We hear you were deferred by Cornell, and now you’re asking, “what’s next?” It’s a good question, because there are a few things you need to be doing (and not doing) right now that aren’t so obvious. First, though, let’s look at the numbers.
Dartmouth Deferral Rate
Strategy for Regular Decision to Duke
Duke is a popular school and we always work with a ton of students who hope to get in. This popularity usually drives down their acceptance rates. In recent years, Duke has had a lower acceptance rate than schools like Dartmouth, Cornell, and UPenn. So what do we tell students who are dreaming of Duke? Well, one is to demonstrate interest and the other is often to apply early. Fun fact: all of our students who applied to Duke ED last year got in.
Stanford Deferral Rate
You’re a brave soul — you applied to Stanford. Getting into Stanford is tough regardless of what you’ve accomplished, what your grades look like, or whether you invented a new flavor of ice cream. After the Stanford acceptance rate rose (a tiny amount) in 2020, they did an about-face in 2021 with a record low acceptance rate of only 3.95%. Despite this up and down, we have no reason to believe it will be easier to get into Stanford this year.
Brown Deferral Rate
In 2021, Brown announced its lowest acceptance rate on record for the fourth year in a row. While it’s the overall acceptance rate they’re pointing to, the statistics for early applicants were even tougher. Brown rejected more early applicants — 60% of them — and only deferred 25%. That was a 5% drop from the 2020 deferral rate. It’s likely that the 2022 statistics will only continue the trend with even lower early acceptance and deferral rates, and higher rejection rates.
Strategy for Regular Decision to Michigan
The University of Michigan is on a short list of extremely popular public universities. We love public universities but when students are looking at elite schools there are only a couple of names we hear over and over. UMich is high on that list. If you are from out of state and you are applying RD, you need a strategy when applying to UMich.
Princeton Deferral Rate
Princeton didn’t release their admissions statistics in 2021, but based on the 2020 overall acceptance rate (4.38%), it’s safe to say that if you were deferred from Princeton this year you are far from alone. The reasoning for not releasing the stats, by the way, was that they feel having the numbers freak students — and their parents — out and may discourage them from applying.
The Best Colleges for your Astrological Sign: Capricorn
Once again let us remind you: we absolutely do not recommend making your astrological sign a primary consideration in your college search. But, with up to 5,000 schools to choose from, creating a college list can be really hard! What do you look for? How do you know if a school is for you? We thought, why not use the traits of astrological archetypes to help you break it down:
Regular Decision to USC Strategy
This year was USC’s first year of offering Early Action. Previously the school only had a regular decision option. This is pretty big news given how much more competitive to get into USC it has become over the years. Last year they had about a 12% acceptance rate. Adding an EA option is going to make regular decision at the school even more competitive. You might be wondering, why is that? Well, let’s break it down.
Can I Edit My Personal Statement After Submitting It?
The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) Deferral Rate
If you were deferred from the University of Pennsylvania, or Penn, you’re in luck. Penn is kind enough to give you clear guidance on what to do next, which is a very Penn thing to do. We aren’t surprised that a school that attracts analytical go-getters who like to look before they leap would provide their applicants with the very information they need to do so. Which is to say, good job Penn on being Penn-y.
Yale Deferral Rate
Over the past few years, colleges that offer early paths to admission have gotten into the habit of deferring the vast majority of early applicants — but there are a few exceptions. Yale is one of them. In 2021, Yale deferred 31% of early applicants, while denying 57% and accepting just under 11%. 31% may sound like a lot, but compared to other Ivy League schools, it’s a minuscule percentage. We’re telling you this because this is really good news for you if you were deferred from Yale. You genuinely have a chance, and we don’t say that lightly.
Regular Decision to Stanford
Stanford has one of the lowest acceptance rates out there. Because of this, we get a lot of questions about Stanford from students and parents alike. For the Class of 2025, Stanford had an overall acceptance rate of 3.9%. That is already very low, but there is more to this story. The overall acceptance rate is a combination of early acceptances and regular decision acceptances.
Read this if Rejected Early Decision
Rejection is always hard. Getting rejected from your early decision school can feel like the end of the world, but it's not. It’s the end of the road with that school but not with this process. We work with students every year that come to us after getting rejected from their ED school. We sometimes call it our “everything's going to be ok” package. Because, we promise even if you have gotten a tough rejection, everything is going to be ok.
Deferred by Harvard — What Comes Next?
If you were deferred by Harvard, you are far, far, far from alone. As fewer and fewer top-tier colleges publish their admissions statistics, Harvard continues to come through for us with fairly comprehensive and transparent statistics. In 2021, Harvard deferred 80 out of every 100 students who applied early. 80% of students who applied early were deferred. Again, 80%. Only 7.4% of students who applied early were accepted. So if you applied early, it is much more likely that you were deferred than any other potential outcome.
What is the Difference Between Deferred and Waitlisted?
The college application process is confusing. It’s confusing for parents, it’s confusing for kids, and it’s confusing for Aunt Kathy who asks you intrusive questions at family gatherings like, “So where are you going to college?” We’re here to help lift the fog of confusion and to bring clarity to the whole process, and one of the most frequent questions we’ve been getting lately is:
Best Undergraduate College for Agriculture
Agriculture is a massive industry in America. In fact, agriculture, food and relative industries account for more than a trillion dollars of U.S. GDP. Whether it’s your dream to work on the business end of agriculture or manage a farm or ranch, these are the top schools for studying agriculture.
What Does it Mean to be Deferred from a College?
We want you to get into every college that you apply to, we really do. We want all students to have that low stress, all success, wonderful fuzzy feeling that only a tiny percentage of students applying to college ever get to feel. But that isn’t how it happens for the vast majority of students, so it’s time to plan for how it normally goes, which includes a pinch of frustration, an ounce of rejection, and — ideally — a mighty helping of perseverance. One of the most confusing possibilities in this process isn’t rejection, though, it’s the “eh, maybe later” of deferral.
Rejected for Early Decision
Getting a rejection sucks. There is no way around it. But if you get rejected during early decisions, it's not over, even if it can feel like the end of the world. You might feel like the only one of your friends who didn’t get into their ED school, but not getting into an ED school is really common. And we wanted to give you some tips and tricks if you got rejected during ED.