Denied instead of Deferred? Was I a Sub-par Applicant?

gardenstategal
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 11:40:38 +0000

I would review the essays, but beyond that, I wouldn’t read too much into it. Schools have been under a lot of pressure to accept or deny kids in the early round rather than defer, only to deny or WL in the regular round. Perhaps Dartmouth just felt you were a bad fit for them. I have a friend who was turned down at Stanford in the early round and got a likely letter from Yale. They are not all looking for the same things.

I am sorry for your disappointment. Think of it as a gift. You can move forward and get excited about other possibilities without the “maybe” of Dartmouth hanging out there.

Make sure you have a couple of solid matches, though. There are lots of high stats kids who don’t get into any of the super reach schools every year. You want to have good options if you are one of them.