Why is it that students who are deferred from early decision schools don’t get a leg up with regular admissions? I’ve heard from a doctor who is friends with an admissions officer that the group of kids they get in early decision and the group of kids they get in regular decision look identical. Both have plenty of talented kids, so why don’t the schools let in all the talented kids from early decision before the talented kids from regular decision? After all, they were already willing to go to the school no matter any other admission, so shouldn’t the schools take that into consideration and admit the deferred kids before the regular kids?
Its kind of like the fallacy of a participation trophy. Everybody wins! Not really. Schools can afford to be selective. AS an example, over 10,000 students apply to Super U Early Action. If Super U can only accommodate 2,000 freshman, they can’t let everyone in. So, why not fill the class with the eager beavers? There will be a pool of RD candidates that were not selected in other schools EA programs and now want to apply to Super U. This group will also contain some great candidates who would not have a chance if the class was full through EA. I agree that deferral stinks. I like the schools that try to give you a firm decision for EA (Stanford does this I think), not a 70% deferral rate. My S18 was deferred EA at an Ivy. He was very frustrated that the answer was “wait until late March”