Too many applicants who applied early this fall are finding they’ve been neither accepted nor rejected, but deferred to a much larger regular admissions pool. And we all agree this is not a happy place to be.
But there’s really not much sense in dwelling on the negative.
Although there are no guarantees, continuing the campaign for admission
will sometimes work in your favor.
After the initial shock is past, take stock of the situation and make a plan,
preferably in consultation with your school counselor or an independent
educational consultant with whom you’ve been working. Once you decide
to press your case, it’s usually advisable to get back in touch with the
college that deferred you to provide new information in the way of
grades, scores and accomplishments. It’s very important to follow
directions, which hopefully are clearly outlined on the website or in
the notice of deferral.
But not every college specifically states what it is they want in the
way of follow-up. Some are coy and general about the kinds of
information they’d like to see, preferring to leave it to the
imagination of applicants wishing to demonstrate continued interest or
improve their odds for admission. Others specifically list the materials
they’d like to see and the process by which they should be submitted.
Many colleges appear to welcome continued communication, especially with
regional representatives.
And still others, like the University of Virginia,
warn against sending additional information or making contact with the
admissions office. Note that this approach is more the exception than
the rule and may be subject to some flexibility—even for UVa.
Although there are some consistent ‘themes’ in the advice provided by
different colleges, the following is a sample of the many ways colleges
and universities want to hear from students they deferred:
Brown
You may certainly let us know if there is a significant
accomplishment or a noteworthy change in your circumstances, but it is
not necessary to amend your application as a matter of course. Remember
that a deferral does not mean that an applicant has fallen short in
terms of qualification for admission. Make sure that your counselor has
the Mid-Year Report form so we can receive your fall term grades and any
updates your school would like to provide.
As a deferred student, your application will automatically be
reviewed again, in its entirety, during our Regular Decision review
process in the spring. We will send you another decision notification in
the spring (if you applied to our Joint Degree Programme you will also
receive a decision email specific for that programme at that time). You
are welcome to send us any new academic information (first-semester
grades, updated standardized test scores) as well any high-level awards
or significant accomplishments not included in your original
application. You can also send us a letter/email/statement of continued
interest. As part of this process, however, we also encourage you to
look closely at other schools to which you decide to apply. As our
applicant pool grows during Regular Decision, so too does the
competition for spots in the freshman class. Explore what other schools
have to offer and get excited about their fantastic opportunities. Doing
so will set you up for the best possible college outcome, regardless of
what your final W&M admission decision may be. We wish you the best
of luck as you continue to navigate this process, and are of course
always happy to provide any assistance that we can.
A deferral is not a rejection. A deferral releases you from your
binding commitment to enroll if you are admitted and reflects the
Admission Committee's interest in receiving more information from you,
like midyear grades or additional testing, before a final decision is
reached.
Early Action admission is offered to a limited number of students,
those whom the Admissions Committee is certain they would offer
admission based on information from freshman, sophomore and junior years
only. Deferred students are strongly encouraged to maintain high senior
year grades and submit any new information, such as standardized test
scores, new honors or awards.
You are not required to submit any additional materials. However, if
you would like to, you may submit supplemental materials to your
application file for review during the RD selection process. This
information could be additional standardized test results, your senior
year semester grades, additional letters of recommendation, an updated
rèsumè, or an additional written statement of your interest in Johns
Hopkins.
Students who were deferred are welcome to send an e-mail with any new
or updated information since they submitted their application (you can send the email to your regional admissions director). You do not need to submit any additional writing samples or recommendations.
The only "new" thing you need to send in is the February Updates
& Notes form. You'll use the FUN form to tell us your midyear grades
and anything new that has happened or will happen. As always, you can
send us stuff via fax (617-687-9184) or mail, but the FUN form is the
best way to update us. The FUN form is due by February 15th.
You may still submit a supplemental portfolio, but you do not need
to; I would only consider this if you were planning to do so during EA
but ran out of time. If you are retaking tests in December or January,
you may also designate MIT as a score recipient, and we'll add them to
your application.
You may not rewrite your essays, redo your interview, redo your
entire application...anything like that. We deferred you because we want
to reconsider your application (the one you have already sent) in RA.
