<p>140 students in 2009, only 9% of those who applied to dartmouth early decision, were deferred this year. </p>
<p>versus last year in 2008, 526 students were deferred early decision. 52 students in 2008, about 10% of those who were deferred, were then accepted regular decision.</p>
<p>my question is that since Dartmouth deferred nearly 400 fewer students this year does that mean that the acceptance rate for deferred students will be higher this year than last year? if 52 deferred students are accepted regular decision this year that would mean deferred students have a 37% chance of being accepted regular decision.</p>
<p>also, what about the factor that applications increased by 7.5 % regular decision this year? will that hurt the chances of deferred students being accepted regular decision?</p>
<p>i am a deferred legacy and so i'm very curious if my chances are higher than 10% that i will be accepted regular decision. does it help that i am a legacy? in the letter that i received, dartmouth did say that the chances of getting in for deferred students are still very slim.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as a deferred legacy, I wouldn't count on it. Dartmouth takes the vast majority of legacies in the ED round from what I'm told.</p>
<p>So many kids ask this that I've given it some thought. I doubt it. In all honesty, at all colleges, there are kids the schools will always defer rather than reject. Legacies, kids at certain "feeder" schools, kids at schools they want to see more applicants from. If they've just been at a school or in a country trying to get applicants, you just don't reject all of them and you don't insult family. So a big part of this year's deferred have to be these kids.</p>
<p>There will be some they are waiting for more info on. If something changed for you between ED and RD, I think that's when there's hope. They can also use a deferral to prompt a donation. I've certainly seen the deferred ED slide in after a major donation. </p>
<p>But holding out much hope they'll take any more than in past years probably doesn't make sense.</p>
<p>Well, it's just how it works, especially in this economy. These schools need money and "development" will work better than ever right now. Being a parent watching classes being cut like at every other college, I'd be totally in favor of stepped up development cases!</p>
<p>hmom5,
Just out of curiousity, how would you define "major donation"? How many zeros do you believe can turn a deferred student to an admitted student, legacy or otherwise?</p>
<p>I've been scratching my head as to why they deferred me (instead of rejecting me)--I don't fit the paradigm stipulated above, unless they were wondering how I would do in Calc BC or something. I also had a god-awful interview. Still, the impression I got from the deferral letter (as opposed to Brown's rosy "We still love you! We swear!" deferral letter that my friend got) is that we really shouldn't hold out hope for any change in policy towards deferred applicants.</p>
<p>The thing that gets me is that it is only 9%. How could the number be so low when it seems everyone on this website got deferred? I'm just not so sure its that accurate...</p>
<p>And in terms of the type of kids they defer, would you therefore assume that kids that are not legacies or rich prep school kids still have a shot? My school had our number 1 and 2 (me) apply and both of us got D'ed. Neither of us got interviews in the ED round but both got interviewed RD. Plus I was just given Scholar Athlete of the Year recently. It gives me hope, seeing as all these extras were just added, but I just don't know if they will accept the standard 10% (ie only 14 out of the stated 140 kids), or will accept the average number from previous years (40-50 out of 140 for 20-30%), or will accept 10% of the origional number 35% (50 out of 500 or 10%).</p>
<p>the 9% comes from dartmouth's admissions office so theres no point in questioning it. hopefully they will accept the average number from previous years but who knows</p>
<p>I just can't see Dartmouth accepting a mere 14 kids...That would make very little sense to me. I feel that if Dartmouth is drastically changing its deferment policy by deferring a much smaller percentage of ED applicants (9%), then they are planning on making a change in the RD round by accepting more of the deferred kids. Who knows, maybe this is just wishful thinking? Interesting topic btw</p>
<p>So I thought it was originally 30%, then they posted the 9%. Then I had TWO admissions representatives, one who reads for my area, say that 30% were deferred. I didn't question it, but its still really weird. I mean, why would they have such a drop in the numbers they deferred? But how would it ever work that they would change the correct statement to something untrue? O_O it's crazy... either way, I hear 10% of deferred kids get accepted, which isn't too shabby when you look at dartmouth's projected rd acceptance rate</p>
<p>They had a drop because they have a new Director of Admissions with a new philosophy on deferrals. The problem is we don't know what that philosophy is. </p>
<p>Is she in favor of the deferral as a polite rejection? I.e. just defer the friends of the college--legacies, kids from feeder schools, those who alumni wrote glowing letters for, recruited athletes who didn't make the cut but might get scores up before RD, kids from schools they've done outreach at? Or did she defer kids the college was really interested in and couldn't be fit into the percentage of admits they hold ED to?</p>
<p>I have been told that Dartmouth strictly limits their ED acceptances to 400, so there could very well be some genuine cases of people who will be accepted without needing to be an athlete who increases their SAT scores, or a legacy needing to grease someone's palms.</p>
<p>i was deferred ED. i'm not a URM, athelete, attendee of a feeder school, or any of that hooked stuff. so i don't think those were the only kids who got deferred.</p>
<p>zarzamora: A feeder school is a high school where a college receives A LOT of applications from and they usually accept most of the students. It is usually a private school, where people usually donate a lot of money, or a TOP public school.</p>
<p>Horace Mann, Harvard-Westlake are examples.</p>