Finally got that notification about your Early Action application to Purdue University, but it didn’t turn out the way you hoped? Don’t panic.

If you were deferred from Purdue University, you now won’t find out your final admissions results until March 31st, the same day as their Regular Decision applicants. And if you were rejected, the time is now to start thinking about Plan B. We know this can be disheartening, but there are steps students can take once deferred or rejected to improve their chances in the Regular Decision applicant pool.

What Percentage of Early Action Applicants Does Purdue Typically Defer?

Purdue University only offers Early Action, which is a non-binding early application deadline. Within their Common Data Set, Purdue University does not disclose information about deferrals, so it’s not possible to know exactly how many students are in the same boat for the Class of 2030. We also can’t look back at their previous deferrals, as those statistics aren’t publicized either. 

For their Class of 2029, Purdue has publicized that they received 63,883 Early Action applications. Compared to only 23,070 Regular Decision applications, that’s a huge number of students demonstrating early interest in Purdue University. 

To put it another way, out of all 86,953 applicants vying for a spot in the Class of 2029, 73.5% of these students applied for the Early Action deadline of November 1st.

Purdue University Acceptance Rate

For the Class of 2029, the Purdue University acceptance rate was 43.5%. 

Again, 73.5% of these applicants were Early Action, while just 26.5% were in the Regular Decision applicant pool. However, the school does not release statistics on how many students were accepted Early Action versus Regular Decision, just the overall rate for the class. 

Let’s take a look at how the Purdue University acceptance rate has changed over time:

Admissions Cycle	Graduating Class	Early Action Admission Rate	Regular Decision Admission Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	Not Yet Released	Not Yet Released
2024-2025	Class of 2029	Not Reported	43.5%
2023-2024	Class of 2028	Not Reported	49.9%
2022-2023	Class of 2027	Not Reported	50.3%
2021-2022	Class of 2026	Not Reported	52.7%
2020-2021	Class of 2025	Not Reported	68.9%
2019-2020	Class of 2024	Not Reported	67.1%
2018-2019	Class of 2023	Not Reported	59.8%
2017-2018	Class of 2022	Not Reported	57.9%
2016-2017	Class of 2021	Not Reported	57.4%
2015-2016	Class of 2020	Not Reported	55.8%
2014-2015	Class of 2019	Not Reported	58.9%
2013-2014	Class of 2018	Not Reported	59.2%
2012-2013	Class of 2017	Not Reported	60.4%

What Should Applicants Do After Being Deferred by Purdue University?

PostMortem Application Review

After receiving a deferral from Purdue University, we recommend reaching out to set up Ivy Coach’s PostMortem application review. 

Over the course of the PostMortem session, an Ivy Coach counselor will:

• Provide detailed feedback on up to three college applications, reading and reviewing each portion of the applications. This will include both essays and non-essay sections. 
• Brainstorm a stronger extracurricular hook to provide your student with the necessary singularity in their case for admissions. We never want students to come across as well-rounded. In fact, that may be the very reason a student was deferred!
• Correct all the mistakes that students and parents don’t know they’re making. These common mistakes could be anything, from lacking key course requirements to including a Social Security number, implying that your student will need financial aid.
• Compose a school list for your student to submit to in the Regular Decision round. We’re excellent at spotting schools that students left off of their original list, and frequently, students end up attending the school we added!

Common Mistakes Caught During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem

We’ve been doing this for over 30 years. We see a lot of the same mistakes every single year. Some of the most common ones (though certainly not all of them) can be found below. Any of these things on a student’s application can automatically preclude them from that top choice school. You don’t want them repeating these same mistakes in any of their other applications:

