It seems to me that the number of applicants being deferred in EA has continued to rise. Schools seem even pickier this year.
Does anyone else have that impression?
More students apply to more colleges each year. Colleges want high yields to increase their rankings, and deferrals keep those yields from decreasing. I doubt the trend will change until students reduce their application numbers.
“I doubt the trend will change until students reduce their application numbers.”
Lol. More deferrals means that the students are likely to submit more applications.
Maybe colleges should stop reporting yield. It seems to cause a lot of game playing. What should matter is the quality of the class that a college enrolls, not how they get to it.
It seems like in EA, colleges are targeting a narrow band of applicants who are strong enough to be attractive, but not so strong that an Ivy or similar school is likely to pick them up. If your stats are a little weak or too strong, you are deferred.
Of course, this is the season when students are posting last minute searches for safeties after EA or ED deferral, instead of having other applications ready to go in case of deferral.
“Of course, this is the season when students are posting last minute searches for safeties after EA or ED deferral, instead of having other applications ready to go in case of deferral.”
True, they don’t want to write more essays over the holidays. Still there are lots of high stats deferrals at places like Michigan, Northeastern, and Case Western.
Definitely Northeastern is guilty of,this. At our very competitive HS, several really strong kids have got deferrals to NE. Wondering why.
Yeah, sure, rankings aren’t everything, but falling out of the Top 50 most likely has consequences in terms of attracting applicants.
@Lindagaf, probably because NEU suspects they won’t enroll. Now that NEU has an ED option, they’re less lenient with EA, I think.
The Boston Globe still uses a 20 year old stock photo of Northeastern.
^Because they no longer have staff photographers? (sorry, off-topic…) 
NEU considers “level of applicant’s interest”. If these are EA (not ED) applicants, NEU may be assuming that they are using NEU as a “safety”, and are unlikely to attend after getting admitted to some more selective school. NEU offers both EA and ED, where ED obviously indicates a high “level of applicant’s interest”.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=456
Its very simple, NEU does not have a supplement so its just a push of a button for high stat students to apply there as a safety. So they do- and NEU is trying to protect yield and CAN choose the tip top candidates or the ones they feel will not attend. Its annoying for kids that actually want to go there - and showing interest is not always easy if you live far away. It seems like NEU accepted almost all kids in the 34+ ACT score range and it was hit or miss for kids in the 30-33 range.
Clearly, NEU was more picky this year, but so were many other colleges. In response to this, I am sure that applicants will apply to even more schools, and show interest to more schools, and the game continues. Lol
Looking at Northeastern’s results threads from last year I noticed that a lot of fairly high statted applicants were offered NU In acceptance and posted here asking “What’s NU In?”. They did not show enough interest to even bother reading the admissions website before applying.
I doubt if the NU adcoms are clairvoyant though.