Percent of Deferred who are Accepted

Byerly
Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:29:54 +0000

I’d never counsel insincerity, but bear in mind that at more than a few schools your chances of admission may hinge on what they perceive to be your level of enthusiasm rather than your technical “qualifications.”

Schools aren’t happy about the prospect of filling their admit list with a lot of people who, they suspect, will turn them down and go elsewhere if given the opportunity.

Think about it - if the average smart kid applies to eight schools and gets into four, he can still only go to one. That means those four schools have a 25% admit rate for smart kids, and will have to admit four of them to fill every seat!

The appeal of the sure thing, such as the legacy or ED applicant is very strong.