Deferred REA - Stanford 2018

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
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<p>Okay, I’m NOT a 2018 Stanford REAer. But I WAS deferred from Stanford last year. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is life after deferral…actually, there’s a pretty fantastic life after deferral.</p>

<p>Here is post #1138 from the REA discussion thread that I threw up yesterday (modified slightly to fit the situation…)</p>

<p>I knew I wanted to go to Stanford for five years by the time I applied. I was absolutely in love with the school and for me, it was Stanford or bust. I eagerly applied REA and patiently waited a grueling six weeks for my decision. I ended up getting a deferral, which I was really angry about. I knew that I would end up being either accepted or rejected and I wanted them to tell me right then, not three and a half months later. My pride was a little hurt, but I buckled down and submitted 12 other college applications (Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, Cal Poly SLO, Rose Hulman, Yale NUS, and my state school). Just three weeks after submitting these applications in the hopes that I would get into at least one good school (I really thought I’d end up at Northwestern), I got a call from my Yale admissions offer telling me that I had gotten a likely letter and they wanted me to come visit campus. I spent the weekend of President’s Day being courted by a phenomenal school but couldn’t figure out why Stanford didn’t want me if Yale thought I was such a hot commodity. If I was in the top 100 applicants of Yale’s 27,000, why wasn’t I in the top 700 of Stanford’s 6,000? It didn’t make sense. I loved Yale but still thought I wanted to go to Stanford. A few days after coming back from Connecticut, I got a likely letter from Harvard in the mail. Once again, I was in the top 200 applicants of Harvard’s 30,000, but not in the top 700 of Stanford’s 6,000.</p>

<p>On March 29th, 2013 at 4pm I sat on my bed with my phone and hesitated before checking my email. I didn’t even know if I wanted to get in at that point. I mean, I really loved Yale, but my whole family desperately wanted my to go to Stanford. Getting in would make things confusing. I opened my email, found that I was accepted and was really happy. I called my mom and told her in a voice that shook with excitement. This is what I had always wanted. Right?</p>

<p>Then came the hard part… I had offers from Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford (along with plenty of the others I applied to - ironically I was waitlisted at Northwestern). I narrowed it down to Yale and Stanford pretty quickly (for financial and weather reasons), but agonized over the decision from there. I did resent Stanford for deferring me and I knew that Yale WANTED me. I waited until 12 minutes before the deadline to decide…take a look at my username and you’ll figure out where I am now (hint, it’s not “cardinal2017”).</p>

<p>Basically what I’m trying to say is this:

  1. You WILL survive this deferral
  2. You WILL love your college, no matter where you go
  3. There is a school out there that WANTS you
  4. Sometimes what you think you want for your whole life doesn’t turn out to be what you actually want when push comes to shove</p>

<p>I am now a happy Yalie (hey, you all should apply here!) and I don’t regret my decision one bit. If I had been accepted early, I would be writing this from Palo Alto and not New Haven. In reality, this is the place for me to be, to grow as an academic and a person, and I’m <em>almost</em> grateful that I didn’t get in REA because admissions pushed me to explore my East Coast options.</p>

<p>I know you might be bitter now, but things will work out. I promise.</p>

<p>I’d rather have you guys post questions here instead of PMing me so that I don’t have to answer the same questions over and over again and also so it will be on the interwebs for all posterity. If I do get a PM related to this thread, I’ll post the question and my response here anyway.</p>

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<p>And the first question is in!</p>

<p>Importance of the optional update form.</p>

<p>I submitted my update form in late February. If I remember correctly, you can submit multiple, but I did not want to be that-one-annoying-deferree-who-won’t-leave-admissions-alone because I didn’t think that would much help my chances. I was in a unique situation with my optional update form because I had the chance to report that I already had offers from Yale and Harvard because I had gotten likely letters. I stated that despite this, Stanford was my first choice; saying this usually doesn’t mean anything to admissions, but I think my case was a little different (I think they thought they’d increase their yield and decrease Yale’s and Harvard’s). Other than that I only reported a volunteer of the year award I was given by my church. No international awards or new novels I had written.</p>

<p>Use the update form if you have something that’s genuinely of value to the admissions office. I would recommend against submitting one that strictly says “PLEASE LET ME IN BECAUSE I REALLY WANT TO GO HERE PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP”</p>

<p>This is just my experience and I never talked to any other deferrees about it.</p>

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<p>Thanks Bulldog for that post…helps make this bearable. Right off the bat, what should we do going forward in terms of the optional report? Did you submit one or did you do something extraordinary between December and March? Thanks in advance for your help!</p>