• They wrote about the wrong thing in their Personal Statement. We have a list of topics we never let students write about: sports, music, community service, their grandparents, or travel. These are third rail topics!
• Their Why College essay was generic. If your student name-dropped classes or professors, or wrote fluff sentences that could apply to any college in the country, that’s an immediate ding from admissions officers. 
• They wasted space in the description section of their activities section reiterating the number of hours they volunteered. Hours per week are included on the left-hand column, not in the valuable description space. That should be used to talk about the activity itself.
• They came across as well-rounded. This is incredibly common and a huge mistake. Admissions officers don’t want ten different random activities with no cohesion that every other student has also done. They want a specific, storytelling narrative that threads throughout the entire application, including within those activities. Elite universities like Purdue want singularly talented students who, together, form a well-rounded class.
• Your student tried too hard to sell themselves to admissions officers. Admissions officers don’t want applicants who scream, “Pick me!” This is not Grey’s Anatomy. It’s just completely unlikable.
• Your student sent an Early application to a school that was too far out of reach. At Ivy Coach, we tell it like it is to our students, and we correct those impossible dreams before it’s too late. 

Write a Letter of Continued Interest

After receiving the deferral notification, students should immediately start drafting their Letter of Continued Interest. We want these letters to read like a love letter to the school, with specific examples of how a student’s unique hook will be a boon to the college’s community, environment, activities, classes, etc.

In Ivy Coach’s PostMortem review, we’ll point out the ways your child failed to frame their narrative successfully. The Letter of Continued Interest is their big chance to rework that narrative and convince admissions officers that they would be an asset to the school.

The answer to how exactly students can do all that in one 650-word letter is what makes up Ivy Coach’s secret sauce, which is the recipe to all our success.

What a Letter of Continued Interest Should Not Do

You might have read that your student’s Letter of Continued Interest should include a bunch of updates and brags about just how well they’ve been doing since the school deferred them. That makes a student come off as self-centered and unlikable. At Ivy Coach, we make our students not just likable, but lovable. Admissions officers want to hug our students!

The Letter of Continued Interest shouldn’t be full of meaningless statistics; that’s what the counselor’s advocacy call is for. Another lie you might’ve heard is to include a list of other schools your student has been accepted into in their Letter of Continued Interest. We can’t advise against this enough. It’s just bad form! Do you really think Purdue admissions officers will be impressed by such a move?

When Applicants Should Submit Their Letters of Continued Interest

We want students to get those Letter of Continued Interest submitted as soon as possible. There’s no point in waiting if you’re still interested in the school, and the quicker you submit, the more you’ll reinforce to the school just how interested you are. You weren’t deterred by deferral, in fact, it only made you want it more. If a student gets that notification on December 15th, we tell students to ideally submit their Letters of Continued Interest by December 20th.

However, we do not recommend submitting that Letter of Continued Interest immediately before Christmas or between Christmas and New Year’s. Instead, wait a few days into the New Year if it hasn’t been submitted right away (which would have been preferable).

Chances of Getting into Purdue University After Being Deferred

Purdue University doesn’t release information on how many deferred students get accepted in the Regular Decision pool of applicants. Across all highly selective colleges, the statistic for students who go from deferred to accepted is about 10%. Although this percentage can vary yearly and from school to school, it’s a relatively consistent general benchmark for deferral.That 10% stat jumps up to about 40% for students who come to Ivy Coach after being deferred. Yes, we’re known for quadrupling a student’s chances of acceptance after being deferred. 

A Deferred Student’s Chances Improve Dramatically with Ivy Coach

For students who first come to Ivy Coach after a deferral, they still have a shot at admission. It may be a small shot (less than half end up earning admission), but it exists! It is important to us that we only take on students after a deferral if they fully understand that their chances aren’t as strong. All we can do is give them the best chance possible, and if that isn’t not enough, we’d rather the family seek help elsewhere so our students can compete against them.

What To Do After Being Rejected By Purdue

If you were rejected by Purdue University, you’re not the only one. Don’t feel alone! The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was 43.5%, so over half of the applicants (56.5%) were ultimately not accepted to Purdue University. 

The Class of 2028 had a 49.9% acceptance rate, so again, over half of the applicants were ultimately rejected from Purdue University. That said, there are no available statistics on how many students are deferred versus outright rejected each year. 

So, now that you’re faced with rejection, what’s next? Ivy Coach has a plan. Are you ready?

