If you are one of the applicants in this pool, the odds of catching their eye in March are not great, but if you want to have any chance at all, make sure that you are an ACTIVE defer. Write a letter reaffirming that the college is still your first choice, send an extra letter of recommendation, make sure your grades go up and send your next round of grades, send updates about what you are doing in school — in short, be a PRESENCE. The only deferred kids who end up being accepted are those who make themselves into polite pests. Of course it depends upon why you were deferred in the first place, but rest assured that if you do nothing and send nothing, you will not be accepted.

More specifically, by the middle of February, draw up a one-page letter reaffirming your interest in the college, and then submit a bullet-point list of all the earth-shattering news/awards that you have won. Also, it can help to have senior year teachers send extra (not many – 1-2, no more) letters of recommendation to the school as well. Finally, your school should call on your behalf and push your case. That is about the only way a deferred candidate gets in since the odds are only about 5% depending on the school. In short, ACTIVE deferrals have a chance — those who do nothing will definitely NOT get in.

Another word about early applications: There seems to be a trend that more schools are now rejecting kids outright so that those who have no chance are not misled in the regular round. That should correlate to a small increase in the number of deferred applicants who get in. Normally at most schools the deferral acceptance rate is only 5-7% or so, not high. What can you do? The first thing is to speak directly to the admissions officer who read your application (you can have your college counselor call FIRST, then follow up) to get a sense of your chances. Sometimes there is NO chance (as in, your application wasn’t good, you didn’t stand out) and sometimes there is a specific reason — they wanted to see your grades in AP classes, they wanted new scores — all of which should be annotated on your file.

For younger students, take note that the application matters! Kids who dash off an application, even with strong scores, may be deferred. The other reason students are deferred is false confidence — thinking you stand out more than you do. It’s humbling to think that the typical Ivy applicant has 730 and up on ALL tests, several AP scores of 4-5, top rank in class and extraordinary talents. Yes, it is hard to stand out. If you are a current freshman or sophomore get working now so that you do indeed stand out in a particular academic area. How? Well, read on as we’ll give tips each week. But, focus on what you love and then notch that up by going above and beyond.

Michele’s book, A is for Admission, was the first one to publicize the Academic Index and explain how Ivy admissions offices use it. Normally that wouldn’t be notable except for the fact that the Ivies publicly denied the existence of the formula for over 40 years! Please realize that the AI does not take into account the crucial subjective factors such as love of learning, teacher recommendations, writing skills, etc., but it will give you a ballpark idea of what your chances of admission are at top colleges. The correspondence between high AI’s and high admission rates is very high. So enter your information and see how you stack up.

This week we are going to go over a few reminders for students who are in the process of finishing up early applications. If you aren’t applying this year, note these tips so when your turn rolls around you are prepared. These thoughts are based on some of the most common errors we see.

1. Make sure you include the check or credit card information. Colleges won’t process your application without proper payment, and leaving it out will hold everything up.
2. Check all your essays to make sure the name of the college on top matches the school you are sending it to.
3. If there are any special supplemental essays, make sure that they match the college you are sending them to.
4. About three weeks after you send in your application, call or email the admissions office both to make sure your application is complete (or, check online) AND to make sure they have you down for early decision or early action. Sometimes things get confused and with early, the time frame is very short.
5. Finally, while you have your essays done for one school, take the extra time to complete ALL your applications and pile them up around your room. That way if you get in, you can have a giant bonfire, but if you don’t, you’ll be ready to send in the others with no fear of ruining your Christmas break. Better safe than sorry!

Colleges have a love-hate relationship with the rankings. On the one hand, they lend prestige and visibility (usually to schools that already have prestige and visibility). On the other hand, the schools contend that colleges are far too diverse to lend themselves to rankings and that the magazine’s straightforward formula fails to capture the essence of good teaching and learning. You should approach the rankings with a similar attitude.

We’d never recommend applying to schools simply because of their rankings. What we do recommend is that you scan the list and then do your own research. See which names are unfamiliar and then read up on them. Check out the familiar names and see which criteria you really care about. Most importantly, you should take stock of your own interests and ambitions and pick schools to match. US News should be a jumping-off point for your own research and soul-searching – but never the final word.

P.S. – Forbes.com has recently released its own college rankings.  There has been lots of talk about the methodology used and the surprise listing of Wabash College at #12.  See for yourself: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/94/opinions_college08_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html.