An unfortunate reality of the college admissions process is a deferral, or worse, a rejection. These results can happen even when students feel like they had the strongest application with top grades and test scores. 

Just like the other Regular Decision Applicants, students who were deferred from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Class of 2030 will hear back about their application on March 7th, with the other Regular Decision applicants. We know that can feel like a really long time to wait, especially for students who applied early, hoping to finish the admissions process and just enjoy the rest of their senior year. But in between deferral and Regular Decision applications, there is plenty students can be doing to better their chances in the rest of the college admissions process. 

What Percentage of Early Action, Early Decision I, and Early Decision II Applicants Does Rensselaer Polytech Typically Defer?

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offers all three Early options: Early Action, Early Decision I, and Early Decision II. Students who know they’d want to attend if accepted will likely have selected one of the Early Decision options, while students who like the school but don’t want to be locked in should go for Early Action. Across all of these Early rounds, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute does not publish the number of students they defer.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Acceptance Rate

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s acceptance rate for the Class of 2028 was 63.4%. They have not yet released their acceptance rate statistics for the Class of 2029. 

Admissions Cycle	RPI Class Year	Early Decision I and II Admission Rate	Regular Decision Admission Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	Not Reported	Not Reported
2024-2025	Class of 2029	Not Reported	Not Reported
2023-2024	Class of 2028	57.9%	63.4%
2022-2023	Class of 2027	58.5%	58.5%
2021-2022	Class of 2026	Not Reported	64.5%
2020-2021	Class of 2025	63.3%	53.1%
2019-2020	Class of 2024	70.2%	57.3%
2018-2019	Class of 2023	65.1%	47.4%

What Percentage of Early Action, Early Decision I, and Early Decision II Applicants Does Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Typically Accept?

Across both their Early Decision I and Early Decision II applicants, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had an overall Early acceptance rate of 57.9% for the Class of 2028. They do not release data on the Early Action acceptance rate. 

What Should Applicants Do After Being Deferred by RPI: PostMortem Application Review

After receiving a deferral from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the next step forward is to set up Ivy Coach’s PostMortem application review. 

During the PostMortem session, Ivy Coach’s counselor,  a former elite college admissions officer, will:

• Offer detailed feedback on up to three college applications. Ivy Coach’s counselor will be able to review both essay and non-essay portions of each application.
• Brainstorm a strong extracurricular hook to put a student in the best possible spot for admissions. That hook needs to thread through the rest of their application and differentiate them from all of the other students applying, who are likely following bad advice and sending in a well-rounded application instead. 
• Fix application mistakes. We always catch mistakes; no student’s first application attempt is perfect. Even something seemingly small and insignificant can have an adverse effect on the admissions process, especially the lower a school’s acceptance rate drops.
• Craft a new Regular Decision school list. We’re experts at spotting when schools are missing from a student’s list, so we add them for the Regular Decision round. Frequently, students actually end up attending a school that we recommended to them!

Common Mistakes Caught During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem

There are a lot of similar mistakes we see in the admissions process. The ones we’ve included below aren’t a comprehensive list, but just some of the most common errors we see. Be sure to double check that your child’s application doesn’t include any of the following. 

• A Personal Statement that’s about sports, music, community service, grandparents, or travel. These are five topics we never ever let students write about. They’re simply too overdone and boring. 
• A Why College essay that’s an identical copy of an essay for a different school. Even if a student played Mad Libs with the names of classes and professors, admissions officers can tell, and they don’t like it. Doing that tells them a student really isn’t all that interested in their school, because they didn’t bother doing research beyond the surface level. 
• Including a dollar amount fundraised for a charitable cause in the application. Dollar signs make a student instantly come across as unlikable to admissions officers.
• Listing every single activity, honor, and community service hour they ever did in one single essay. That feels like bragging, don’t you agree? Plus, it looks like a student is trying to impress admissions officers. Ivy Coach’s students don’t need to try to impress admissions officers. They just do.
• Submitting a well-rounded application. We mentioned this above, but that strategy hasn’t worked in many, many, MANY years. An application has to be singular and unique. Just think about how many of these things admissions officers are reading. Would you want to read the same thing over and over again?
• Applying to a school that they weren’t a competitive applicant at. We tell it like it is at Ivy Coach, and that means if a student’s Early choice wasn’t the right one, we’ll be honest.

