My daughter got deferred (not waitlisted)...what's next?

One of my best friends was deferred, they basically told her she needed to do one or two things by the end of January to get a reevaluation, she ultimately was too impatient and got accepted at MSU and went there instead... I would read what the deferment letter says and follow those directions...

My friend got deferred with a 3.7 and a 34 on his ACT. And he took like 5 AP classes. And both his parents went to the school.

Based on this site (http://www.admissions.umich.edu/drupal/deferred) deferred is better than wait list. Seems to mean still in the running but ask again later as opposed to "no unless spots open up" if that makes sense. Either way best of luck to her.

http://www.admissions.umich.edu/drupal/deferred

sounds like they should let you know by early April...

Sounds like she is in limbo; she didn't make the 1st "admit her" cut, so they keep her in application pool for when the next batch of admissions comes out

"To be able to offer admissions to the best qualified applicants, the first review guidelines are set at a very competitive level.  Students with strong credentials who are not offered admission on first review are deferred; the latest they will receive a final decision of admit, deny, or waitlist will be early April."

https://umich.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/249/~/deferred-decision

I knew people who got in off the waitlist.  Don't remember if the deferred program was in existance when I applied many moons ago.

Defferred just means "we'll deal with this later" (i.e. March. I think.). Same thing as the coin flip in football. I guess they want the class to come in to clearer view before pulling the trigger one way or the other. 

best of luck to you. I was originally wait-listed, but got in a few months later. I hear it is better to be deferred than wait-listed. I am now a PhD student at UM, so this occurred 8 years ago or so. not sure if helpful, but gives hope

Really sucks, but they basically just want to see the rest of the class before they accept you. I had a 3.6 GPA unweighted and scored a 28 on the ACT, took almost every AP class and was apart of a few clubs along with the Varsity baseball team. Like me, she has the grades to get in, they just want to compare her application with other applications before giving up an acceptance spot to someone who may not have as good as a resume as the other applicants. 

Deferred means that the admissions committee is not prepared to grant early admission nor outright reject and application by the early action deadline. She'll either be accepted, rejected, or waitlisted during the normal decision period.

You can't get waitlisted at this stage of applying. When you apply ealy action/early decision, there are three possible outcomes.The first two are accepted and rejected, which speak for themselves.

The third is deferred. Deferred basically means that they think you may be good enough to get in, but they want to see how you compare against the larger, regular decision pool. No one who applies early ever gets waitlisted, you can only get wait listed after you hear back at the regular decision deadline.

Basically, now that your daughter's deferred, it means that Michigan wants to see more of her credentials. This probably means sending in her first semester senior year grades, any new standardized tests she's taken, or whatever else the school asks for or you think would help her case.

Then, once they get all that, they will make a decision on her application along with the rest of the regular decision kids. At that point, she will either get accepted, rejected, or waitlisted.

As for when she'll hear back, I'm not sure. My guess is the latest she'll hear back is whenever the deadline for telling regular decision kids their results are, which is sometime in April I think, but it could possibly be much earlier. It varies.

As for personal experiences, I go to Michigan now as a freshman. I know many kids who got in after being deferred and currently go here. But I also know a few kids from my high school who got rejected after being deferred. One of the kids I know who got in heard back 3 weeks after he was deferred. While I doubt your daughter will hear back that soon, it is possible I guess.

I don't have a ton of experience in this, but it should definitely be better to be deferred than wait listed. Being deferred means that her application definitely has another shot with the application committee. She'll find out a decision whenever the pool of all the regular decision applicants finds out, which I'm guessing is in March-April. But it could be different since Michigan is rolling admissions, or at least it was when I applied back in '07.



Being wait listed just means that she'll only get in if enough people who were accepted decide not to attend. And she might not find that out until the summer.



I don't think there's much she can do except play the waiting game, which is unfortunately the hardest part. But again, I wasn't deferred or wait listed, so I'm not the best authority on this matter. But best of luck to your daughter.

I got deferred when applying and they asked for 7th semester transcripts.  It makes a huge difference to admissions if they see a senior taking tough classes and still getting good grades rather than blowin off senior year.  If your daughter had a good semester find a way to send in those grades, it made the difference for me.

I'm a high school senior that was accepted yesterday! However, a bunch of my friends - including many of whom had similar resumes to me - were deffered.  Getting deffered, while it sucks, does not mean that she won't get in. Many students that got in early will opt not to attend (like myself...), which will open up plenty more spots.

For early action, they typically take the top crop of students. The ones that are boderline, or even slightly above borderline, get deffered, and pooled in with the regualr applicants. Then, they evaluate the rest of the applications, and see where they stack up. They are also looking to see how the student did first semester of his/her senior year.  If the student took hard classes and got good grades, then they have a very good chance of getting in. Deffered applicants should find out around February, and a large group of them will be accepted.  As long as your daughter does well in her first semester, while taking difficult classes, she should be accepted.  She still has a very good shot of ending up at Michigan.

Deffered is much better than waitlisted. I'd put odds of getting accepted once deffered at around 50%. Getting accepted once waitlisted is closer to 10%.