Disappointment, anxiety and fear. Pride, joy and relief. Two different mindsets separated by one email. One application portal. One college admissions officer. One decision.
For college applicants, getting accepted is the goal, but at least getting rejected is a definitive answer. However, for an overwhelming number of WHS seniors this year who have chosen to take the college route, there is an unfortunate middle ground in the application process: deferral.
Many strong and qualified WHS students are finding themselves deferred from their prospective colleges, specifically during the Early Decision and ongoing Early Action cycles. To be “deferred” from a college essentially means that the review of an application is postponed to a later round, such as Early Action or Regular Decision.
With record numbers of students applying to prestigious institutions, colleges and universities are using deferrals as a way to keep options open while they examine a wider range of applicants. While this process may help admissions officers, it leaves college applicants questioning their prospects and anxiously awaiting the ultimate decision.
“A lot of the Southern schools have adopted a process of deferring Early Action, out-of-state students, and the first time we saw that was last year,” said WHS Counselor Andrew Buckner. Some of these popular Southern schools include Clemson University, Univrsity of Georgia, the University of South Carolina and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
“When I was deferred, I was really upset and felt down about myself,” said senior Evan Kahn. “But I tried to think positively about it, stay hopeful and find a new opportunity to look into other schools.” One of the major benefits of an acceptance through Early Decision is receiving a conclusive decision back, and for those who are deferred, in hindsight, the choice to apply Early Decision may feel pointless.
WHS is known to have a competitive pool of applications, already intensifying the college process, but the frequency of deferrals has only amplified the tension among the senior class. “I believe the main factor leading to so many deferrals is the overall quality of the applicants in our grade,” said senior Timothy Jiao. “We have a lot of very exceptional students at WHS.”
Overall, the college process has become competitive and unpredictable, leaving applicants feeling discouraged and unsure of their chances. For underclassmen, applying to college can feel daunting, but with the increased amount of unknown that deferrals enable, the anticipation becomes even more intimidating.
“There’s so much anxiety in getting deferred because you don’t know whether or not you’re going to get into the school,” said junior Riley Brickman, who will be in the midst of the college process herself next year. “It’s a lot harder to go into the process knowing that it’s more likely that you’re going to have that anxiety.”
Despite the suspense and uneasiness that being deferred from a college can create, applicants continue to push forward in the hopes of finding and being accepted to the school where they feel they belong.
Senior Giancarlo Giannetta, another WHS college applicant, said that being deferred will not change how he is going about the college process: “I’m keeping my head up. I’m still going strong, I’m not going to give up and I’m going to choose the best school that’s right for me.”