Write a Letter of Continued Interest

A student’s Letter of Continued Interest has to be a love letter to the university. That’s what we call it at Ivy Coach. Now, we’re not talking Romeo and Juliet, standing outside the balcony like a stalker, but rather, showing genuine care and interest in the school. It needs to prove to admissions officers that your child really wants a spot there, and also, they’d be an asset to the community during their time there.

The Letter of Continued Interest should be brimming with details that show how exactly a student will contribute to the school through their unique hook and perspective. Think about how your child will make a difference in the school’s courses, culture, and campus.

That letter should catch the attention of admissions officers as quickly as possible, and to do that, every sentence needs to pack a punch. Your child’s hook should be clearly tied to specific aspects about the school’s environment and offerings throughout that letter.

What a Letter of Continued Interest Should Not Do

Just as well as there are Letter of Continued Interest yeses, there are also Letter of Continued Interest nos. The first big no we tell students to stay away from is including academic updates. That’s boring, and a waste of space, and it comes across as bragging. Bragging is unlikable. 

A Letter of Continued Interest also should never start with your child’s name. It takes up precious space in that 650-word letter that could be used in a much better way. Instead, that space should be used to illustrate a clear picture of your child’s singular unique hook, showcasing how they’ll contribute their hook to the specific aspects of the school:programs, institutes, culture, traditions, and activities.

This might be different from other advice you’ve received. In that case, we’re sorry your child got a false start on drafting that letter. Hopefully, there’s still time to correct those mistakes before submitting!

When Applicants Should Submit Their Letters of Continued Interest

We recommend students submit their Letter of Continued Interest as soon as possible. That’s ideally within a few days of receiving a deferral. So, if a student learns they are deferred on December 15th, we like students to send in their Letters of Continued Interest before December 20th.

The one time we don’t advise students to send that letter is over the day or two leading up to Christmas or between Christmas and New Year’s. In that case, we have students wait until a few days into the New Year. 

Please note that we only said waiting to send, not waiting to write. That letter is the blueprint to how we’d encourage a student to reposition their Regular Decision applications, many of which will be due January 1st. They should draft that letter ASAP and then use it as a guide moving forward in the admissions process.

Chances of Getting into Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute After Being Deferred

Similar to many schools, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute does not release the acceptance stats for students who are admitted after being deferred.

However, a fairly universal average statistic we use as a reference point at Ivy Coach is that about 10% of deferred candidates ultimately earn admission to the school that deferred them. Although the percentage can vary from year to year and from school to school, it’s a fairly consistent threshold.  

That 10% rate? It rises to about 40% on average for students who come to Ivy Coach after being deferred. We work closely with a student to create a compelling Letter of Interest and boost their chances of admission after a deferral, as well as boost their chances for the Regular Decision process.

A Deferred Student’s Chances Improve Dramatically with Ivy Coach

For those students who first come to work with Ivy Coach right after being deferred, if they play their cards right, they still have a genuine chance at admission. 

We’re also very realistic at Ivy Coach. We tell it like it is. Because of this, we can only take on students after a deferral if they fully understand that their chances simply aren’t as strong as when they first applied. All we can do is give them the best possible chance to gain admissions. If quadrupling a student’s chances post-deferral is not enough, we recommend they seek help elsewhere!

What To Do After Being Rejected By Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

If your student received a rejection from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, we want them to know they’re not alone. The school has a moderately selective process, but their acceptance rate is far from 100%. 

Even though rejection can feel like the end of the world, we encourage students not to let that get in the way of the rest of their admissions process. As long as they’re willing to work with us and fix initial application mistakes to reframe their storytelling narrative the way that we suggest, a rejection from one school doesn’t always mean more will follow.

Ready to move forward and take the next step? Then you and your child should sign up for Ivy Coach’s PostMortem. One of our former elite university admissions officers will work with you to develop a competitive strategy for Regular Decision admission.

After a rejection, students come to Ivy Coach because they know we’ll guide them through their Regular Decision process and ensure they don’t make the same mistakes over and over again.

Getting Started with Ivy Coach After a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Deferral or Rejection

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s plan to optimize your child’s Regular Decision case for admission to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Class of 2030 after receiving a deferral, or if you need help planning for Regular Decision applications after either a deferral or rejection, we recommend that you fill out our complimentary consultation form. We’ll reach out to let you know the next step in taking control of the admissions process with confidence.