<p>Every year, around this time, I resurrect an old thread (with a nearly identical title) for a conversation about deferral from ED to RD and what it means. But the the</a> original thread is now 5 years old (good god) and while the majority of the information in it is still relevant, some of it is, I assume, dated.</p>
<p>Our first question(s):
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Can you shed some light on deferrals? What leads to the decision to defer rather than accept or reject the applicant? How many in the ED pool got deferred this time/is it a large or small group? Generally how likely is a deferred applicant to be accepted in the regular round later? Does it help that he/she applied ED initially?
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<p>We're pretty stingy with our deferrals. I know of schools that hand them out the way a kindergarten class gives participation awards, but we try to be more deliberate in how we use a deferral. If we don't think you've got the potential to be an admit in RD, you don't get deferred. But there are instances - like we want to see your 1st semester grades, or there's something that sways some of the committee but others in the room at the time think you might get outshined in regular - that makes us think we'd make a better decision if we wait until February and March when we have the entire applicant pool. Generally, deferred students have about the same admit rate as the RD pool as a whole, which is a testament to the deliberate nature of our deferrals.</p>