Nobody, not even me, can accurately gauge your chance of being
admitted to MIT. With that said, in the last few years we have admitted
between 150-300 students in RA who were initially deferred in EA. That's
a small number, but to be honest so is the number of RA applicants who
are admitted. It's hard to get into MIT.
Being deferred means you're going to get another fair shot.
DO: Contact your admission counselor and
let him or her know you are interested in Tulane. You can reach out to
your admission counselor here. You'll want to shoot him or her an e-mail in the coming weeks (not necessarily today...
let the dust settle and your emotions subside) letting them know that
you have been deferred and that you remain strongly interested in
Tulane. Let your counselor know that you'll send your first semester
grades and also feel free to let him or her know that Tulane is very
high on your list. It will be nearly impossible to be admitted to Tulane
if you do not, in some form, reach out to us. We'd like to only take
those students who we know want to enroll here.
DO: Send us an essay about why you are
interested in enrolling at Tulane, if you have not already done so. See
the prompt on the application for admission. Tell us why you would be a
great fit here, and why Tulane is a great fit for you. Do some research.
Many times, we defer students who are academically qualified to be
admitted, but we are unsure of their interest level. So reach out and
let us know.
DO: Send us some additional
materials. You are welcome to send us a new resume, essay, your first
semester grades, an art or music portfolio, a new SAT or ACT score, etc.
While some of the smaller things may not make a big difference, an
increase on your SATs, or a nice well-written essay all about your
Tulane visit can go a long way. Mid year reports are recommended for
deferred students. Again, keep in mind, unless its a major change in
extracurricular activities, it won't change too much (same goes for
additional teacher recommendations). The biggest changemaker will be new
test scores.
1)Send a note/email to your regional admissions officer
letting them know that you’re still interested in UChicago, and that
you want to stay on our Admissions radar. If you’re no longer
interested, that’s ok, too. If you’ve found a school you think represents a better fit for you, we understand, and there’s no need to send a note.
2) Have your academic counselor submit your mid-year grades to the UChicago Admissions Office. Ask politely, and no unofficial transcripts, please!
3) Update any major achievements or information through
your UChicago Account. You’re welcome to let us know about academic
honors, extracurricular achievements, or significant personal milestones
that you feel represent you well. Personal essays submitted with
through the Common App or as required UChicago Supplements cannot be
edited or replaced, and submitting additional letters of recommendation
is not required or recommended.
4)*Optional*: Sign up for an interview, but only
if you haven’t already done so (if you requested one for EA but didn’t
receive one, we’ll try to match you this time around) through your
UChicago account. Interviews can be done in person at the UChicago
campus, or can be conducted by an alum in your area. Interviews are
never necessary for admission, but can be a great time for you to get to
learn a little more about the College.
Applicants who were deferred from Early Action will receive a second
review at the end of March. Make sure that any new academic information
(mid-semester grades, higher test scores, etc.) has been sent to us by
March 1. Please do not send duplicate information or additional
recommendations. Visiting or contacting the Admissions Office will not
enhance your chance of being admitted. https://www.umass.edu/admissions/apply/dates-and-deadlines/early-action-faqs
Notre Dame
Quite simply, a defer decision means that the Admissions Committee is
not yet ready to make a final decision on a student’s application.
Since we only receive about a quarter of our application pool during the
Restrictive Early Action cycle, our staff wants the chance to evaluate
deferred students’ applications within the context of the larger Regular
Decision pool. While we know it isn’t the news you were hoping for, it
is important to keep in mind that a deferral is certainly not the end of
the admissions process. Please know that even though you applied in
November, you are still on even footing with the students who chose to
apply in Regular Decision. With a highly competitive applicant pool, we
are very serious about which students we choose to defer because we feel
that they will be competitive later in the process.
So you may be thinking – what now? What can I be doing to ensure that my application continues to look its strongest?
1. Our office encourages deferred students to keep us updated with any changes to their application. The most important piece is sending us your first semester senior year grades. Many
high school counselors will do this automatically, but if not, this
should be a top priority. The Admissions Committee wants to see that
students are maintaining a strong academic performance throughout their
senior year, particularly if the applicant is taking high level courses.
