Early Decision Deferrals

Early Decision results are in. Congrats if you got good news! But if not, don't despair.

Early applicants hear one of three decisions: Accept, Deny, or Defer.

It's interesting to note that highly-selective colleges have very different strategies for the % of ED apps deferred to regular decision. Some defer only a small percentage, suggesting those students have a legitimate shot in the RD pool but maybe need to demonstrate more with senior year grades. Others defer the majority of applicants, which may be a result of too many applications overwhelming the admissions office or just a polite way of saying no to many.

Examples of highly-selective schools that deferred most Early applicants: - MIT deferred 5853 of its 8394 (70%) of Early Action applicants - Brown deferred 60% of 3170 Early Decision candidates - Yale deferred 53% of the 5086 students who applied “Single-Choice” Early Action - U Michigan routinely defers most EAs, partly because of sheer volume (40,000 early apps!)

On the other end of the spectrum, some colleges give most applicants a yes or no up front: - Middlebury deferred only 39 (6%) of 650 Early Decision I applicants - Notre Dame deferred 893 (15%) of 6020 Restricted Early Action (REA) candidates - Duke deferred 875 (22%) of 4090 early decision candidates