Application Boot Camp - College Admissions, Admissions Counseling, College Acceptance Help » test scores

What To Do If You Were Deferred

Mimi — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:14:48 +0000

Around the first week of March, admissions offices at top colleges sort through all their deferred candidates in order to see how many they will ultimately admit. Much will depend upon the strength of their applicant pool for regular admission — was it higher than usual? Were applications up? Was there a strong geographic spread? In other words, what does the statistical makeup of the class look like, and where might it fall short? For example, if there were a shortage of female apps, the office might accept a higher percentage of females from the deferred pool who showed a strong interest.

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.

Calculate your Academic Index

Mimi — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:30:30 +0000

The Academic Index is a formula the Ivies use predominately for recruited athletes (not to be confused with applicants who happen to have played sports in high school; if you’re being recruited, you know who you are!). It combines SAT scores, SAT Subject Tests and a student’s class rank. Even for non-recruits, it can be a helpful guideline to show students how they stack up among Ivy applicants.

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.

Standardized Test Scores and Applications

Mimi — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:31:56 +0000

Now that most students are finishing up both their early and regular applications, we have some more general points to keep in mind. One of our students just complained that you can’t send official AP scores online — you have to call! Isn’t that odd since both AP’s and SAT I/Subject Tests are brought to you by the same company, the College Board. In any case, that means that when you send your official scores (which you HAVE to do — they will NOT take your word for it!), you have to send your SAT I’s and Subject Tests online, but then use the phone to send your AP scores. They must just want to hit you up twice for $! Thanks, College Board. The CollegeBoard.com site says: To request that your score reports be sent to colleges, call (888) 308-0013 or (609) 771-7366 (outside the United States, U.S. territories, or Canada) on or after July 4.

This is also a good time to remind your guidance counselor and teachers if you’re applying early to please get your materials in by the November 1 deadline (some schools are the 15). As a safety measure, if you’re applying early, call your school early around November 10 to make sure everything is complete. Every year we hear of tragic cases where admissions offices misplace or lose things. Basically, if they don’t have something they need, you’ll be deferred. The problem is that the time frame is short for early (they have to read thousands of apps and decide in four weeks) so they often don’t have time to inform you if something is missing. Just call and check so that you have some peace of mind!

As for students taking SAT I’s or Subject Tests, scores will be available in late October, in time for early. As long as you’ve already sent all your scores by now, colleges will NOT see your new scores unless you send them. If they are better, send them. If not, don’t!