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<p>Thank you very much for advice</p>

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<p>You tell Stanford If you got accepted to other college?</p>

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<p>How the hell can Harvard getting away with accepting that many applicants? Seems utterly ridiculous.</p>

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<p>I got deferred as well. I’m a bit out of it right now. Ignore my handle by the way. Stupid prank and I don’t know how to change it</p>

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<p>@criolla</p>

<p>Not generally. You probably won’t hear from schools that would impress Stanford before the update form is due. Mine was an unusual case in which I received likely letters in January and February from Yale and Harvard, respectively. You probably won’t find out from top name schools until late March, which is three weeks past the deadline for updating Stanford. In the even that you do get a likely letter, I would tell Stanford on the update form (although I wouldn’t submit an update that solely says “I got into Harvard” - couple it with something else).</p>

<p>@starmound</p>

<p>I was bitter when I was deferred, but think about it this way: if you had applied RD and were accepted in March, you wouldn’t know anything was different. The only reason you know that something is funky is that you happened to submit your application two months before the deadline. I was a little afraid of being at the bottom of my class at Stanford, but there are undoubtedly plenty of 2017ers at Stanford that fell farther down on the committee’s list than I did. But, then again, we come back to the fact that I was sure that Yale <em>wanted</em> me. My admissions officer here personally called me to tell me the good news and Yale paid for me to come visit for a weekend. They also assigned another student to follow me through the college decision process and try to sway me towards Yale. I’m now good friends with the guy and he showed me some of the emails between him and my admissions officer…needless to say, it was clear that they <em>wanted</em> me. If Stanford decides that they want you in March, then go ahead and go for it. If they don’t, then I’m 100% sure that there is another school out there that would kill for a student like you. You don’t necessarily have to be happy or sad about it at this point. It’s a fact of life and not something you can change (I remember opening the email multiple times just to check that it still said deferred).</p>

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<p>Here’s a list of schools that I settled on applying to and my results, just to give you a few ideas on schools and possibly outcomes. The reality is that Stanford only defers phenomenal applicants (read, you’re all phenomenal), and you have an amazing shot at other top schools.</p>

<p>Stanford: Deferred → admitted
Yale: Admitted (with likely letter)
Harvard: Admitted (with likely letter)
Dartmouth: Admitted (with likely letter)
MIT: Admitted
Johns Hopkins: Admitted BME
Duke: Admitted
Washington University in St. Louis: Waitlisted → rejected
Northwestern: Waitlisted → rejected
Yale NUS: Rejected
Cal Poly SLO: Admitted (with scholarship)
Rose Hulman: Admitted
My state school: Admitted</p>

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<p>Does anyone know how many people got deferred this year? It seems like a lot more than in the past several years.</p>

<p>Anyways, I think I’m only going to apply to my safety schools now. I give up!</p>

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<p>Well, I guess I get to join the Deferral Club. </p>

<p>Now to find ways to cure cancer, re-invent the wheel, and save at least 13 starving puppies by February… :wink: </p>

<p>@bulldog, I can’t thank you enough for your advice. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I appreciate you taking the time to comfort us deferrees. I have been reading the official results page, and I am amazed at the talent exhibited by the entire applicant pool. I truly appreciate the opportunity to speak with someone who, recently, was in the same position that we are. </p>

<p>I’m putting all of my energy into maintaining a high GPA and working on other supplement essays. </p>

<p>But tonight, I have a date with Netflix and my two favorite men, Ben and Jerry (sorry Mr. Shaw). </p>

<p>Good luck to all of you.
And @bulldog, thank you again for taking the time to give such helpful advice. It means a lot.</p>

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<p>@Etshine</p>

<p>Don’t give up! I nearly gave up at 7pm when I was trying to finish my Yale application (just two hours before the deadline). I threw myself on the couch and tearfully said “But Mom, I’m not going to get in anyway!” And she looked at me and was like “Bulldog, get over here and finish this application!” Look where I am now :smiley: Thanks mom!</p>

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<p>@C8h11o2</p>

<p>You really don’t have to do any of that. Stanford already thinks you’re awesome, they just want to see what their RD round looks like before officially telling you how awesome you are.</p>

<p>@starmound</p>

<p>No one really knows. Unless you actually talk to your admissions officer, everything you hear is speculation.</p>

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<p>Hi guys, I’m not actually part of this club, since I was rejected…</p>

<p>But I thought the post was interesting. Bulldog, you mentioned how Stanford only defers applicants whom it deems worthy of admission. Would you say that since I was rejected right off the bat, I don’t have a chance at HYP? I think I heard somewhere that Stanford also tends to defer less applicants than the Ivies tend to do during the REA admissions decisions. Is this true?</p>

