We get it – you were dreaming of wearing the ol’ maroon and gold, but you found out you were deferred instead. We wish we could wave a magic college admissions wand and automatically get you in, but that doesn’t exist (yet) (we’re working on it). With the wisdom only hindsight can give us, we want to tell you that it’s okay to be sad about this, you will still go to college, and you’re also not done with your BC application journey. You’ve been given another shot! After you take a beat to have all the feelings you’re having, it’s time to jump into action, because we’ve got some things to add to your to-do list.
Boston College is a competitive school, with an overall acceptance rate of 15%. They’ve joined a cadre of other schools that have gotten harder and harder to get into, especially when you take into account their need-blind financial aid and test-optional policies. Plus, it’s a school that feels very “college,” while not being too big, is located in the greatest college town of all time (Boston), and has a good social scene. We get why you liked it!
While they haven’t updated their Common Data Set in a hot minute (hey, BC, can y’all get on that?), we know from history, patterns, and research that their ED acceptance rate is probably around 30-ish%, but we don’t have info on how many of those other students are deferred or outright rejected. We also don’t know, for sure, how many deferred students are accepted (and we wish schools would publish this information!) but again, from experience, we would say around 5-10% of deferred students are accepted in the regular decision round.
“Hey TKG, that’s a lot of ‘we’re not sure,’” you bemoan. We know. It sucks! We wish there was more data transparency, for both of our sakes! But, while we might not know the specific data points, we do know what you need to do next. Let’s jump into your action items.
Step One: Check Your College List
If you put all your eggs in the BC basket, which we sincerely hope you didn’t, the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy for you. We want you to sit down and look at your college list – if you have a list you’re confident in and is realistic, with a healthy mix of reaches, targets, and safeties, you’re probably okay. If your list leans too heavy into reaches or targets, you need to adjust, or at the very least, add some more realistic options. If you have no other schools on your list, or only 2-3 other schools, we recommend having a list of 8-12 schools. To determine reach, target, and safety, you should take into account acceptance rates, how your stats compare to their middle 50 data, and the rigor of your courses and extracurriculars.
Beyond that, your list can’t be built on vibes and stats alone. You want to actually like these places, because if you get in, you might be going there! The first (and main) factor you need to consider is academics. If you were applying to BC’s Human Centered Engineering program, hunt for schools with similar programs. After that, you can take size, culture, location, and weather into consideration – but not all of your 8-12 school list will hit every single point.
Once you have your list, you need to work on the supplements for each one. This is your primary task!! We have detailed guides on how to write supplements for tons of different schools on our blog
Step Two: Revisit Your Common App
We think it wise to look at our guidance for the Common App essay and compare it to what you wrote and submitted to BC. Now, we’re not saying we’re 100% right and thousands upon thousands of kids get into college by writing those typical “lessons we learned” essays, but we also know that all of our long-term clients get into at least one of their top three schools, and we have some very impressive results with ED2 and RD apps, too. We’re Prompt 7 stans, but you can write a great Common App essay with almost every prompt they offer. The common issues we see with Common App essays brought to us in the last two weeks of December are that they’re about something in your activities section they already know about, aren’t cohesive stories, aren’t about you as a person, or just lack the pizazz that helps you stand out.
If you decide to start your Common App essay from scratch, we have some advice for you, but also reach out to us. We can help.
Step Three: Submit Those Apps
Chances are, you are in that two-week period between ED results and when RD apps are due. You have very little time to waste! Once you finish your Common App essay tweaks (and maybe the activities section, too, you might have some updates!) and your supplements, please please please (Sabrina Carpenter voice) submit them ASAP. Do not wait until the last minute! Once you have that off your plate, now you have a chance to send in your last appeal to BC.
Step Four: Updates
BC does not give us a ton of information on what you, as an applicant, need to do if you’re deferred. In fact, the only place where deferral is mentioned is here:
“Should you elect to apply Early Decision to Boston College, you may expect one of three outcomes: Admit, Defer, or Deny. Highly competitive candidates not admitted through Early Decision will be deferred for additional consideration in our Regular Decision round. Candidates who would not be competitive in our Regular Decision process will be denied admission. This allows them to focus their time and effort on other options for college.”
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon among colleges! And we think it’s annoying! But, nevertheless, we persist, and we know exactly what to do and help students through this process every year.
You may need to gather a few things:
Mid-year grades
Your counselor should automatically send these, but follow up with them
Update letter
We will get to that in a second
Any other general updates
Did you take the SAT or ACT again and do better? Send those in, baby
Additonal recommendation letter (optional)
We generally don’t recommend (lol pun) doing this, unless you have a very good letter to send in from someone who knows you very well and can speak to who you are as a person
Step Four and a Half: Deferral Letter
A deferral letter, sometimes called a letter of continued interest, is your second impression with BC. The goal is to convince them that if you are admitted, you will attend, and provide them with updates to your application that give them more reason to let you in, because you’re awesome!
This letter will be an email, or potentially uploaded to BC’s admissions portal, so it should be written like a professional email. This is also not an epic tale, it should be like, 400 words MAXIMUM, and that’s only if you’ve like done so much stuff and won a Nobel prize or something. Most of you can accomplish this in 300 words. “That’s not a lot of space!!” Don’t argue with us! You don’t have a lot of time here! The letter should be succinct, straightforward, polite, and confident. You don’t wanna get super beggy or desperate, instead you want to come off cool and collected and self-assured.
Open with a polite greeting, and if you know your regional counselor, address them directly. You want to start with a clear and direct affirmation that if accepted to BC, you will absolutely attend and that it remains your top choice. The binding ED agreement doesn’t apply anymore, so you want them to know you’re going to contribute positively to their yield rate.
Next, you need to provide updates on what you’ve been up to since applying to BC. These need to be significant, academic, and positive. Did you receive an award? Get a new leadership position? Secure a job or internship? Publish or finish research? Take an online class? These are all things that can be mentioned! And this should be about 200 words.
End with another declaration of commitment to BC and sign off professionally. Send to the admissions email (or regional counselor’s email and CC the admissions email) and ask if there’s anywhere else you should send it.
Step Five: Wait
Boooo, we know, this sucks. Resist the urge to send in any other updates, don’t call or show up on campus. Know that you’ve done everything you can do – you’ve made a strong list, applied to a variety of schools, polished up your application, and sent in a LOCI to BC. You should hear back when RD comes back, around April. Best of luck!
We can help you bounce back from a deferral or rejection. Reach out to us today to learn more.