Wesleyan only defers relatively strong candidates. Is your D considering keeping her app in the Wesleyan ED2 round (I think that’s round to which she was deferred)?
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I beg to differ with your sources. For starters, My D has maintained her straight A average this academic year while taking 7 courses, including 3 AP’s. Nor was her essay “rushed, last minute”. She spent all summer working on her essay and it was beautiful, insightful and heart-felt. That’s not just her mom’s perspective either. She had several well-qualified readers and all agreed that it was exceptional.
While I cannot speak to the qualifications of the many other athletes who were deferred (and yes–the 25 number is not a stretch), I will tell you that the actions of Admissions this year were unprecedented, and I would caution you to be careful when you make generalizations about a group of gifted and dedicated young people that you personally know nothing about.
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Congratulations to your son! That is wonderful news for him and your whole family!
THREE “Top Recruits” from my D’s recruiting class were deferred to RD. All had early reads. That is one sport, just the women. I have no idea what happened with the mens class. This situation is real and unprecedented and the main (sole?) reason is because of the over-enrollment in the Class of 2025.
Those two bullet points I listed were not meant to be exhaustive. Have you been in touch with Admissions? They’re the only ones that can tell you what is delaying their decision.
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Yes–we have contacted Admissions and the only thing they would tell us is that applications for ED1 were up 20% this year. Other than that, it was a very unsatisfactory call. They would not even answer pointed questions about the over-enrollment in the Class of 2025, which answers we later found on the Wes website. It’s not that they could not answer the questions we asked, they CHOSE not to enlighten struggling parents.
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I am a parent of a recruited athlete (current college freshman) at a different school - I am sorry this happened to your daughter. Hang in there. I imagine most parents with a college level athlete understand your confusion and grief. Big hugs all around.
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The parent indicated upstream that DD was “deferred until spring”. I’m reading that as deferred to RD.
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It’s unfortunate that on direct questioning Wesleyan admissions has chosen not to be forthcoming. Did they confirm 25 fully supported athletes were not accepted/deferred in the ED1 round? I also understand the stress this must be causing your family, and am sorry for that.
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Well, after all of this discussion, most of it helpful, some of it not, we’re still where we are and we have two families who are in a tough spot. From my experience, there’s never going to be an official full scope report on the whole recruiting class.
I think the best thing the parents can do is to continue to make their kid’s best case. If it were me, and it’s not, but if it were, I’d remain even keel until the fat lady sings, and I would follow up on anything that could help make my kid’s case (the B is now an A, an extra letter of recommendation, send in a paper on which the kid got a very high mark, etc.) and at the same time work all of my other options and maintain max optionality for my kid.
In my experience, @circuitrider 's Wesleyan information is well sourced and accurate, and it sounds like he’s saying that the 25 deferred athletes are in all likelihood a mix of slotted and tipped athletes, and as he also said, which is true, the latter category (tipped) covers a broad range of recruiting intensity, from “I want you but you don’t need the slot so I’ll use it on a weaker applicant” to “thanks for your interest; we’d love to see you at our first practice”, and everything in between.
I sincerely hope for the best outcome for both of your impressive kids. They are going to land somewhere and be great.
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I am just the parent of a current freshman and have no inside information, but my guess is that if the 25 recruited athletes were all admitted during ED1 it might throw off the diversity numbers that each school announces right after the total numbers of students admitted at each stage. (Ex: Brown had 17% FGLI and over 50% students of color accepted ED1 this year). My understanding is that at the NESCAC LACs, most recruited athletes are white and higher income.
With reduced numbers of students being admitted each round this year due to the overenrolled class of 2025, maybe the reported percentage of FGLI and students of color admitted candidates to overall admitted students for ED1 would have been too low if all the recruited athletes were included in this first round, so the athletes were spread out over ED1, ED2 and Regular decision.
I hope you get the answers/support you need from your kids’ coaches and they will attend Wesleyan next year.
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I’m sure you don’t mean to say this directly, and I don’t mean to divert this thread, but how about we stay off of this hypothesis that implies “your kid was good enough to get in, and would have if not for the slots taken up by people of color.”
Correct, which I view as the one small gift in this process as she is no longer bound to her ED1 Agreement.
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Yes, it is unfortunate indeed. The only statistic that they would confirm was the 20% increase in ED application this year. Any other stats that I have cited have come from other reliable sources, including the Wesleyan website.
Thank you for these very kind words. Big hugs back to you and best wishes to your freshman!
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Wesleyan is a great University and one of their strengths is their commitment to diversity in the student body and staff which enriches the experience for everyone on campus. No admitted student takes a spot from another applicant and the University has many different priorities in building a full class each year. I am very sorry if it appeared that I was implying anything different.
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Thank you for these thoughts and insights. I hope that your freshman is enjoying their time at Wesleyan. It truly is a wonderful school!
To your points above, we were specifically told that “There are many factors that go into the creation of an incoming class, including ethnicity, geographics, socioeconomical status, and legacy status to name a few.” None of this is new to me–I’ve read enough books and talked to enough people to know that Admissions Officers must consider a number of components, not only at the individual level, but also at the macro level as they try to shape the best incoming class possible. For what it’s worth, my D is white, we live in a state which sends a lot of applicants to Wes, I would not call us “affluent”, but we are certainly above average, and there is no legacy status in her favor. She is also not FGLI, although I was, but that is (justifiably) not a factor in her consideration. AND she is female, which is actually a strike against her and all women applying to colleges and universities where the gender stats are unbalanced. I invite you to draw your own conclusions.
Thank you again for your comments.
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Yeah, my sources tell me that “98%” of Wesleyan’s athletic roster is chosen during the EDI and II rounds. So, IMHO, it is unlikely that race and socio-economic factors entered into their decisions.
Thank you all very much for your empathy, kind words and thoughts. The time has now come for me to take a break from this forum. The initial purpose of joining was to celebrate with other accepted applicants and to learn more about the future Class of 2026. Given how things turned out for my D, I chose to stay with the group a bit longer to try to get more insight and to educate future applicants and their families about our experience, which I promise you is not unique.
I send my sincerest congratulations to those who were accepted and my heartfelt sympathy to those who are in a similar situation to us. While I know my D will ultimately thrive, I would not wish this “character building experience” on anyone.
Happy Holidays to all~
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I did not read your post in the first instance to imply or say anything of the sort. It’s not about spots; rather, it’s about putting together an entire class. There may be something to your theory that helps explains why athletes they like are deferred out so that they can see how the class is shaping up.
This is no consolation to the two parents in this thread, but it is perhaps useful information.
It is a murky process. I’ve always said so. My fingers are crossed for @fandg96 and @Chadt . As a parent it sucks majorly to see your kid disappointed. I remain optimistic for both student athletes who present strong cases.
I have been impressed by your sincere support and celebration of those whose children got what they wanted at the same time that you’re dealing with what can best be described as uncertainty. Not everybody does that; it takes a big person.
Congratulations to you for raising such a great kid who is at the precipice of doing great things in this next phase of her life. I hope it is at Wesleyan, but wherever it is I’m sure she’s going to do very well. Someday, this will be just a story you tell.
Best to you and your D.
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