Were you deferred or rejected in the Early Decision round by Washington University in St. Louis? If so, the game isn’t over yet. If you were deferred, you’re still in the running for admission to the Class of 2030 since WashU denies plenty of applicants each year. 

If you were rejected, you may be out of the running for WashU, but there are still plenty of other schools that will be viable (and exciting!) options for you. As long as you’re willing to heed our advice, that is. 

So, what are your odds of turning your deferral into an offer of admission, and how can you optimize your case for admission in your Regular Decision applications? Let’s dive in!

Washington University in St. Louis Early Decision Admissions Statistics

In recent years, WashU has been one of the more cryptic elite universities, withholding most of their key Early Decision I and Early Decision II admissions figures. That said, the school has released some Early Decision admissions statistics over the last eight years — just not many.

Below is a list of the Early Decision admissions statistics WashU has released. If it seems sporadic and inconsistent, yes, the school releases or withholds data when it so wishes.

WashU Class Year	Number of Early Decision Applications	Number of Early Decision Acceptances	Early Decision Acceptance Rate (Combined ED I + ED II)
Class of 2030	Not Yet Available	Not Yet Available	Not Yet Available
Class of 2029	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published
Class of 2028	4,817	1,217	25.26%
Class of 2027	4,517	Not Published	26%
Class of 2026	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published
Class of 2025	Not Published	713 (ED I only)	Not Published
Class of 2024	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published
Class of 2023	Not Published	Not Published	38%

5 Steps to Take After Being Deferred by WashU

Below is Ivy Coach’s five-step recommended game plan for deferred WashU candidates:

1. Hit the road and go for a run or jump in a pool for a swim. It’s important to clear your head for a moment before tackling your deferral.
2. Schedule a complimentary consultation with Ivy Coach within a day of your deferral to learn about our service. Don’t burn days after your deferral laying on your bed, listening to Taylor Swift. You need to take action, well, swiftly.
3. Complete a PostMortem application review with Ivy Coach. We’ll tell you what went wrong, what went right, what you need to focus on for your Letter of Continued Interest, and what changes you should make for your Regular Decision schools.
4. Submit a powerful Letter of Continued Interest with Ivy Coach’s assistance. Most students know that they should submit a letter post-deferral, but the letters most students submit do them no favor. When they zig by bragging or updating WashU on all they’ve done in the six weeks since they first applied, our students zag by inspiring admissions officers to root for them. It’s a big reason why students who first come to Ivy Coach after being deferred so often earn admission to WashU as compared to their competitors.
5. Bring your powerful Letter of Continued Interest to your school counselor in the New Year to see if they’ll make an advocacy call to WashU on your behalf. Good school counselors will make the call. Lazy school counselors will come up with an excuse not to do so (e.g., “equity”).

Crafting a Powerful a Letter of Continued Interest

The next step after a deferral decision is to write a Letter of Continued Interest. This should be written as a love letter to WashU. We know you might not want to spend any more time thinking about Washington University right after a deferral, but you need to fight that instinct and submit your letter as soon as possible, especially to prove that there’s no sour grapes between you and the school.

A common issue we see in the PostMortem session is that a student didn’t frame their narrative powerfully enough. The Letter of Continued Interest is their chance to reframe that narrative, but they only get one final chance. How can they make the most of it? Well, that’s Ivy Coach’s secret sauce, and it’s quite delicious, really. At least, admissions officers certainly seem to think so!

A Deferred Student’s Chances Improve Dramatically with Ivy Coach

Across all highly selective universities, a pretty universal statistic we’ve seen over 30+ years of business is that about 10% of deferred applicants get in. If that number doesn’t look high enough for you, how about if we could quadruple it? That’s right, that rate jumps up to about 40% for students who first come to Ivy Coach after being deferred.

What to Do If You Were Rejected By Washington University in St. Louis

So you’ve been rejected. What now? Take a moment to breathe deeply and remember that this isn’t the end of all that you’ve been working towards. In fact, it’s only the beginning! All that stands between you and an acceptance is some strategy. So, let’s think strategically, shall we? First, do we know the proportion of deferred versus rejected students to Wash U? Unfortunately, no. The school has opted to keep this data behind closed doors. However, the path forward is still incredibly clear for rejected applicants. Let’s review.

Instead of wallowing in your disappointment (which we understand but do not encourage), the time is nigh that you conduct an objective assessment of your application to figure out what went wrong. You might be shaking in your boots at the idea, but with the expertise of Ivy Coach’s team of former elite college admissions officers, this won’t be a problem. Our comprehensive PostMortem application review will meticulously evaluate your application, identify what went wrong, and help you pivot to a winning strategy. We’ll set you up with a shiny new singular hook just in time for Regular Decision applications.

We’ve managed to help countless students secure Regular Decision admission after an Early round rejection, and we would encourage you to act now to ensure you can become yet another success story!

PostMortem Application Review

Let’s talk more about what you’ll learn in that PostMortem application review as soon as you reach out to Ivy Coach for help. 

