<p>^^^^
Sorry to hear that, although it is a deferral and not a rejection. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading these ED threads, and MIT is the first one I’ve read where I would say “Good God - they deferred/rejected this kid?”
Even Caltech looked tough but sort of reasonable. But then, you never know what’s going on in the heads of these admissions people anyway.</p>
<p>Congrats on the UofC. That’s a great coup already.
And my niece goes to Notre Dame and loves it. Sort of hard to avoid football though.</p>
<p>PCP, sorry to hear about MIT. I was rooting for your son because I know that was his #1 choice school. I feel your pain, Chicago was my son’s #1 choice and he was deferred.</p>
<p>As much as it hurts, a deferral usually means that the applicant is a strong student with a chance of getting in at RD. The way I look at it, he could have been rejected and that would be that. At least this way, he has a second chance, especially if his 1st semester grades are strong. Glad he got the Chicago acceptance. He sounds like a kid who would appreciate the rigors of Chicago.</p>
<p>PCP, when I heard that the MIT decisions came out yesterday, I wondered about your S. Sorry to hear that it didn’t go your way, but MIT is just one of those schools that is really tough to get into, for anyone. Two from my S’s school were also deferred by MIT, including the val. I’m glad that the U. Chicago acceptance had already come, to lessen the sting.</p>
<p>Any other posters or lurkers out there with news to share on the ED/EA front, good or bad? So far posters on this thread have reported acceptances at U. Chicago, Stanford, Brown, WUSTL, Pomona, and Colgate. And deferrals or rejections at MIT, Caltech, and U. Chicago. But the sample size is still very small…</p>
<p>PCP - my nephew (who is eminently qualified, and has URM and recruited athlete status on top of that) was deferred as well at MIT. My condolences. However, having U of Chicago as the bird in the hand and MIT as a possibility is a high-class problem to have!</p>
<p>My good friend’s son, also a recruited athlete, with so so SATs, but decent GPA, was also deferred from MIT. I think they were quite surprised because the coach was very positive.</p>
<p>MIT makes a point of only accepting 15% of the class EA, so they do defer more kids to the regular round than some other schools. At least a few years ago, I calculated that a kid who had applied early had about a 1 in 4 chance of getting accepted. In my son’s case he still ended up being rejected, but he’s found a great fit at Carnegie Mellon. At least you know he was in the ballpark since he wasn’t rejected. At Georgetown, they don’t do rejections for EA.</p>
<p>mathmom, it’s actually 30% of class. They accepted 590 EA this year, and usually they accept about 1600 total/year.</p>
<p>10% of EA applicants accepted, 20% rejected, and 70% deferred. For whatever reason, a lot of the recruited athletes appear to have been deferred this year.</p>
<p>^I stand corrected. In any event they accept fewer than many. I think ultimately the class is made up of over 50% kids who originally applied early. (At least it was a few years ago.)</p>
<p>I’ve been following this thread (and have contributed occasionally with my thoughts), and I’m glad to see all the acceptances (and even deferrals) for this group. I will continue to check in to see if there is any new news between now and April 1. Congratulations and good luck to all.</p>
<p>Thanks for all encouragement on the MIT deferral. Yes, having a deferral is a lot better than an outright rejection, except for the finality and closure.</p>
<p>Another good news came this afternoon – we received the fat envelope from Notre Dame! Mom immediately made a copy of the acceptance letter and taped it to one of the kitchen cabinet doors, next to the U Chicago letter. </p>
<p>Half-time scores: 2 acceptances and 2 deferrals from his 4 EA apps. Time to complete the RD apps.</p>
<p>Ha! We have S2’s Chicago acceptance taped on the kitchen cabinet, too. He is one deferral, one acceptance in the EA round (and in the right order of preference, too) – we are all very happy.</p>
<p>Now that we have more than a few deferrals here, I’d like to see if we can work out a strategy to help our children gain acceptance in the RD round.</p>
<p>Here are some obvious things to do:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Finish the first semester strong. Idealy the GPA for the semester should be above their 9-11 grades GPA, certainly no worse.</p></li>
<li><p>Rack up any awards or recognitions that are relevant and within reach.</p></li>
<li><p>Get another good recommendation.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here are some not so obvious things I can think of:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Write to your interviewer or regional rep about your deferral and reiterate your intense desire to be admitted and ask for advice.</p></li>
<li><p>Visit the admissions office if you haven’t done so and express the above.</p></li>
<li><p>Turn in your best work of this semester as supplement.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Please add to this list with whatever ideas you may have. Time to roll up our sleeves again.</p>
<p>A few thoughts on “obvious” and “not so obvious” - </p>
<p>Obvious - 1. That’s a given. Continue to do the best work you can. 2. May be meaningful IF they are meaningful awards. Minor awards won’t help and may clutter up your application. 3. Additional recomendantions are helpful if the new rec adds something new and important about the student. Don’t add another just to add another - don’t forget that somebody has to read this stuff and you are potentially making more work for them. Also be careful about schools that are strict on the number of recs and don’t add more if they say not to.</p>
<p>Not so obvious - 1. This may be useful if the interviewer has significant connections in the admissions department and probably can’t hurt. 2. Same, but of course you have to be there and it may not be that significant for the $$ spent. 3. I would be <em>very</em> careful here. As I said in #3 above, somebody has to read this. Even if it is “A” work, keep in mind that it will be being reviewed as if it was college work.</p>
<p>I would add to your list that if there is time and your kid has not taken three SATIIs already, that you might consider an SATII in a strong subject matter. A significant score here could be a real plus. I don’t know if there is time, but I believe that there is a January test date that most of the colleges would accept.</p>
Essays, essays, essays. S2 is absolutely convinced that the tremendous effort he put forth in late October got him admission. It is your chance to make your case for why the schools on your list are a great fit. (And, I think, making sure a school views you as a fit is critical if you have an uneven application.)
A recommendation from someone who can offer a <em>different</em> perspective than your other recs. A coach, a drama advisor, a mentor, a boss can all shed light on how you interact with the world outside the classroom.
Finish the semester strong, even if your energy is waning. See the job through.</p>
<p>“Visit the admissions office if you haven’t done so and express the above.”
THIS is a really BAD IDEA, because admissions offices will be SWAMPED in Jan with processing THOUSANDS OF incoming applications. The LAST thing adcoms have time to do at this point is meet with some student pleading their case.</p>
<p>My son interviewed with a Rice alumnus today. He felt a bit dejected afterward because he didn’t have enough community service to talk about, and because he felt that the interviewer wasn’t very patient when my son had to take time to formulate this thoughts about something.</p>
<p>To keep him from worrying about it, I was a bit dismissive of the negative aspects of the interview. (If there were any. My son is very self-critical. The interviewer may very well have thought it went fine.) I said it’s over and can’t be changed, so don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>I also said that colleges don’t place a lot of emphasis on alumni interviews anyway. But is that true? I’ve just heard so many anecdotes about interviews not reflecting the ultimate admission decision, but who knows?</p>
<p>Alumni interviews do not count that much, if at all. Most of the time it’s informational, except for a handful of schools (Harvard, Cornell Hotel school). Tell your son not to worry about it.</p>
<p>I wish colleges abolish interview period. It’s a pain for a lot of seniors to have so many things to go through on top of these interviews and especially when they don’t count that much.</p>