Applications are Up Resulting in More Early Action Applicants and More Deferrals

A few days ago, Jeff Selingo wrote an informative article for the New York Times newsletter about how the increased number of applications, especially early action applications, effect students and admissions offices. Huge numbers of students are applying both early action and regular decision, and many colleges are responding by deferring more students early (rather than either admitting or denying them). For example, USC, in its first year offering early action, deferred 94% of early applicants.Wisconsin deferred 38% of early applicants. The issue for students is that most do not know how many others are deferred at each college, making it much more difficult to assess whether they have a realistic chance of admission in the regular round. Selingo argues that colleges should be encouraged to release admissions data in real time to help students understand the significance of deferrals. Click here to read the entire article.