During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem session, we:

• Overhaul your current applications before they’re submitted. We’ll review both the essay and non-essay portions of each application and fix as we go. The schools you’re prioritizing will likely change now that you’ve been rejected from your top choice. And you may feel like your applications are already pretty much done and can’t possibly have to change, but after receiving one rejection early on in the college game, why double down on those same application mistakes? It’s crucial to course correct before it’s too late.
• Craft a narrative in which you come across as a uniquely talented individual rather than as a well-rounded one. The well-rounded strategy is never a winning strategy in the elite college admissions game; we’ll be the first and fastest to tell you that. You need to instead pivot to a strategy that actually works, which is the one and only singular hook.
• Correct the little-known mistakes that may have contributed to your rejection decision. A rejection can be because of the smallest reason, but when colleges have such a bounty of applicants to choose from, they can be as picky as they want. For instance, students who brag only hurt themselves in the application process. And writing about how you raised thousands of dollars for a charity or were selected out of a huge pool of applicants for a seemingly prestigious but actually totally unimpressive summer enrichment program at a highly selective university is in fact bragging!
• Reevaluate your admissions prospects and consider taking advantage of the Early Decision II round for a school that hits the sweet spot between being prestigious and a likely success. Note that not all students are right for ED II, and not all schools offer an ED II round. So it’s time to buckle down and do your research in order to determine an admissions pathway that works for you.

Application Assistance

Following your PostMortem session, a key first step for us to understand what went wrong and how you need to reposition your narrative, Ivy Coach will:

• Rework your applications with our feedback. After receiving detailed comments from our former elite admission officers,  you’ll know exactly how to proceed. Now it’s time to execute on that information! You’ll remove all the mistakes that we caught and put yourself in the best possible spot for a positive admissions decision. Although we can’t correct everything you may have done wrong throughout the past four years, there’s a lot we can do to fix your application narrative and give you a path to swaying admissions officers to root for you.

What Not to Do After Being Rejected by WashU

Below are five of the best ways to ensure your Regular Decision admission round goes poorly after receiving a WashU rejection:

1. Do not submit your remaining applications as is. This is probably the worst thing you could do. It’s the season of giving right now, and a rejection is just that: a gift. It’s a second chance to not present an application that’s full of mistakes and a weak narrative. Plus, it’s your only chance to pivot to a more effective strategy, because there are no more chances after the Regular Decision deadline.
2. Do not reach out to the WashU admissions office asking why you were rejected. Just don’t do it. They won’t provide you a straightforward answer, and your enthusiasm will only prove to them that they made the right decision about your candidacy.
3. Do not be too choosy with your choice of Regular Decision schools and/or omit safety schools from your Regular Decision list. There are certain qualifications that make a good safety school, but if you’re not sure what those are, our team of former elite college admissions officers can help. Now, we said that colleges can be picky in the admissions process, but if you’ve already faced an Early rejection, you cannot afford that same pickiness. We cannot tolerate such pickiness like not wanting to attend a school because it’s on the West Coast. In fact, so often, students who come to us after a rejection end up attending a school that Ivy Coach adds to their list in December.
4. Do not blame your school counselor for an admissions decision that ultimately rests on you. At times, high school counselors may not be perfect (i.e., they will refuse to make advocacy calls on behalf of their students), but they are your top ally in the fight for your college admissions future right now. Alienating them is the worst thing you can do. Don’t even think about it!

Washington University in St. Louis Deferral and Rejection FAQ

Does WashU defer and reject applicants or only reject?

WashU defers some Early Decision applicants and rejects others. As WashU has kept its Early Decision I, Early Decision II, and combined Early Decision admissions statistics close to the vest in recent years, it should be little surprise that the school doesn’t release the percentage of applicants deferred vs. the percentage rejected.

Has Ivy Coach had success turning deferrals into offers of admission at WashU?

We sure have. In fact, we’ve had some years in which we’ve batted a thousand. For you non-baseball folks, that means we’ve had some perfect seasons at WashU for students who first come to us after their deferrals.

Do students have better odds of earning admission through Early Decision I or Early Decision II at WashU?

Students have better odds of earning admission to WashU through Early Decision I compared to Early Decision II. The reason? Elite colleges like WashU are more lenient earlier on in the admissions process — when they’re most insecure.

After all, they don’t know if they’ll land a large applicant pool. They don’t know if they’ll land a strong applicant pool. By the time Early Decision II rolls around, admissions officers can already see the full Regular Decision pool. So they become more secure and less lenient.

Do we anticipate this will be a record year for WashU’s Class of 2030?

No, WashU slipped from #15 to #21 in last year’s US News & World Report ranking — through no fault of its own but instead due to changes in US News’ algorithm. But, as a result, Ivy Coach’s crystal ball does not forecast a record year this year for the university.

However, we wouldn’t be surprised if WashU, long a school that nears the top of the charts for Jewish campus life, plucked some applicants who otherwise would have applied Early Decision to Cornell University but have been disappointed by the Ivy League institution’s response to rising antisemitism. There’s typically quite a bit of overlap between WashU and Cornell applicants.

What are the realistic expectations in the Regular Decision application process after receiving a WashU rejection?

This is why we spend time ensuring that a student’s Regular Decision list has accurate and appropriate schools on it. As we said, your child cannot afford to be picky at this point in the process, but we at Ivy Coach are famously good matchmakers. Let us work our magic on your child’s Regular Decision list.

Can my child appeal their rejection from WashU?

No. WashU does not allow appeals of admissions decisions. Therefore, the word from their admissions office is final. That doesn’t mean they can’t reapply next year as a first-year applicant (if they take a gap or PG year) or apply as a transfer candidate. But they will not be attending WashU this next academic year. The cake is baked!

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Your WashU Deferral or Rejection

Across all of America’s highly selective universities, Ivy Coach’s WashU batting average of turning deferrals into offers of admission is among our highest. So, if you play your cards right, there’s very much still hope.

If you’re interested in optimizing your chances of admission to WashU after receiving notice of your deferral or putting your best foot forward after a rejection, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch to delineate our college counseling services for deferred or rejected seniors.