You’ve been deferred by the University of Michigan or, in Mich speak, “postponed.” It’s a bummer and we totally understand if you take a bit of time to feel bummed out, but you also haven’t been rejected. This is good news because you’re still in the game. What matters most is what you do next — and we’re here to help.
First, a little more about what being deferred from Mich means. In their own words they say,
“We need additional time to review your credentials and determine how your strengths and academic achievements would fit with the composition and quality of this year’s first-year applicant pool.”
That’s all well and good, but what do they actually mean by it? Well, to put it simply, you didn’t stand out enough in the early pool to earn an acceptance. But they haven’t ruled you out. Mich is still open to the possibility that your application will read stronger when compared to regular decision applicants. The key here is that it’s not just about your application, but about the class composition as a whole. It’s about you, but it’s not just about you. You are being considered as an individual who would be part of a bigger community, and they need to make sure you’d be a strong fit.
Michigan doesn’t publish statistics on how many students they postpone, nor how many postponed students are eventually submitted. Instead of getting caught up in trying to sleuth out stats, focus on looking forward. You’ll hear back from the University of Michigan by early April, and there are some things you have to do before then!
If you’re disappointed about being postponed, drop us a line. We help students get into their perfect fit school.
What Mich Wants
The University of Michigan is very clear about what they want postponed students to do — and you don’t have to do anything at all. They do not require you to take any action at all, but there are two things you can do.
First, you can submit the Expression of Continued Interest form through “Enrollment Connect.” The form is within the “action items” folder, and you click on “Verify Continued Interest” to access it. This form will give you an opportunity to give Mich exactly the information they want to know as they reassess your application.
The second thing you can do is to have your school send your recent high school grades in the form of a Mid-Year report. This should be sent before mid-February, although Mich doesn’t give an exact date nor deadline, and you should speak with your college counselor directly about this to ensure it happens even if you think they’ll do it automatically.
The University of Michigan does not want you to send them additional information outside of the Expression of Continued Interest (ECI) form and your grades. They do not want you to email them. They do not want you to call them. They do not want you to write them letters or try to get their attention. They do want you to respect the guidelines they have set. The ECI form was created to address the problem of deferred students submitting myriad different types of updates that overwhelmed the admissions office. They put the form in place to stop that flood of “inefficient and cumbersome” updates.
One final note on the ECI: The deadline for the ECI is March 17th, but students who submit it quickly after they receive a notice of deferral will not be given preference over those who take a bit more time. Instead of rushing to send in the ECI, think about if you have anything exciting coming up that you’d be able to update them about if you just wait a little bit to send in the form, like a science fair project, an academic competition, or another academically-relevant experience.
What Else You Need to Do
There are a few other things you need to do after having your application postponed by Mich, and we’ve broken them down for you below.
1. Give Your List Another Look
First, you need to give your list of colleges another look. Now that you’ve been postponed by Mich, the data you’re operating on is different — and that’s a useful thing! You can use this new data to adjust and have a successful regular decision cycle.
If you were accepted by schools that you would be excited to go to EA, you may not need to change anything. You already have some acceptances, and the pressure is a little pulled back.
If you do not have any acceptances under your belt yet, you’re in a different boat. It’s critical that you address the regular decision cycle pragmatically. That may mean changing things up on your college list to rebalance your distribution of reach, target, and likely schools. This can be overwhelming after all the work you put into your initial list, but it is a really important step.
If you’re looking at your college list and it’s feeling imbalanced, we can help. We’re experts at this.
2. Reexamine Your Common App Essay
After you’ve assessed and adjusted your college list, you need to open your Common App Essay up and give it a critical read. Even a strong essay can be improved upon, and it’s worthwhile to refine your essay even if it doesn’t need a big overhaul. It may, though, need an overhaul.
To determine if you need to take a fresh stab at your essay, read our guide to writing a compelling and creative Common App essay. You should also read a few real common app essays that have helped students get into many of the best colleges in the world. These essays set a high bar, and it is a bar that you should aim to meet or exceed. You can’t change the essay Michigan received, but the work you put in here could drastically impact your future application outcomes.
If you end up deciding you need to start over on your essay, check out our essay ‘bootcamp’ that can take you from a blank page to an outstanding college essay in just a few days. Yes, we know that sounds crazy if you’ve been working on your essay for months, but our team of writing consultants will coach you to your best work, passing along tips and tricks that will improve your writing far beyond your college admissions experience.
3. Get it Done
Last, but certainly not least, we need you to focus. This may be the final step in our post-postponement checklist, but it may also be the most important. After a deferral, it can be really easy to sink into distraction and lose motivation. While this is understandable, we don’t want that for you. You have to find a spark in this process and use it to fuel you to the finish line!
If you’re struggling to find the juice to keep on going, we’re here to help. We specialize in helping students who received frustrating EA or ED decisions get into their dream schools.