This is an interesting read from a UIUC admissions officer about this year’s admissions cycle. I think it will be referred to in future years as the “year of the deferral/postponement.” Makes sense given that it is following on the heels of the “year of over enrollment/largest incoming classes ever”. Not giving up hope yet for my postponed son…good luck to all!
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DD claims there’s nowhere on the UM website that says anything about admissions in waves and believes “things are different this year.” In past years has the school announced multiple LSA admission dates?
Can I ask where you found the information on postponed decisions being released in waves?
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I know it happened in prior years and multiple posters on this thread who seem plugged in have said it will happen again.
The word “by” April is your key word otherwise they would say in April. Plus as stated some students have reasons to know before like Ross.
I can say with certainty there will be releases prior to April. We will find out in a few weeks if they will follow the Ross releases then we will know.
Also there have been smaller waves in between those waves and usually its people on Reddit and sometimes in a regional district in the past. But these are very small.
So relax and follow the instructions that you are supposed to do in your portal.
Don’t recall if it was ever announced in waves but when Ross released then RD was released. When it happens yearly you just assume it’s going to happen again. It’s probably easier for them to release Ross and Lsa etc together anyway.
That’s correct. You won’t see it on the website, but thats what happened since I’ve been watching these forums and I’ve researched the years before my D applied.
RD decisions, including EA deferrals, have been released in 3 waves historically. Pre-pandemic, they would typically come around 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1. But the 2/1 was eliminated, since EA has been released in late January the last two cycles.
The last 2 years, Class of 2024 and 2025, have been different than pre-pandemic. The Class of 2024 RD decisions were timed with Ross. The Class of 2025 had a couple releases in March (one early, one late) and a small one in mid-April.
We’ll see how it plays out this year.
You’re absolutely correct. I think the EA deferred/Ross candidates should have LSA decisions well before the 2nd Ross decision date of 3/18. But that’s my opinion.
And they’re not going to just look at EA deferred Ross candidates.
It’s really a little gem many are not aware of!
What he said… 
It’s funny because when we came in for the Michigan /Ohio State game we honestly like forgot about it. But yes, it’s a hidden gem.
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I’m not sure it’s hidden, because I’ve never been able to book it. I think I’ve read it has only 21 rooms.
I really do not understand what Michigan is doing with so many deferrals. I am sure they are smart but it seems they have simply kicked the can down the road. They still need to find 16,000 offers in order to get their 7,000 kids. Our school had approx 40 EAs and only 1 admit. 39 deferrals. The EA number is up from an average of 20 historically where we have gotten 8-10 acceptances.
For the record, and consistent with my previous thoughts from two weeks ago, if I were the colleges, I would start tracking which schools are actually DELIVERING kids. If the school does not actually send kids with deposits and enrollment, I would ding them.
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The other piece of data I have compiled based on the 50 families we know well with kids in the process this year is that the super strong kids with strong test scores did well with the normal percentage of hits and misses.
The super strong kids with no test scores got crushed on average.
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When you send your deposit to a college, you should be required to post your application in the library at your high school for people to view, learn from and verify.
My guess is that the quality of applications would go down 70%.
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This is something I have seen with just observation about the test scores. In reality good tests scores are always hard to beat.
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I am sure I am naive, but if your interest is anything to do with english or history and you are qualified, you should ace the verbal side of the SAT. And similarly, if your interest is STEM and you are qualified, you should ace the math side. When you do not submit scores, especially in this transition period where the AO’s are learning to function “without” tests, you are vulnerable to assumptions.
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Interesting. We are in state as well.
There were 6 kids accepted EA from D22’s high school and 5 of them were LSA applicants with SAT scores in the low-mid 1300’s. The other was a super high stats COE. There was no middle ground - acceptances were either above the 75th percentile or below the 25th.
D22 was postponed (1460, 4.0 UW, COE) - and she’s not doing too well. It sort of feels like a straight up rejection at this point … but it’s almost worse because she can’t really move on as long as the possibility of a later acceptance exists.
And to think this misery might drag out until April when she could be rewarded with another crushing message in her portal.
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They have this down better then you would think.
Not fact but… If EA produces approx half their freshman class then there are only around 3600 spots left. If there is a higher acceptance rate then less. This is just an estimate.
This is with an approximate 25,000 additional RD applications.
Each wave then less spots etc etc.
This is where the luck factor comes in. Trust me, it’s a privilege to be there. No kid that I know didn’t think they weren’t lucky to get accepted. So many talented kids applying like all of you. Might as well close your eyes and pick names out of a hat and you would still end up with an awesome class.
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