Sign up for Ivy Coach’s PostMortem. We’ll work with you to develop a competitive strategy for Regular Decision admission with the help of our team of elite former college admissions officers.

Every year, students come to Ivy Coach after receiving rejections, and we turn rejection into success by optimizing their application for the remainder of the schools on their list. We also recommend new schools if we determine a good opportunity for a student to succeed there. After a rejection, bounce back and pivot to the next opportunity. There’s no time to waste in planning for a strong future!

Purdue University PostMortem:

During our PostMortem, we:

• Give your Regular Decision applications the revamp they deserve. By making a close inspection of what went wrong with your Purdue application, including in the essay and non-essay portions, we will help you figure out how to pivot. Yes, this means you may have to redo your application, even if you think they’re nearly finished. There are lots of things that may have gone wrong without you even realizing. For example, presenting as a well-rounded candidate. We’re here to illuminate the path forward and help you pivot to the only time-tested strategy for elite college admissions in 2025: the singular hook.
• Adjust the small details that may have landed you with a rejection. Did you come across as too privileged (by writing about your expensive pre-college enrichment program you completed last summer, for example?). Did you not fall within the middle 50% of the admitted student GPA breakdown for Purdue? Using the singular hook as the foundation, we’ll equip you with the tools you need to optimize your odds of admission to the best possible school within reach.
• Rework your Regular Decision school list. Now is not the time to develop a case of pickiness when it comes to the schools you put on your new RD list. There is no excuse for not including reasonable safety schools alongside a few reach schools, including schools you may have never thought of before. Would you believe that the top school Ivy Coach suggests to our PostMortem students is the one they so often end up attending! It’s the reality…

Application Assistance

Following your PostMortem, which forms the foundation of understanding what went wrong and how to readjust, we will:

• Reassemble Regular Decision applications with Ivy Coach’s assistance. No one can turn back the clock and right the wrong decisions you may have made in high school regarding course choice and extracurricular engagement, but we can help you to put into practice the wealth of admissions knowledge you will have gained during your PostMortem.

What Not to Do After Being Rejected by Purdue

What you avoid is just as important as what you do right during this tumultuous time in the days following your rejection:

1. Submitting your remaining applications without changes. Think of your rejection as a glaring red sign that something was awry with your initial application. Don’t ignore this sign.
2. Bringing your questions to Purdue Admissions. Your personal appeals will certainly not do what your application couldn’t. You’ll just waste your time and that of the poor overworked admission officer fielding your concerns!
3. Do not be picky with your Regular Decision list. A healthy dose of realism is key to any student assembling a Regular Decision school list post-rejection. You might feel moved to try new options you hadn’t considered before. Don’t ignore this impulse. You might even consider a private liberal arts college out in the wilderness! We’ll present you with options.
4. Don’t blame your school counselor for your rejection. Even under the most stressful of circumstances, like if they hesitated to advocate for you, there’s no sense in turning your back on the one built-in ally you have in the admission process.

Purdue Deferral and Rejection FAQ

When should I get to work on the rest of my Regular Decision applications?

As soon as possible! If you’ve been rejected from Purdue University, you have to take a deep breath and let it go. Turn your attention towards your other applications immediately. Plus, if you’ve taken Ivy Coach’s advice during your PostMortem, you should be equipped to reframe your applications around your singular hook and put your best foot forward over the weeks between your Early rejection and the Regular Decision application deadlines!

Can you appeal your Purdue rejection?

While Purdue does allow application appeals through an official process in limited circumstances, going down this path will so often take you on a road to nowhere. You’re better off saving your time and pivoting focus to the future, A.K.A. your Regular Decision applications. Purdue is in your rearview, the rest of the elite colleges out there are not.

Getting Started with Ivy Coach After a Purdue University Deferral or Rejection

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s help optimizing your child’s case for admission in Regular Decision to Purdue University’s Class of 2030 after receiving a deferral, or with Regular Decision applications after a rejection from Purdue, fill out our complimentary consultation form in short order. We’ll then be in touch.