<p>1) Reduce the undergrad population. The administration has stated this goal publicly within the last year.
2) Increase yield rate, which is lower than that of several other highly rated institutions that Wash U considers its peers, and an important factor in determining national ranking and prestige. </p>
<p>By placing more ED and RD applicants on the deferred list, Wash U may then employ a "rolling admissions"-like mechanism that is heavily dependent on a student's level of interest (e.g. judged by phoning them). If employed carefully, this mechanism could reduce the total number of admissions offers made and increase the proportion of acceptances (i.e. yield). This mechanism would also reduce the chances of enrolling a freshman class that is too large. This is the reason why medical schools (which have an absolute cap on the size of an incoming class) use rolling admissions.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Hang in there deferred ED'ers! You'll probably get a second chance if you let Wash U know that you would attend if offered admission.</p>
<p>As I said before and some posters were offended, around 2/3 of the ED applicants are accepted to the school, including those deferred, the rest is automatically rejected in the second round (RD) Very few are rejected from the beginning (MIT does the same, most EA are referred).
There are enough EDs to cover the whole incoming class, if the university wants a 100% yield could have it there.</p>
<p>Yes, but...The key is that using rolling admissions to increase final yield rate--which I suspect is the bottom line here--requires a large and highly qualified applicant pool. Deferring ED'ers increases this pool, giving the AdComm more students to choose from as they attempt to fill the class at a high yield rate. Its a nerve racking procedure from every perspective.</p>
<p>Although I don't have access to applicant pool data (does newhere?), I would speculate that in fact there aren't enough ED applicants of sufficient quality AND diversity (economic, ethnic, talent, athletic) to fill the entire incoming class.</p>
<p>Also, as I mentioned on another thread, chances are pretty good that Wash U had many more ED applicants this year because of the discontinuations of the Harvard/Pricnceton early programs. Almost all of the top schools with EA or ED programs reported significant increases in apps this year. Wash U just doesn't report that kind of data. Plus, as said above, they are gradually reducing the size of their freshman classes by ~500 students over the next 5 years. These 2 factors alone could account for so many ED deferrals this year.</p>
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Also, as I mentioned on another thread, chances are pretty good that Wash U had many more ED applicants this year because of the discontinuations of the Harvard/Pricnceton early programs
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<p>An incorrect assumption, those that applied early to princeton and harvard are not likely to apply early decision to Wash U. Even their peer schools (Yale and MIT and Stanford) did not see significant increases in early applications, and they are only early action. Yale saw a 35% increase, MIT saw a 10% increase, and Stanford was even down.</p>
<p>A reason for so many deferrals this year may be because of their plan to reduce the undergraduate size (as you mentioned before) and better marketing, and more students in class of 2008 than '07, and more competitive students.</p>
<p>Lurker, I thought the same thing until I read this article below from the 12/4/07 Chicago Tribune which states that Northwestern has seen a 17% increase in binding ED apps this year. Northwestern is considered to be a peer institution to Wash U and many of their applicants overlap.It is not unreasonable to deduce that Wash U has likely experienced similar.</p>
<p>so the reason why so many were deferred was because of the increase in applications. they still are leary of applicants applying as a second chose, so they deferred them to rd in order to see who keeps up interest and who gives up. is this correct or am i totally off?</p>
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they still are leary of applicants applying as a second chose, so they deferred them to rd in order to see who keeps up interest and who gives up
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I very much doubt it... The whole point of ED is to lock in high stats/ high profile applicants that the university might loose to its peer institutions otherwise. If your theory was at all plausible, there would be no ED option.</p>
<p>nngmm, I know of at least 5 applicants (with extremely high stats/profiles) who have been rejected from WashU. All had 2200+ SAT scores, 700+ SAT2s, 3.8+ GPAs, various strong ECs. I am still wondering why WashU rejected so many.</p>
<p>@nervous1, this year. None attended the same school. Some from west coast, some from east coast, some from midwest, some from south. Personal friends of mine. I used to live on the east, then the west, ended up in the south.</p>
<p>Overstressed (btw, love that screenname), are you sure that these friends with high stats were "rejected"? Could they have been merely "deferred"?</p>
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I am still wondering why WashU rejected so many
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I guess only the adcom could give you an answer. You did not read their recs or essays, and you don't know if there was any problem with their HS record.</p>
<p>Often it is very hard to tell why some kids get accepted and some don't. You could argue that kids are rejected RD for being "overqualified", but there is no such thing as being "overqualified" for ED! ED is what schools use to lock in "overqualified" students. </p>
<p>BTW, fwiw, I have 3 very high scoring/4.0 kids who were all accepted at WUSTL (two applied RD and ended up going elsewhere, the youngest applied ED this year, and will attend).</p>
<p>@Bill Bank: I applied to three schools early. WashU is ED - it's not SCEA. SCEA is that you can only pick one school to Early to. You can EA to other schools even if you ED.</p>
<p>Wow this week has been bad for me. Rejected from Caltech, Deferred from WashU...</p>
<p>Hang in there, Overstressed. You are in very good company. Just keep working on those RD apps, even though I'm sure that's probably the last thing you feel like doing now.</p>
<p>@Bill Bank, most people at my school ED'd to one school and EA'd to another. It's pretty common here? Even if you get accepted to your EA schools you must attend your ED school if it accepts you though.</p>
<p>I finished all my apps in October. However, stupidly I forgot to mark that I was part hispanic and pacific islander, which would have worked to my advantage.</p>