Reply to Why Was My Son Deferred from Duke ED?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People are more surprised about this than the "Current Situation - Not Thrilled" post (where the kid was deferred from Purdue)! That was Purdue. This is Duke. Like... what.

OP, are you upset because you thought Duke was a way easier admit than the Ivies? That it wasn't a lottery because this school is not in the NE, within a random sports conference?

Some schools-- any rejection is not worth a discussion. This includes Duke. Yet somehow we are on page 16.

They have everything they could want and more in terms of stats/ECs/etc. They cherry pick the class they want. Anyone can get rejected. Especially a non-Olympic athlete who did not cure cancer.

Your son is amazing and will do great things. Focus on that.[/quote]

I am not upset, I was just looking for feedback because the school counselor thought he would be a good match for Duke. I agree that an acceptance cannot be expected after seeing some of the numbers people have posted though. We did not go into this thinking Duke would be easier to get accepted to, we know the stature of Duke and that it’s more difficult to get into than many ivies. We [b]were just told that our son was an incredibly strong applicant,[/b] that’s all. But I’ve seen the bigger picture here.[/quote]

OP, your son is clearly an incredibly promising young man and great student. I think the case here is that someone telling you that he's a "an incredibly strong [i]applicant[/i]" was at the heart of what led you to post 'why was he deferred'? ---because whoever told you that he was an "incredibly strong applicant" set your expectations high.  So if the person(s) that told you that were in, say, a college counseling/ consultant role, people would expect that them to have credibility when they say these things.

I think many of us want to believe that our kids are at the top of their peer groups. It's just natural for those of us who've been high achievers ourselves, and who honestly see our kids' strengths playing out. We look for things that reinforce this bias. So when you were told he was an incredibly strong applicant, it is natural that you would assume this is true and not bother to see whether that person's view was outdated or ill-informed or biased. You didn't seek a reality check---why would you? In your position, I think I'd be similar.

So accepting that assessment at face value had repercussions, by leading you to think he would be a sort of shoo-in for a place like Duke which isn't, say, Harvard or MIT where the competition is traditionally incredibly fierce (even though you mentioned it's more selective than some ivies, Duke is not typically regarded as THE most selective college). Yet the competition is fiercer than it was a couple of years ago, and Duke's applicant numbers have probably increased a lot. So your DS's profile fit the type of student who has traditionally been accepted. [b]But having, say, a not-perfect GPA and some 4s could mean he is lumped in with many many others like that, even with good ECs, some of which sound like they didn't require a lot of effort.[/b]

I think this is a good reminder for all of us that we need these reality checks as our kids apply, as it's an even more uncertain world out there in college admissions. And that we need to keep up with these trends so that each year we have the best chances of understanding the trends affecting admissions.
[/quote]

DH's cousin works in college admissions and has been on both sides of the desk. She told him when our oldest started looking at colleges that a 34 ACT is an amazing score, but it goes in the 34 pile, not the 35/36 pile. We found that sobering and helpful and possibly shaped where this DC applied ED. "Maybe 34 + legacy is a better combo than rolling the dice at one of these HYPSMs." That DC wanted to be done and also thought their preferred choices, while very different, would have all been great, so maybe go with the best odds. [/quote]

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