Percent of Deferred who are Accepted

Byerly
Thu, 17 Nov 2005 09:41:20 +0000

Not necessarily bad - at least from the school’s point of view. By factoring in an applicant’s perceived level of interest when making admissions decisions, the school can raise its yield rate, lower its admit rate, and boost its USNews standing.

Use of this technique - which occasionally involves researching the prior yield rate for applicants from the same high school or even zip code - can hurt applicants, however.

If the school hasn’t picked up the signal that you’d be likely to enroll if admitted (assuming you don’t get into another school you like better!) then you may be turned down in favor of less qualified applicants who the school finds lesss risky from its point of view.