If you’re reading this, you’re in a frustrating boat. It’s fair to feel confused, angry, annoyed, whatever. For a lot of students, deferral can be more confusing than straight-up rejection, because the definition of deferral means that the college’s decision has been pushed off to a later date. Then it can be hard not to feel like you’re being dragged along and, likewise, don’t know how to feel or what decision to make next. We’ve created this post to offer a few simple guidelines about how to proceed once you’ve heard back from your first choice ED school that you’ve been deferred.
A few things to know about deferral:
First, know you’re definitely not alone. We don’t have perfect statistics on deferral for every school (because they vary school by school, change year by year, and are not always made available...), but the general trend at top-tier schools is that it is pretty common for not 5 or 10 or 15% but even the majority of students who apply ED to be deferred in that first round. But it does depend on the school.
At the end of the day, the admissions office wants to create a diverse class of incoming students. So by deferring you, it means they have the opportunity to gather more information about the whole class of applications and weigh your application in the context of that whole class. Deferring you is ideal for them, but not ideal for you.
Deferral can also be about letting a college gather more information about you as an individual over time. If you’re a student who has had uneven grades––maybe you started off high school with low grades but you improved junior year, for instance––they might want to see that you are maintaining that progress. But that means you are also given time to keep up or improve your grades and can let colleges know about any positive developments in your academic or extracurricular records.
So what to do next?
You need to proceed realistically: you haven’t been rejected, but you’re not in either. You should be cautious and assume you won’t get in for RD, because that is often the case, especially for highly selective schools––but it’s not always the case. So you also shouldn’t feel the need to write the school off completely.
There are a few things to do in this situation.
Reevaluate your college list and make sure your targets and reaches are schools that you’re genuinely excited about.
Finish your Regular Decision applications (supplements and sending scores). You have just a few weeks now to finish everything ahead of the Jan 1 deadlines. This is enough time, but you have to buckle down.
Give yourself time to check in with yourself. Don’t just rush ahead without taking in this new information. Is your ED school still your first choice? Sometimes students are feeling a ton of pressure ahead of the ED deadline––maybe for family reasons, maybe because it feels like “everyone” else is applying early and you need to too. Now that you’ve been deferred, you might realize that you’re not even crazy about that place. Hopefully this can open up other ideas and let you hone in on those new applications. Of course, if you do reevaluate and realize you’re still desperate to go to that school above all the other places on your list, email the representative for your region in mid-February.
What should I say/send to the rep?
You’re not going to spend the whole spring constantly emailing your rep, but it can be a positive, responsible step and a way to advocate for yourself to email your rep. In the message, introduce yourself again and re-express your interest in and commitment to the school. If you’re still desperate to go to this school and you’re serious when you say that you would go here above any other school if you got in, then tell them that. (BUT only tell them that if you mean it, and say WHY.)
Then update them. What’s happened since you first applied? Send in your first semester grades and let them know about any changes (*improvements*) in your extracurriculars or job life. It’s important to show there has been growth since your ED application was sent in. The last component of this email can include a final recommendation letter from a trusted adult, one that they haven’t seen before.
This update is called a “deferral package” and can actually make a difference in the RD round.
Once you’ve completed the tasks above, you should feel more confident about your applications going forward. It’s alright to still feel frustrated for a while, but remember that you haven’t actually been rejected. Make adjustments to your applications based on this new development, but the main thing really is to keep calm and carry on here.
If you’re feeling confused or are having a hard time getting your act together ahead of the Regular Decision deadlines, reach out to us here.