Getting a deferral decision is a bummer no matter where you applied, but it’s especially frustrating when it comes from a dream school. Dartmouth is a highly-competitive Ivy League university that receives around 30,000 applications each year, boasting an overall acceptance rate for the class of 2028 of only 5.3%.
The Early Decision acceptance rate is much higher, closer to 17%, which encourages lots of people to apply ED. But that number is also a little misleading, and it’s important to know this to tamp down any discouragement from your deferral. A massive number of the applicants admitted Early Decision basically knew that they would get in before submitting. This includes recruited athletes who got an early read of their application, and prioritized legacies. So, if you were deferred ED, it’s very likely you don’t fall into either of those buckets, and we can also assure you that Dartmouth does like your application. They just don’t like it enough, yet, to make an offer of admission.
In this post, we’ll help you increase your chances of admission to Dartmouth in the regular decision cycle. First, though, there are some things you absolutely must do to ensure that your whole college application experience is ultimately positive, even with this little setback.
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Before you do anything on the Dartmouth front, you need to reassess your approach to the rest of the college application process. This may sound intimidating, and it will take some extra time and effort, but it’s worth it — we promise.
Review Your College List
First, you need to look back at your college list with fresh eyes. You thought you’d get into Dartmouth. Or, at least, you strongly hoped you would. It’s very likely that your college list reflects this. If you didn’t really expect to use it, now you have to.
It is very important that you have a well-balanced college list with a small number (2-3) of reaches, including Dartmouth, 3 targets, and 3 foundation schools. Remember, this shouldn’t be based on gut feeling or ‘intuition’, either. You need to assess your likelihood of admission based on the acceptance rate of the college, standardized test scores of successful applicants, and the GPA and Class Rank of accepted applicants. All of this data can be found in one of our favorite places: The Common Data Set.
Reassess Your Common App Essay
Next, you need to give your Common App essay another look. This may be frustrating. If so, that’s understandable. You’ve probably spent months drafting and perfecting this essay, and now we’re saying that you may need to go back to the drawing board. You also might not need a complete overhaul. Perhaps a further set of edits will do, or refining your central message and strengthening your theme, but we often find that, among students who are deferred, the essay was a weak point of their application. The grades are there. The scores are there. The recommendations are solid. So, what’s missing? The story. Take a look at our guide to writing the Common App essay before assessing how yours measures up. If it doesn’t meet the grade, get in touch.
Press Submit
The last thing you need to do before you turn your attention back to Dartmouth is to start pressing submit. Don’t wait till the deadline to send your applications in. Instead, send them when they are ready. This checks off boxes on your to-do list and, we find, is incredibly stress-relieving! Applying to college is hard; there’s no reason to drag it out.
You will have to be patient with Dartmouth, though. At the same time, there are a few things you can do to positively impact your application before they reassess it in the regular decision pool.
WHAT DARTMOUTH WANTS
Dartmouth is kind enough to tell us what they want from students who have been deferred. They write:
“If you've been deferred, we welcome brief updates on recent notable academic, extracurricular, and personal accomplishments uploaded via your portal. You should also submit mid-year grades, and you are welcome to submit new test scores if you wish.”
So, you have some homework. Let’s break it down.
First, the test scores.
Test Scores
If the test scores you submitted with your Early Decision application were below the below thresholds, we highly recommend trying to squeeze in a test date before the December testing deadlines. This may be hard. It may even be impossible. But if you took the ACT or SAT after submitting your ED application, we hope your scores soar past these hurdles:
SAT Critical Reading EBRW: 750+
SAT Math: 770+
ACT: 34+
You can get into Dartmouth with lower test scores, but it takes some extra oomph. Whether you have the scores or not, there’s some writing to do next.
Dartmouth says you can submit “brief updates.” It’s interesting they say the plural ‘updates,’ because that means you can submit more than one thing. That doesn’t mean you should spam them, though. A few updates can be powerful, but the most you send the more diluted the impact of each piece. They only have a few minutes to review your application, and if you send a pile of documents they won’t be sure where to look…and they may not look at all.
If you want your updates to make an acceptance-winning impact, this is what you need to do.
Letter of Continued Interest
First, every deferred student should submit a letter of continued interest that reaffirms that Dartmouth is their first choice, underlines what one hopes to accomplish there, and provides relevant and important updates. This letter should be no more than 300 words, and updates can include new awards, leadership positions, internships, or research roles. If it’s something you would put on a resume, it’s important to include in this letter. The letter should also be friendly, but formal. It’s a professional letter, so it should sound that way. You can also reference any documents attached, which we’ll talk more about below.
Writing a strong Letter of Continued Interest is an art. It takes time, drafting, editing, and, ideally, support. Don’t try to do it in a vacuum. Ask for help.
Relevant Related Documents
Since Dartmouth allows you upload more than one update, you can also include ‘evidence’ of your accomplishments referenced in the Letter of Continued Interest. This could be an abstract from a paper that’s been published, a scan of a certificate, or a picture of you at a show or competition. The key is to keep it human. Adding more than 1-3 additional documents is a major mistake we see unsupported students make all the time. More is not more. A tailored selection that spotlights how awesome you are is the only way to win in the regular decision application pool.
You can get into Dartmouth after a deferral, but bouncing back from a deferral requires strategy, planning, and patience. Make sure you have a team in your corner, not just for updating Dartmouth but also for the other applications you’ll be submitting in the regular decision cycle.
We help strong students get into exceptional colleges, even after set-backs. Email us to learn more.