Amherst receives nearly 14,000 applications for first-year admissions, and about 10% of those are submitted in the Early Decision round. If you’re reading this post, you were part of that 10%, and it didn’t work out as planned. Instead of the acceptance you were hoping for, you’ve been deferred. This can be a frustrating and overwhelming time, but we’re here to help.
First, let’s break down what an Amherst deferral means. At Amherst there are two potential outcomes for an Early Decision application: acceptance or deferral. You’ll note that we didn’t say “rejection” here. This is because Amherst typically does not reject Early Decision applicants. Yes, you read that right. Early Decision applications that are not accepted are deferred. So, this means that being deferred from Amherst ED tells us nothing about the strength of your application beyond the fact that you were not accepted.
Ultimately, you do still have a chance of getting into Amherst, but it’s not going to be easy or simple. There is work to do if you want to be part of the 9% of accepted applicants. In this post, we’ll break down what you need to do to keep yourself in the running with Amherst, along with everything else you need to do to ensure that your college application experience is a success.
If you’ve been deferred by Amherst and are stumbling to see your way through, contact us. We can help.
Before you dig into what Amherst wants to see from you, there is other work to be done. Namely, all the other colleges you now need to apply to. Before you start scrambling to write supplements, or prepare to submit supplements you’ve already written, let’s break down what needs to happen first.
Review Your College List
You may have a college list you feel is set, or you may have no idea what you’re going to do after this Amherst deferral. Most likely, you are somewhere in the middle. Regardless of how you feel about your college list, though, you need to give it a critical look.
A well-balanced college list is the foundation of a successful college application experience, and if you don’t have a solid list that is a serious problem. When we say, “solid list,” we mean a list with schools across three categories: foundations, targets, and reaches.
Foundations, also called ‘safeties,’ are schools that you are very likely to get into. This may be because your grades and scores are highly competitive compared to recently admitted students, or because you have a strong current family connection to the school through a parent’s employment, or because you are applying as an in-state student. Often, it’s a mix. Please remember, though, that foundations are not given. You can’t assume you will get in, so applying to 3 or 4 gives you coverage.
Next, you need targets. Targets are schools that you are likely to get into because you are in the range of recently accepted students academically and personally. These should be schools that you are excited about, but may not be your ‘dream school.’ You still need to apply to a range of targets, ideally 3-4.
Finally, you have your reaches — and Amherst is one of them. You should only be applying to 2 or 3 reaches, as these are schools you are unlikely to get into but do have a chance at if you pull together an exceptional application.
Next, it’s time to look at your writing.
Reassess Your College Essay
You wrote a main College Essay for your Amherst application, and you can’t change anything about it now for them, but that doesn’t mean that it is the best essay for you. We highly recommend reviewing our 2024-2025 Guide to the Common App Essay and examples of successful college essays. We do college essays differently than most, and what we do works. The key components we emphasize for every student we work with are story and structure. College essays should be strong writing independent of being parts of your application, and so it’s possible that you need to edit and revise, rework, or completely rewrite your essay. That’s ok. Don’t freak out. It is worth doing this, and will set you on the right track for your supplements.
Submit, Please
We advise students to submit applications as they are completed. Don’t sit on them. Procrastination is not a strategy. Waiting to submit doesn’t benefit nor harm your application, but it does create unnecessary stress. By submitting applications as they are done, you can get laser focused in on one school at a time. So, write, edit, submit, then move on to the next.
Then, it’s time to get back to Amherst.
WHAT AMHERST WANTS
Amherst defers a lot of applicants. As we said earlier, everyone who isn’t accepted in the Early Decision cycle is deferred. This is not great news for your chances of acceptance, because you haven’t made it through a filter yet, but it also doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance. So, since you have a chance, let’s make the most of it.
The college cares deeply about the quality of your writing, and so it’s very important to show that you are a strong writer and clear communicator. This means that a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) can hit two trees with one stone.
Letter of Continued Interest
A Letter of Continued Interest, or LOCI, is a short, very curated update letter that reinforces to Amherst that a) you are awesome and b) they remain your first choice. We recommend breaking the letter into three parts. First, you need a 3-4 sentence paragraph clearly stating that Amherst is your first choice, that you will attend if accepted, and reminding them of what you want to study. They should leave this paragraph completely confident in your continued passion for Amherst.
After reaffirming your interest, you need to write a short update to your application. This should be no more than 300 words, and focus on less than 5 significant updates that you would have included in your initial application if they had happened before you submitted. This could include new leadership positions, extracurricular changes, awards or recognitions, or changes to your responsibilities in your community or at home.
Close the letter with a sentence or two reminding them (yes, again) that you love Amherst. Submit it to admission@amherst.edu with your name, Letter of Continued Interest, and city/state in the subject line.
Grades
Your college counselor should automatically send your updated grades and a school report to Amherst, but it’s worth checking in with them to confirm that it’s happened. Book an in-person meeting so that you can also ask them if they’d be willing to make an advocacy call on your behalf. An advocacy call is a call by a school counselor to college admissions, after a deferral or waitlist decision, emphasizing the strength of your application. They don’t have to do it, and it’s not a make-or-break, but it can significantly help your chances of admission.
Test Scores
The last piece of your deferral puzzle for Amherst are test scores. Amherst is test-optional through the 2024-2025 application cycle. However, more than 50% of accepted and enrolled students in recent years have submitted either an SAT or ACT score. If you did not submit scores in the regular decision cycle, but have scores that would be competitive at Amherst, it would be a good idea to submit them via an official score report. If you did already submit scores, but have received a higher score since your ED application was submitted, you should update your scores by sending a new score report as well.
Based on recent data, we recommend only submitting scores to Amherst after a deferral if you have received an SAT Composite over 1520 or an ACT Composite over 33 to be competitive.
While you strengthen your application to Amherst for the Regular Decision cycle, remember to give just as much attention to the other colleges on your list. It is also worth considering applying Early Decision II to another university or college you adore. Pursuing both schools, Amherst and an EDII, aggressively is both ethical and, we would argue, necessary to set yourself up for a successful application experience.
We help strong students create impressive admissions strategies, even after a deferral. Email us to learn more.