Deferred from ED - Help!

[medskoohelp]

Hi everyone,

I am going through a bit of setback at the moment given I was deferred from Early Decision at a school in NJ 2 weeks ago and I need some help. Since I received that decision I have applied to other schools (about 12) in NJ, PA, VT and NY. I was wondering what my chances look like at applying to other schools right now and how should I go about approaching this?

Should I prioritize OOS favored schools or apply broadly? Which schools would you suggest?

Thanks!

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[KnightDoc]

I'm VERY sorry to hear this, but this is PRECISELY why ED is a terrible idea for most of us. Unfortunately, your chances are not good.

Are you a first time applicant? If so, it might be smart to not send any more applications in this cycle so you will not have to be a reapplicant at those schools next cycle.

Nothing is impossible, but you are putting yourself at a significant disadvantage by not applying until after Labor Day. IS, OOS, narrow or broad. It doesn't matter. There are literally thousands upon thousands of people ahead of you, everywhere, and there is no indication you would receive a higher priority review ahead of any of them.

Your application might very well not even be reviewed until December or beyond, given the numbers the schools are dealing with and how late you will be marked complete. How many IIs are going to be left then, and what are your chances going to be to receive any of them? IIs have been going out for between 1-2 months at most schools, and some schools are already approaching having issued around half of all of their IIs. The vast majority of IIs, at just about every school in the country, are likely to have been issued before human eyes have a look at your application.

Hindsight is 20-20, but clearly applying ED was a mistake for you. At this point, you might be better off sitting out the rest of this cycle and applying early to all of these schools next cycle. Only you can decide if the risk of being a reapplicant next year is worth it for the significantly reduced chance to be accepted somewhere this year, after applying at the end of September in a rolling admissions process where the earliest people have a full 3 month jump on you, and the vast majority of the pool have a 1-2+ month head start.

Have you considered DO? If low stats were your problem, DO is more forgiving, and it has a longer cycle, so you would not be late for them. It's worth thinking about if you don't want to wait another year. Good luck, whatever you decide.

 

[candbgirl]

Sorry about the deferral. Did you talk with the Dean before you applied ED? It has been suggested that students make an appointment before applying to find out what their chances are for ED acceptance. That way if you aren’t competitive you can apply with the rest of the people and not be several months behind. If you did meet with the Dean you might want to ask what happened and what you can do to improve. You haven’t shared any info so we have no idea if you are competitive for ED or med school in general.
I think @KnightDoc makes sense. . If you can maybe sit out this cycle and figure out how you can buff up you application. Try to make an appointment with the Dean and see what you can do to improve your application. Good luck.

 

[Styrene]

Some schools get 10,000 applications and could fill their class hundreds of times over with all equally qualified applicants before they even see your application.