Applied to the early action program at University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University. Got deferred at both, and I’m a bit stressed. Someone told me that early action prioritizes legacy and athletes. Is this true and why?
It’s not true everywhere.
But why? Because there is an expectation that with legacy connections, the students will likely enroll.
And with athletes…it’s because the schools and coaches want an early commitment so they can know their team rosters.
Your SAT is 1390 and your gpa is W GPA = 4.4
UW GPA = 3.7. It’s very possible that you were deferred because you weren’t a top candidate…especially at Michigan if you are OOS.
My SAT’s a 1490 now.
Interesting…because you wrote this…on December 16. So…which is it…1490 or 1540.
It’s a 1490, I wanted to boost it a little for McGill and see where the deadlines were at.
I appreciate your help.
So you made up the score you posted on the McGill thread? Ok.?
Your current SAT is fine but maybe not so fine for Michigan. Are you instate for Michigan?
These are your EA applications. Where else have you applied. Your resume is solid, with decent GPA and SAT score for the right colleges. So…what’s your list?
I’m OOS for UMICH.
Apart from McGill, lmao. I have
- Vanderbilt
- Stanford
- Rice
- UCONN
- Yale (don't really want to go there, my sister's just a professor and they wanted to see if I can get in)
- Northwestern
- UMICH
- Case Western Reserve
- Duke University
- University of Southern California
- Ohio State University (accepted)
Much thanks for the help.
Excellent and congratulations on your OSU acceptance.
I think your list is a little top heavy. But you can’t get accepted if you don’t apply…and you already have that OSU acceptance.
Hang in there and just wait and see. The Ohio State University is a terrific flagship university.
This is a very reach heavy list. Are you happy to attend OSU?
Alright thanks. Yeah, I agree with a little top heavy lol. Have a good Christmas.
It’s my safety and OSU has a lot of resources and a good engineering program as a Big Ten. With the other schools, I’ll never know if I don’t shoot my shot.
I think you will be going to tOSU
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why do you say that? You don’t even know anything else
Yes recruited athletes are prioritized. As for legacies, in terms of UMich, some were admitted and others weren’t. At least one student, who was a multi-generational legacy, was deferred.
I don’t know that EA ‘prioritizes’ legacies and athletes. Many schools say they only give preference for legacies in ED (not EA). Many coaches tell athletes they will only give full support if the athlete applies ED.
That doesn’t mean the school is prioritizing athletes and legacies, but that’s the round those applicants can get a boost. Everyone else can apply EA/ED or RD and have the same chance for an early review.
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The process for recruited athletes is often separate from general admissions, so recruits are not usually competing with nonathletes for the same spots. Most recruits will be using one of the guaranteed (or nearly-guaranteed) slots that coaches are given to use on whomever they want (assuming no red flags in the application). Those admissions slots are set aside and allocated to each coach by the athletic department, so they wouldn’t be used on nonrecruits anyway and shouldn’t impact your own chances of admission. The reason most recruited athletes are admitted EA/ED is because coaches want a firm commitment if they’re going to “spend” one of their limited slots on a kid, and EA/ED admission lines up well with the Nov & Dec NLI signing dates.
Congratulations on your admission to OSU Engineering. Unless you are in state, I would consider OSU more of a solid match than a safety, as I have seen kids with your stats get deferred and even waitlisted, so that’s a great option to have in your pocket as you wait for news from the reaches on your list.
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Perhaps tOSU was a solid match for the OP, but if it is affordable, the admission letter makes it a safety now for the OP. (If it is not affordable, it is out of reach. If affordability depends on FA or scholarships not yet decided, then it can be a reach/match/likely depending on the FA or scholarship chances.)
Of course, applications that promise to enroll if accepted are important. EA doesn’t offer that.
“I’ll never know if I don’t shoot my shot.” But you can make reasonable informed choices, not blindfolded. Any idea what makes Stanford a logical, well thought out application, if your position now gets Mich and CWRU a deferral?
It’s hard to defend crapshooting. And harder to even make a good app package, when you have no sense what they need to see.
It’s not random. Not like lightning could strike.
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Just to defend myself, I did not apply to Stanford blindfolded. I acknowledge that many people who go there are excellent musicians, athletes, leaders or have a ton of high school research experience. When I was doing my application, I talked to my friends at Stanford to get advice on the supplemental and I used it, I didn’t BS the application or go into it not knowing what makes it a good application. I acknowledge that I’m not a child prodigy, but I know that I didn’t hand in a horrible application. Just because I was deferred doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t have a chance, especially when UMICH and CWRU were my first apps. The application process and the supplemental writing has been a learning experience and hopefully it shows in my Stanford application. Just to argue against your point, my friend who got into stanford was deferred or rejected from USC, occidental and UMICH, what do you have to say about that? I understand where you’re coming from, but frankly, the lack of support on this website is antagonizing and not conducive. There is good advice but there are also so many people who just wanna be extra and say, “yeah you have no hope, better to stick with your only school”.
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