OMG - I got deferred. Now What?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
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Five-years ago, about this time of year, my daughter was anxiously awaiting her SCEA application. When the decision finally came down, she was deferred by her first choice school (Yale). This was exceedingly difficult for our family, as my daughter’s guidance counselor had assured us that my daughter would be a shoo-in for Yale (and we naively believed her). Unfortunately, Yale Admissions didn’t think so.

And, double-unfortunately, my daughter was so confident (and arrogant) she would be accepted to Yale that she had not submitted ANY other RD applications. Consequently, the two week period between mid-December and New Year’s became a nightmare for our family, as my daughter pumped out more than 10 applications to various colleges.

The not-so-good news: My daughter was ultimately rejected at Yale and waitlisted at Princeton. The good news: She was accepted RD to Harvard with the same Common Application that Yale deferred and then rejected and that Princeton waitlisted.

The moral of the story: Your "dream school” may NOT be dreaming of you, but another wonderful school actually might be! So, don’t give up hope! There are many wonderful colleges out there for you. To quote Jeffrey Brenzel, Yale’s recently retired Admissions Director: http://admissions.yale.edu/after-colleges-accept-you

Talk to your guidance counselor and ask if they feel comfortable calling Yale Admissions and asking “Is there anything Yale needs to see more of that would help this application move forward?” or “Is there something Yale can point to that was lacking in this application?” If your GC can find the answers to those questions, it will help you address the issue of your deferral.

A few articles that might be helpful

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/defer/
http://www.ivywise.com/newsletter_dec14_tips_for_students_who_were_deferred.html
http://www.theprospect.net/dealing-with-deferral-writing-a-letter-of-continued-interest-14992

The reality though – and it’s a harsh one – the odds of being accepted after a deferral are terrible, so it’s best to address the issue, if you can, and move on. This from the Boston Globe last week about Harvard. My guess is the odds are similar at Yale: http://www.boston.com/news/education/2015/12/11/harvard-accepts-record-low-percentage-early-applicants/MftCiYFa9nRmUOvjMolGGO/story.html

My condolences to everyone who was deferred. It sucks; I know. But there is a college out there that is dreaming of you! Best of luck in the RD cycle!

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@gibby thank you for posting such helpful information.

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Thank you @gibby! Wise words. I will check out those articles, and I appreciate you sharing your daughter’s story; it’s inspiring.

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It is frustrating receiving deferrals from an SCEA school. Applicants to an SCEA are required to sacrifice applying to any other schools early decision and any other private schools early action. They pay that price for getting an early decision. Deferrals effectively change the dynamic and definition-because now those applicants are waiting for regular decision responses. In the meantime, they have no early decision in hand for which they “paid” a price. Sort of feels like the deferring schools are not meeting the contract terms.Bait and switch. I promise to not apply anywhere else…and you still make me wait. hmmmm.

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^^ I agree that’s it’s frustrating, but all students applying in the SCEA round SHOULD HAVE also applied to their flagship state school or any other state school or foreign school they liked – schools such as UMIch, William & Mary, University of Virginia, UNC, Penn State, UCLA, University of Texas, UMaryland, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, McGill et al. It’s not against SCEA rules to do so. And, if every student did this (five years ago sadly my daughter wasn’t one of them) every student should have at least one acceptance now in their back packet. Maybe not from Yale, but definitely from a state or foreign school. So, it’s not really bait and switch.

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Not every one wants to go to every state school, though, or is able to get in (though of course, in theory, if we are talking about Ivies SCEA, we are talking about kids who could get in to state schools, too). My kids not so interested in state schools.

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^^ My daughter applied to state schools in the RD round as part of her “safety school” strategy.

While some students may not want to attend a state school, many kids cannot afford the cost of going to a private school without vast amounts of financial aid (I know my family couldn’t afford private schools without the financial aid from HY).

And the academic quality of some state schools is equal to that of the ivies. To wit: One semester shy of graduating Harvard, my daughter said to us “I think I want to go to medical school.” There was a little snafu though: she had been on the humanities track for 3.5 years and hadn’t taken any hard core science courses. So, after graduating, my daughter enrolled at City College here in New York City to complete her premed requirements. One course she is taking this semester is genetics. The professor is a Harvard graduate who taught the course at Harvard several years ago and the class is using the same textbook as Harvard. The course at City College though is less than one-quarter the cost of the identical course at Harvard. So kids shouldn’t turn their nose up at state schools, which is a lesson my daughter has learned since graduating from an elite private school.

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When my D applied to Yale SCEA, she also applied to University of Maryland, College Park, our state flagship school. She didn’t want to go there, mainly because its right up the street from our house and it was too close for comfort. She had started puttering away at other applications at places like Brown, Bowdoin, Amherst, Vassar. Luckily she could stop or she would have had a very frantic time over the holidays. I think the whole process is insane.

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@grandscheme Again, I firmly disagree with your implication of “bait and switch” HYPS have used REA for quite a while (a few other schools too). With their tiny admit rates, no one with half a brain should apply assuming admit. You don’t want restricted Early Action? Don’t apply. Tons of GREAT non-restricted EA schools – and the many publics with early notification.

Show me a single deferree from one of these schools saying they were somehow tricked and I’ll show you someone deserving a dope slap – well not really. But still…

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I’m not entirely sure where to post this, but I figured here would be as good a spot as any.
I got deferred (not too surprising there), and I want to increase my chances for RD (again, not surprising).
I read through my Recs. after I got my decision back and I believe they may be the weakest part of my application. My school has only ever sent a couple kids to Ivies, so my teachers wrote more about how I’m a good student and can handle tough coursework than about who I am since they normally write letters for the UW system. So my question here is would it benefit to ask a different teacher to write a recommendation and send it in with my letter of continued intent? I have a couple recommenders in mind: my English teacher this year who actually understands the Ivy process (I would have asked him, but I had already asked my junior year English teacher last year and I didn’t want two recommenders from the same subject) and my principal/offensive coordinator (I’d have to tell him to avoid academics a bit, but he knows me very well considering I’ve played receiver for him for four years and he wants me to come back and coach with him someday).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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MIT has some great advice for teachers on writing recommendations on their website: http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs. If any of your teachers can write a additional letter of recommendation, such as David’s (posted below), then go for it.