Any changes in GPA or class rank can also be helpful to our evaluation
process.
2. You may also update us to any significant extra-curricular accomplishments or awards that you receive in the coming months. The easiest way to do this is to email this information to either your regional Admissions Counselor or to ndforms@nd.edu.
3. You do not need to submit any additional letters of recommendation. We
generally do not encourage letters of recommendation beyond the
required academic teacher letter and optional counselor letter, which
you submitted with your original application. Of course, if any
additional letters are submitted on your behalf, they will be added to
your file.
4. If Notre Dame is truly one of your first choice schools,
you may also write a letter of desire explaining why you believe Notre
Dame is the best school for you. You may send this letter
directly to your Regional Admissions Counselor and he or she will be
sure to add it to your admissions file. This letter of desire is a
useful opportunity to tell the Admissions Committee a little bit more
about you and to explain why you would like to attend Notre Dame. http://admissions.nd.edu/connect/news/55792-advice-to-the-deferred/
Richmond
There are two main reasons that we defer applications to RD. In the
majority of cases, the committee simply wants to see these applications
in the context of the entire applicant pool, before we make a final
decision. In some cases, however, there may be something specific the
committee wants to see – for example, your full first semester grades,
if your first quarter grades were of concern or if you had a significant
dip in your junior year and the committee wants to see a full
semester’s recovery. Deferred students should feel free to contact their regional counselor
and ask if there’s anything more they can do to improve their
application in Regular Decision; just keep in mind that nine times out
of ten, the answer will be no, the committee just wants to review your
application in light of the whole applicant pool. Every year there are
deferred students who are admitted in Regular Decision (though you are
no longer bound by the ED contract, in that event). Here’s a cheat
sheet to understand how the process works.
Do: Keep up the hard work to maintain a strong
academic record in your senior year. Don’t be discouraged by a deferral;
it’s not a negative comment on your abilities or potential. Let this
add fuel to the fire to motivate you to show the admission committee
that you are capable of maintaining the strong record you have already
set forth in your initial application. We’d love to see all A’s and B’s
in the senior year.
Do: Ask yourself if you are comfortable with your
test scores. Scores are certainly not the exclusive deciding factor in
any application, but they can influence a decision. If you’re
comfortable with your scores, awesome! If not, perhaps consider a
January test date. This may be a good opportunity to try your hand at
the SAT versus the ACT, or vice versa.
If you were deferred from Early Action to Regular Decision it means
that we feel your application deserves another review. You possess many
of the strengths we expect our admitted students to present in their
applications but we cannot offer you admission at this stage. In many
cases we want to see how deferred students are doing in the classroom
during their senior year.
Other than midyear grade updates or new standardized test results, we
will not be able to review any edits to your application or additional
information. Please do not send additional information, including
recommendations, during this time.
Wellesley
If you are deferred, sending certain additional materials may be
helpful to the College during the next round of the decision-making
process. You may want to send us your most up-to-date grades, a list of
any recent special honors or awards you have received, or any helpful
information you may not have provided with your initial application. An
additional recommendation may also be helpful. If you have been deferred
and you are not sure exactly what to send, just contact us and we'll
help you decide.
This blog is dedicated to the wonderful high school students and their families who come to me for college advice. You will note a small bias toward readers located in northern Virginia. Although I work with students from lots of different places, this is my base. Rah, Super NoVA!
In this blog, I address a variety of topics or trends in college admissions. The information should complement one-on-one counseling by providing answers to frequently-asked questions. OK, and a few obscure ones as well.
For more information on College Explorations LLC, please visit my website. And take the time to support the open exchange of college admissions information by "Liking" the College Explorations Facebook Page.
Thank you for your interest. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.
I am an independent college consultant practicing in Oakton, Virginia. I have two children who survived the college admissions process and a very large tabby cat who sits in on many of my counseling sessions. My credentials include degrees from Penn and Harvard, professional membership in the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) as well as the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA), and a Certificate in College Counseling from UCLA. As a professional college consultant, I support students and families navigating their own personal college explorations.
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