<p>I realize that all of you are just as clueless about this process as I am; however, I feel that an answer my give me some peace of mind.</p>
<p>Could any of the following be a reason for my deferment:
Selecting a major that is in a course that you only took your senior year (so they can see your grade)
Not receiving the interview evaluation until December 4th or 5th
Recomendation letters not very personal - I know the teacher very well and I told him to be specific, but he mainly listed my resume (What can I do about this?)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I would like to be able to find out the problem so that I can have a chance at other colleges.</p>
<p>cc77cc77cc...
I wish I could give you a definitive answer but unfortunately, admissions is such an unpredictable process that it's hard to pin down what would have caused a deferment. In my opinion (I don't work in the admissions office so this is intuition) I doubt that any of the reasons (by itself) you've listed could make or break you. I can't tell...none of us know the whole picture. I haven't seen the other parts of your application.</p>
<p>Do you reckon they would give feedback if you asked them, or just a generic response ('so many qualified applicants.. very difficult to make the choice.. etc etc')</p>
<p>If you have a generic response, you probably will not be admitted anyway. If you have more constructive feedback, it's highly likely they discussed your case and you were a "true defer."</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
would our interviewers know why we were deferred and would they be able to guide us?
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>No. The vast majority of alumni know that the admissions officers have more information that they ever will about an applicant. They do know that the interview is only one part of the whole; therefore, they would not be as quick to judge an admissions decision based on the interview. They would, rather, be deferential to the admissions committee, again, because the adcom will have far more information on a particular candidate than they will based off a first impression.</p>
<p>xjayz- is it actually true that admissions officers give a response to questions of "Why was I deferred?" I was under the impression they would never answer those questions.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
xjayz- is it actually true that admissions officers give a response to questions of "Why was I deferred?" I was under the impression they would never answer those questions.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>I never asked that question of my admissions officer. My GC actually called and inquired about me and she was able to fish for information and basically told her I made it to the final round but there were some objections to my being admitted. Basically, she said to my GC as long as I kept up my grades, I would basically be accepted RD. I was very fortunate to have a great GC.</p>
<p>my guidance counselor had my admissions officer's contact info because that person had called my gc to double check my activities (to see if they were valid). after i got deferred, he sent her a short polite email, and she sent a short, polite one back saying that sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to people getting deferred, and to not lose hope. well, here I am :)</p>
<p>Did anyone here get a non-gereric response? This is what I got: Did anyone else get anything else? </p>
<p>The Committee on Admissions has just completed its Early Action meetings during which your application for admission was reviewed. After very careful consideration, we were unable to take a definite action on your candidacy at this time and therefore have deferred our decision until the regular spring meetings.</p>
<p>Please be assured that your entire application will be considered again thoroughly. While it is impossible to predict individual admission decisions, in recent years students whose applications were deferred have been admitted at various rates, often approximating the rate for Regular Action candidates. We will communicate the Committee's decision to you in April.</p>
<p>We hope you will write to us if you have new information to add to your application materials. Recent grades or test results, activities, honors, or other accomplishments would be of interest to the Committee as it reviews your application again in the spring meetings.</p>
<p>When it comes to Harvard, the reasons for deferments are that only the most outstanding and exceptional applicants are accepted EA: Those are the applicanats that the admissions officers are 100% sure would be accepted once the entire applicant pool is in. Since at least 90% of the Harvard applicants qualify for Harvard based on stats, it is extremely hard to stand out so much in that pool that one is accepted EA. Most EA applicants are deferred, and most of the deferred applicants eventually will be rejected (as are about 9 in 10 applicants to Harvard overall even though most are out students whom many top colleges would happily accept.).</p>
<p>The rare exceptions of EA applicants that clearly don't qualify at all for admission are rejected outright.</p>
<p>Your interviewer isn't going to have any inside info on why you were deferred, and is likely to be annoyed at your call. I interview for Harvard, and that's my reaction. The interviewer's job is to accurately assess students for Harvard, not to help individual students get in. Harvard tells interviewers not to give things like chances since interviewers aren't in a position to know things like tha.</p>
<p>I doubt that your GC will get any additional info from admissions, who are likely to tell you what I just told you. Your GC, however, may be able to tell you what you can do to send stronger applications to other colleges.</p>
<p>If you win any important awards or get any major achievements between when you applied and the middle of March, certainly update Harvard. </p>
<p>Otherwise, where you best can spend your time is doing careful applications to colleges, including safeties that you know you'd happily attend. Harvard is a longshot for everyone. Concentrate on your other applications, and if you end up getting a Harvard acceptance, that will be a wonderful surprise. If not, you'll still have good options.</p>
<p>There are a number of studies that demonstrate that for any given student chances at EA are better than at RD. This fact together with the observation that lower income applicants are less likely to apply early led some to conclude that EA is unfair for underpriviledged applicants and so Harvard and Princeton gave up on EA. Therefore, the statement Harvard would not let anyone in EA unless it was certain that the person would get in RD is now beyond disingenuous, it is undeniably wrong.</p>
<p>The statistic "90% of the Harvard applicants qualify for Harvard based on stats" is also meaningless since it is not clear what it means to qualify for Harvard.</p>
<p>The point of your post seems to be to tell cc77cc77cc to move on and apply to other colleges. That's unobjectionable but a preamble reaffirming Harvard and the infallibility of its admissions process seems unnecessary.</p>
<p>"The statistic "90% of the Harvard applicants qualify for Harvard based on stats" is also meaningless since it is not clear what it means to qualify for Harvard."</p>
<p>What it means is that a student has the board scores, gpa and coursework indicating that if accepted at Harvard, the student would have the ability to graduate from there. In other words, they have the demonstrated intelligence, academic background, and motivation to be able to handle the academics at Harvard.</p>
<p>I thought that EA admission was actually more difficult than an ED or a RD admission. The reason being that there really is nothing "in it" so to speak for the college. In binding ED the college knows right off the bat who a large number of next years students will be, and increases the yield, but in EA there is no such guarantee for the school and no improvement in the yield.</p>
<p>Basically if you are deferred (ED or EA) in most cases the college is saying they want to see if someone better comes along. That pretty much stinks which is why the people who've been deferred aren't too happy. I don't blame them.</p>