Hello, I just want to preface this by saying I do not in anyway feel that I automatically deserve admission because I am a legacy applicant. I just want to know if it is worth keeping my hopes up for RD.
I was recently deferred from Restrictive Early Action.
I have a 4.2 weighted GPA
30 ACT
Strong essay/application
Lots of clubs and honors
Fencer
I am a legacy I just want to know if I should give up on this lifelong dream of mine so I’m not crushed in the Spring. Also, any advice for a LOCI would be great as well. My family and I would never try to bribe my way in or anything, and a LOCI will be my only course of action in this matter.
It is entirely possible that you might indeed have been deferred as a courtesy, or that you just won’t get in due to the huge number of other excellent applicants. I definitely would focus on other schools at this point.
Is there a reason why you should give up on Yale? I don’t understand why you cannot regard it as a lottery ticket and continue with your applications to other schools, focusing on them, but keep a candle burning for Yale, just in case. Many students in your situations where they have been deferred from my heir first choice schools, and must focus on gaining admissions to other schools, but they also keep that first choice school as a remote possibility. A lot of life works that way. I see no reason not to write. LOCI, and then work on applying to other schools. If you are accepted to Yale, great. If not, like do many others, you pick another school.
As a legacy, this could have been a courtesy deferral (soft rejection). It is possible, however, that something in your application made the AO feel that they needed to track you a while longer. Are your grades on an upswing? Are you taking harder classes? In both cases, they may want legitimately to see how that plays out before making a decision.
It is possible that your GC could call Yale and find out directly what the deferral message was meant to be… Sometimes they will give this kind of feedback so it’s worth asking, particularly if it’ll change your strategy. The worst is that they won’t answer and you are where you are now. Iow, only upside in asking.
Legacy or not, typically a deferral means they don’t see enough in your application to tip it to an acceptance. So, in addition to a LOCI, you need to update them on anything additional (great midterm grades, any additional honors/awards/accomplishments, etc) that ADDS to your current application. If hey felt your application as is was good enough they might have admitted you. But if you have nothing additional to punch up your application, it likely will become a waitlist or denial.
Yale historically admits its strongest applicants in the EA round. Deferral could be a courtesy or could just mean they aren’t sure about you without seeing the rest of the applicant pool. Either way, your odds of admission in the RD round are the same as everyone else’s: low.