You’ve been deferred by Yale, and that’s a major bummer. It’s ok to sink into your couch and eat a pint of ice cream while drowning in self-pity. Once you hit the bottom of the pint, though, it’s time to get to work. There are things to do. Yale doesn’t just defer people for fun, after all, and they didn’t defer you because they don’t want to disappoint you. They made the choice for a reason, and now the ball is in your court.
There was once a time when Yale did defer applicants needlessly. They would defer more early applicants than they rejected, which meant tons of student who were no longer real candidates for admission were left hanging. That trend reversed in the past few years. As the number of applicants has skyrocketed — but the number of spots in the class has stayed the same — they need to say no to more people more quickly. Now, more students are rejected than deferred. Last year, the early application deferral rate was 21% and the rejection rate was 67% (10% were accepted). As a result, getting deferred by Yale means more now than it once did. If you have been deferred, it’s because they are still seriously considering you.
Now the question is, what happens next?
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What Yale Wants
Yale is very clear about what they don’t want you to do right now, but they are less clear about what they do want. We break it down below so, for you, it’s crystal.
Yale does not want you to email the admissions office asking “why?!” — yes, even if it’s a nicely worded email with no angry exclamation points. They do not want you to call either. Except for a tiny, minuscule exception we’ll go into below, they don’t want to hear from you at all with questions, demands for explanation, or essay rewrites.
This should all go without saying, but unfortunately every year some student or their parent thinks that grilling Yale about their decision or inundating them with ‘new’ information will help. It won’t, and if you do it doing so will hurt your application because it shows you as someone who can’t follow direction nor communicate respectfully. To be clear, again, they do not want a pile of updates, they will not let you redo your essays or send ‘updated’ versions, they do not want additional teacher recommendations, and they most definitely do not appreciate being sent weekly love letters — sorry, cards — expressing your adoration for their institution. Yes, people do try that. No, it doesn’t work.
What Yale does want is a very short list:
They want your mid-year grades. These should be sent by your school automatically, but it’s worth confirming with your college counselor to confirm that is the case. As they will see a new set of grades, your number one focus needs to be on maintaining or improving your grades.
They may appreciate one short update letter. We say may here (and underline it) because most students do not have changes to their application that necessitate nor qualify them for an update letter, and sending one chock full of fluff certainly doesn’t help you.
With one small exception…
Yale does invite one short update letter emailed to the admissions office if there is something truly important to make them aware of. They do not explain what they mean by ‘meaningful’, but we can use our experience to fill in the gaps. A high test score is not meaningful, but winning an award is. Meaningful things are significant changes, leaps forward, or recognitions that would have been highlighted in your application if they had happened before the submission deadline.
If you have a meaningful update, go ahead and write that letter — but keep it short, respectful, to the point, and free of exclamation marks.
What Else You Need to Do
Once you’ve either decided you don’t qualify to send an update letter or have sent one in, it’s time to get down to the hard work — the rest of your applications for the regular decision cycle.
1. Give Your List Another Look
Creating a list of prospective colleges and universities can be daunting, and it’s especially frustrating if you didn’t really think you’d ever have to actually apply to them — but counting on an early acceptance is risky, as you may have now learned.
Whether you started work on regular decision supplements early “just in case,” or were putting it off as long as possible, it’s a good time to look back at your college list and reassess where you stand. You have one more go at this, so it’s important to take a balanced approach. Pulling together the right mix of reaches, targets, and likely schools for you is more art than it is science — and you have to actually like them. There is no point, in our estimation, in spending time applying to schools you wouldn’t actually attend. Instead, build a balanced list of true options that you can put all your effort into.
More also isn’t better. Some students panic after a deferral and want to apply to as many schools as they can. This can backfire, because you may not be able to give each application the attention it requires. Instead, we work with students to craft compact college lists that they can devote deep time to. In general, between 6 and 10 schools total (including your Yale deferral) is a good guideline.
If you’re looking at your college list and can sense something is off, we can help. We’re experts at this.
2. Reexamine Your Common App Essay
Much like your college list, you probably thought this was done and you’d never have to look at it again. And, like the college list, it’s time to pull it back out of the proverbial drawer, dust it off, and give it another look.
This may sound frustrating and intimidating, and make you feel a whole spectrum of emotions in the “are you kidding me?!” range, but it has to be done if you want the best chance possible of getting into your regular decision cycle schools. Luckily, we have a comprehensive guide to writing compelling college essays — and it’s totally free. We also publish a small number of successful real common app essays each year so you can see what works. Before you do any work on your essay, give the guide and some of the real essays a read. This will help you get a sense of where your essay may be falling flat. Often, a total overhaul isn’t necessary and actually wouldn’t benefit you, but small tweaks could make an enormous difference.
If you’re looking at your common app essay, though, and it’s suddenly clear that you need to start from scratch, we offer an essay ‘bootcamp’ that helps students write outstanding essays quickly with one-on-one help with our admissions experts who have helped dozens of students get into Yale.
3. Get it Done
The third thing you need to do is to do things. Yes, you read that right. After you’ve wallowed in your frustration and sadness for a hot second, you need to get to work. You don’t have a ton of time before the regular decision application deadlines hit, so making the most of the time you do have is critical.
We believe you can do this, but sometimes it takes a boost to get to the finish line. We specialize in helping students who received disappointing EA or ED decisions get into their dream schools.