but they have 40 English majors and need 30, there may be a difference in the scores of the MechEs vs the English majors. The MechEs would be a more competitive slot to get.
I think most have a positive view of CWRU. It’s just the panic on many threads about deferrals.
I think it’s more about geo diversity and balancing for majors, in many cases. There may have been a lot of good candidates from your area, maybe a few great ones with the same interests. Before stocking up, they want to see the wider pool.
You can’t control for this competition and the institutional needs. If he’s got some new, relevant news, he can update them.
If they were certain he wouldn’t enroll, they wouldn’t have deferred. (Eg, kids who somehow indicate another college is the top choice.)
@ambkeegan While a deferral is disappointing, I wouldn’t read too much into it. Your son might consider applying to one of the merit scholarships that is by separate application as a way of demonstrating interest. Also, in previous years, I saw mention on CC of students deferred or even waitlisted that then were offered merit scholarships. So this decision may not be predictive of merit/no merit.
A number of my daughter’s classmates applied to CWRU last year and acceptances were all over the map. I do think that yield protection plays a role. So if he is truly serious, have him reach out to his admissions officer, ask for an interview, or visit campus, if possible. Good luck and try not to let this deferral sour you on the school. My daughter ended up elsewhere but she was very impressed by Case.
Electrical and computer engineering
He already visited and had an interview what was odd that the admission counselor commented that not many students have jobs during high school as he does. His essay looked good too.
post #4 said if he would attend if accepted, let the admissions know exactly that, and if he has continuing interest, let them know that. I’ve also heard this on other EA deferred threads. What I’m confused by is if he is accepted, how can he be held to his email? Is such an email considered binding? Is it like ED where one can say the financial package doesn’t work? What about a more generic “my top choice”? I’m trying to understand the whole mechanism of interest in these EA deferrals, since an expression of continued interest seems pretty easy (and as someone noted, when the student already has all 4.0s, another semester of them isn’t surprising).
post #4 said if he would attend if accepted,<<<
Only with merit $$ though, these schools have tons of high stats kids who would say that they want to attend, but only after they are rejected by their more desirable schools. CW is a desirable school for a high stats kid as a back up with merit.
And he’s no longer in the Early pool.
Yes, so I still don’t understand how this works. Let’s say the student emails the adcom and says he will come for certain if accepted. Or he can negotiate and say he will come if some financial level is met. But he is in the regular pool. So first of all, nothing will happen for a while. But mostly, let’s say they send an acceptance late March. Is the deadline just like usual for any regular admit? Or does the school say you said you would come, we accepted you, your deposit is due…
Schools who accept an applicant in the RD round who was deferred from the EA round would not treat that applicant any differently just because the applicant emailed and said they would attend if accepted. They applicant would have the same deadlines and process for acceptance as any other applicant accepted in the RD round.
ED applications require that you sign a contract that you will attend if accepted. An email is not a contract so they can’t hold you to it.
My S was accepted EA to both CWRU (with a scholarship) and UMich. We are thrilled by both. I was stunned by the latter, as I mentally prepared for a deferral. I have some thoughts. First, stats aren’t everything. All colleges say they look at applications holistically so you have to accept that stats aren’t enough. My S has great extracurricular activities including lots of leadership stuff and some unusual ones adcoms probably don’t see too often. Maybe the obsession with APs is overblown. Our HS limits APs so kids don’t graduate with 12-15 (not allowed at all freshman year, only APUSH and Art History as a soph; no hard core science, math, SS, etc APs before junior year and only if strict prerequisites are met). S took 2 junior year and is taking 3 now. (As a result of this policy I don’t think our kids experience the kind of stress I read about here but that’s a different discussion.) Even with those restrictions our HS had 7 students get 11 Ivy acceptances last year.
In addition I think my S’s intended major helped a lot. He wants to major in data science. This is a very new field and few schools offer it as a major. It was helpful for us in narrowing down the schools he applied to. I wonder if, since this is a new field, the schools are trying to build up the major so maybe it’s an easier acceptance than mechanical engineering or finance for example.
