<p>I applied ED to Northwestern (for fall of 2014), and was deferred. I do not get the impression that Northwestern defers that many applicants, but given the drastic increase in applications this year, I wondered if this still held true. I applied to Medill (which I realize is highly selective), but have been pretty optimistic about my deferral, assuming that my chances are still good. Does anyone know how many ED applicants NU defers, and if so, how many they intend on accepting? How should I intepret this deferral? (optimistically, or pessimistically?)</p>
<p>I am pretty sure that they defer very few students and then accept roughly half. Usually it is to see those first semester grades…
My brother was deferred and then accepted.
I was deferred and now I am waiting. I’m fairly optimistic…I’m trying not to expect either outcome. It’s hard to say how we should feel about it because they don’t put out a lot of information about it and it probably varies every year anyways.</p>
<p>Historically NU defers very few students, so that is a positive sign. Good Luck to both of you.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your replies! That is very encouraging. Assuming it was just 1st semester grades then I should be okay </p>
<p>International deferred student here. I’m feeling a bit optimistic but I don’t really know what to expect. Anyone heard of another deferred international applicant? Btw, OP, I think NU defers about 2% of the ED pool which makes like 60 of us. Good luck to all! </p>
<p>Do you think it’s just a matter of senior grades?</p>
<p>I think so. I found this in a North by Northwestern article (from 2009 but policies haven’t changed much I guess), “The only reason you would be deferred is if we don’t feel we have enough information, most likely academic information, to render a final decision,” Watson said. “It’s pretty straightforward– no games or anything.”<a href=“http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/story/northwestern-admissions-alters-early-decision-poli/”>http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/story/northwestern-admissions-alters-early-decision-poli/</a></p>
<p>My son, who will graduate from NU in June, was deferred in 2010 and then accepted. His college counselor was told by a senior admissions staffer that he should “rock those first semester grades.” I believe there were only 27 students deferred that year with maybe half being accepted.</p>
<p>Are we sure that there are only 60 of us? Given the 14% increase of early decision applications I’m hesitant to believe that the number of those deferred remained constant. </p>
<p>There were 2828 ed apps, and 2% is about sixty. We might be more, like 70 or 80… I doubt they defer more than 3-4% but I don’t really know much more than that. </p>