We’re sorry you got deferred from UVA, that’s rough. Take a beat to have some feelings, because now we’re gonna give you some action items. Mostly how to make a good regular decision college list and how to write a deferral letter.
You need to have a solid action plan for regular decision in place. If you already have a balanced college list with 8-12 schools, go ahead and jump to the bottom of this post. If you applied to just UVA ED, you’re gonna have a little more work to do.
Let’s get into it! Time to make that list and send in your last UVA pitch!
COLLEGE LIST
You will have to apply to more schools. Sorry, thems the breaks, kid. We advise our clients to apply to 8-12 schools, with those being made up of an equal number of targets, safeties, and reaches. Don’t know how to classify targets, safeties, and reaches? You do now!
If you haven’t filled out your college list (or only have 4-5), this is the time to expand and research! Start with academic stuff – college is all about learning, after all. If you applied for business, don’t put a bunch of non-business schools on your list. Aside from that, think about what you liked about UVA, whether that’s the size, the location, the culture, the weather, you name it. While there isn’t a UVA 2 next door with the exact same stuff, students are often drawn to schools like UNC, Duke, Wake Forest, Richmond, etc.
ESSAYS
If you thought the college list was the most challenging part, you’re wrong! It’s essay writin’ time. Most schools ask some iteration of the same two questions: the community essay and the why essay. However, some schools (cough UChicago cough Stanford) like to ask unusual questions, or they like to ask a seemingly infinite amount of questions. Once you have all your colleges put together, look up the supplements for each school (we have them listed here) and get at it.
Now here’s some maybe bad news: you probably need to rewrite, or at the very least, rework your Common App essay. There are a lot of essay topics out there (basically infinite) and we find that too many students either talk about their best day, their worst day, scoring the winning goal, or their grandma. Those are cliche! Be creative!
The main thing with these supplements is just getting your ideas down. It's totally fine if your first rough drafts are a bit, well, rough because you'll be spending some time fixing them up for clarity, grammar, and length. Don't forget to get your teachers, (grammatically minded) friends, or family, to check them out too.
GET YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW
Make sure to reach out to your school counselors, keeping them in the loop that you’re applying to more schools. Don't forget to touch base with the teachers who wrote your rec letters and make sure they're up for doing some extra ones. Check that your test scores are good to go (if you’re submitting), and make sure you've got all the extra stuff each school might be asking for, like resumes and writing samples.
DEFERRAL LETTER
Here’s how to ask UVA for a second look-see:
You’re going to write a deferral letter, and the deferral letter serves two main purposes
To update them on all the cool things you’ve been up to since you applied
To convince them that if you’re accepted to UVA RD, you will absolutely enroll
UVA, like most schools, cares about their yield rate (the # of students who are accepted and enroll), because the higher the yield rate, the more desirable and exclusive they seem. We want to appeal to that!
You’ll kick off your letter with a sentence that restates your passionate interest in UVA and tells them if you are accepted, you’ll 100% attend. Then, it’s time for updates.
You don’t want to list every single thing you did between November 1st and January 1st. No, they do not care that you did an escape room with your cousins. You want to focus on 2-3 big things (prob closer to 2, we’re about quality, not quantity here) that also bolster your application. If you bumped up from an A- to an A average, got a new internship or job, published something, finished a huge project, or secured a research position, those are all write-about-able topics. Don’t lean too much into bragging here, we want to be confident! But not annoying! And don’t downplay or undersell yourself either.
Now the next part is where we do a little sucking up to UVA. Tell them about all the great things you can’t wait to do next fall, the classes you want to take, the clubs you want to join, the brilliant professor you want to research with, etc. Lay it on thick. They should leave convinced UVA is the only place on earth you can get your education. Again, we’re going for confidence here – not desperation.
The email should have a nice, polite, professional tone to it (don’t match the energy of this blog post) (we’re too sassy for them), and make sure your greetings and farewells are nice and normal. Keep it short and sweet – aim for no more than 350 words, tops. Get the grammar whizzes in your life to give it a once-over. When you're ready, either pop it into their portal or shoot it directly to the admissions office via email. Don't forget to check if there's anywhere else they want you to send it.
If you’re struggling with the regular decision applications, or need help with your deferral letter, please reach out to us here to get connected with one of our counselors.