But really who knows? It may have nothing to do with your kid. Maybe a few years back a kid enrolled from your high school and there were problems with him. Maybe the local admissions counselor didn’t get along with your school guidance dept. Maybe they accepted 10 kids from your school last year so are only accepting 6 this year. Or the opposite—maybe they accepted 10 from your school last year and none enrolled so they figured why bother? My county has a regional high school that skims the top kids from all the schools in the county. Those kids would all be top 5 at their community high school. However now you have all these top kids in the same high school; if they all apply to the same schools they’re not all going to be accepted, but perhaps they would have been if they attended their community high school. Maybe your kid made a mistake in their supplements you didn’t catch (eg, doing a cut and paste without changing the school name). Remember “fit?” Maybe, in spite of the stats, the adcom saw something that made them think your kid wasn’t a good fit.
This is my 3rd time through the process. I really never saw the point in second guessing a school’s decision. It is what it is, you need to be disappointed for a day or two, then accept it and move on. Sure, send a LOCI but there are lots of great schools out there so find one that will want your child as much as your child wants to attend.
HYPSM… say they evaluate applications holistically and have decisions that don’t follow stats well. However, they are the exception, rather than the rule. Most colleges are far less selective than the HYPSM… type colleges that get discussed most often on this forum, and most colleges have historical acceptance decisions that do follow stats reasonably well. Many colleges offer guaranteed admission for certain stats or a historical acceptance rate of ~100% for high stat applicants.
Case Western’s early acceptance rate was ~90% in 2009, ~65% in 2013, and may be under 50% today. Most colleges with this type of acceptance rate aren’t as discerning about near perfect stat applicants with good course rigor. However, CW differs in this respect and has a history of rejecting some such applicants, putting them in a small group of colleges that are often claimed to have “Tuft’s Syndrome” on the forum, whether deserved or not. One of the reasons CW’s acceptance rate has been rapidly decreasing over the past decade dropping from >90% early acceptance to likely under 50% today is they are an excellent school that makes it really easy to apply with a free and simple application, and a variety of early options, including non-binding. This is a good way to get a lot of good students to apply who might not otherwise consider the school, but it also increases the portion of students who use it as a backup and are unlikely to attend. This has contributed to CW having varying yield from year to year and issues with overenrollment by a large margin in some years. Now CW protects against overenrollment by offering waitlist to more than 40% of applicants, likely the highest waitlist rate among US colleges. It also likely relates to why CW’s website and CDS emphasize things like appearing interested in the interview and asking relevant questions and considering demonstrated interest.
All of this is quite different from HYPSM, and suggests a different set of possible reasons for high stat rejection or waitlist. I realizes the OP was deferred and not rejected. .However, a similar principle may apply. For example, one possible explanation would be wanting to get a better sense of the year’s enrollment before committing to someone who they believe is unlikely to attend. Of course these are not the only possible reasonsl. Many are probably rejected or deferred for more traditional reasons, such as weaker non-stat portion of applications or applying to a more selective groupiing within the school.
Actually the constant mailers. No application fee. Hearing from other colleges that their undergrads were accepted to CW for their masters did peak our interest. Only 1-2 go to CW from his high school. AP’s are generally only offered for juniors and seniors at his school
Not sure if you are reading in the CWRU forum, but one parent reached out to CWRU:
Yes but if it is your top choice, you are qualified and you aren’t fishing for a tuition discount saying you will attend if accepted is a powerful show of interest. Don’t do it if you think you won’t attend or you don’t know if you can afford. Case used to be pretty generous in the tuition discounting so over the years I saw it in many a list here for kids looking for discounted tuition but those trends ebb and flow and what was true one year may not be true the next.
My daughter got wait listed at Skidmore, with a 1450 SAT and 8 ap’s, their average was 1310, she visited twice and interviewed. I’m almost certain it was that she need a good amount of financial aid. There is a chance one other student from his school got in and they try to accept only one student from each school at first. Does your son need financial aid? That’s my guess, because after reading your post, I too was surprised he did not get in, he is in a very select group. From what you say, he will do great where he end’s up, I have no doubt about that.
Yes he needs aid. However as I understand CW is generous with merit which I assumed he would qualify for with his record.
Here is a list of need blind colleges. Neither Skidmore nor Case Western is on the list.
https://www.edvisors.com/plan-for-college/college-admissions/need-blind-admissions/
Generous aid for accepted is not the same with need bind admission.
“ED applications require that you sign a contract that you will attend if accepted.”
There is no contract. You sign a pledge that means if you can afford to attend, you will. If you don’t ask for FA, or if you’re offered a “free ride” (i.e., only campus work and federal student loans are required) you can afford it; otherwise if the FA is not enough to support attendance, you sadly say thanks but no thanks and apply elsewhere.
The ED agreement says: “Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment.”