<p>And, lastly, you mentioned that you received “likely” letter prior to admittance to Yale and Harvard; are you a student-athlete, or is there some part I’m not aware of?</p>

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<p>Getting deferred has really soured me on the idea of going to Stanford. I have a lot of trouble imagining going there after coming off the waitlist. It was my first choice before I found out, but I just can’t get over the fact that there’s definitely other schools out there that WANT to admit me. Why would I even want to go somewhere that sees me as just good enough for plan B?</p>

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<p>@tspro2014</p>

<p>Sorry to hear about your rejection. Stanford defers and accepts very few students (overall about 15 or 17% or early applicants), by comparison only 8% of Harvard EAers were REJECTED (the rest were admitted or deferred). Stanford only accepts and defers quality applicants, but they receive far more phenomenal applications than they can admit or defer. Here we have a square/rectangle situation: every square is a rectangle, but only some rectangles are squares. Every admitted and deferred student is highly qualified, but there are some that were rejected that are also fantastic applicants. I think you definitely have a chance at HYP and I think it’s worth a shot.</p>

<p>I am not a student-athlete, but I got academic likely letters. Harvard and Yale send out about 150 LLs each per year to try to hook what they deem to be their best applicants. I can go into more detail if you’d like, but I don’t know that it’s appropriate for this thread.</p>

<p>@HateBeinSober</p>

<p>I had a very similar feeling to you when I was deferred, and here I am, in New Haven, not in Palo Alto. I think it depends on where you end up getting in. If you get rejected from all the other schools you are interested in but get into Stanford, you’ll probably have to swallow your pride and move to California. On the other hand, if you have offers from other schools you seriously like, you have ABSOLUTELY no obligation to go to Stanford, even if you get in. I’d actually really like to see the data for the yield for deferred applicants who were later admitted.</p>

<p>Think about this though: if I had decided to apply to Yale SCEA, I would have been accepted no big deal. I would have applied to Stanford RD and gotten in in March. There would have been no likely letter or campus visit wooing on Yale’s part, and no bitterness towards Stanford for a deferral. If this had been how I decided to do college applications (Yale SCEA instead of Stanford), I could definitely be in Palo Alto right now. Basically, don’t be too offended. You made a somewhat arbitrary decision as to where to apply early; don’t let it affect your college decision if you don’t want it to. That being said, I am superbly happy at Yale and I’m glad things worked out they way they did.</p>

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<p>@Bulldog2017</p>

<p>Thanks so much for sharing!
I got deferred today as well, and I’m very much in the blues at the moment. How did you get through the three and a half months of waiting? I don’t know if I can make it…</p>

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<p>@bulldog2017</p>

<p>I really have to praise your parents. You are such a nice young man. God bless you and family.</p>

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<p>@jashbela</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>@jumpforthestars</p>

<p>Fall in love with a couple other schools. Find that one that WANTS you. Stanford really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and the Ivies aren’t either. Your success should not be and is not measured by the name of the school you attend. I have a classmate who got rejected from all of the Ivies he applied to, Stanford, Northwestern, etc. He’s currently having a fantastic time at UVA and is in love with his university. No matter where you go, college is what you make of it. I have friends here at Yale that are looking at straight Cs this semester because they partied a little too hard. I have friends at my state school that are pulling As and are arguably getting a better education. Life isn’t made for you once you walk through the Ivy gates; you can choose to work really hard, or you could coast.</p>

<p>I’m trying to say this: you will be as successful as you make yourself - no university will magically make you a president, CEO, or the inventor of the time machine. Go to a school that you love and would be happy. Maybe that’s still Stanford, but there’s an 85% chance it’s not. So find other schools, visit campuses, work on your applications, and hope for the best! I guarantee you’ll be happy by next September.</p>

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<p>[Stanford</a> Daily | Stanford accepts 748 for early admission to Class of 2018](<a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/12/14/stanford-accepts-748-for-early-admission-to-class-of-2018/]Stanford”>Stanford accepts 748 for early admission to Class of 2018)</p>

<p>In case anyone (like me) was wondering how many got deferred, this article says 593. Congrats guys! We’re even rarer than the accepted students!</p>

<p>My feelings right now: Really frustrated about how worked up I had been about the decision and then to get…no decision really. Appreciative that I still have a shot but still unsure of what this means…is my application just on the brink of good enough and not good enough and what does that bode for other college? And really really hating myself for having left so many applications to work on in the next two weeks.</p>