Be Proactive With Our Deferral Action Plan

This is an emotional time with early decision notifications upon us. Many students are learning their early round college fate via an acceptance, a deferral or a rejection.

Hearty congratulations to those who got good news in the early round.

For those who were rejected or deferred, don’t take it personally. Remember, as a reader of this blog you KNOW that admissions is not personal and it’s not always fair. Recruited athletes, for instance, don’t have the same academic standards as a non-hooked student.

Don’t let a deferral notice be the final kiss of death for your dream school. It doesn’t have to be. While it’s clearly not the result you were hoping for, we have a proven action plan to increase your odds of getting OFF the deferral list and INTO your top college.

A DEFERRAL AND NEWTON’S THIRD LAW

We all know Newton’s Third Law, right? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law of motion holds true especially for deferrals. If you do nothing, expect no changed reaction, no change to your deferral status. You MUST be PROACTIVE. Action = Reaction = Potential Change to Current Status.

SO – NOW WHAT?

Below we’ve created a Deferral Action Plan for you to follow:

Now/Early January:

Focus on your grades. Grades are the top factor in admissions and you want yours to SHINE. Cut out any ancillary extras and focus on GRADES. All A’s will help. A drop in grades from your first application in early will NOT help your cause.

Retake the SAT or SAT Subject Tests on January 21st, 2017 if those exams were problem areas for you. You can register until December 21, 2016 or late register with a late fee by January 10, 2017. There IS STILL TIME! If you don’t do better, just don’t send the new scores and no one will see them. If you do better, RUSH them to all your schools.

Are there any awards or competitions you can enter or have won and not yet reported to the college? Any concrete accomplishments are good to include in your follow up letter.

Have you followed up with any professors at the college that you had spoken to? Let him/her know your plight and enlist their help. But, only if you have met with him/her in the past and created a good scholarly connection. Don’t be random with this ask.

Call (or email) the admissions office a few days after you receive the deferral letter and speak with your admissions officer – the person who covers your area or whom you interviewed with, or if you are an underrepresented applicant, the minority admissions representative. Tell him or her how disappointed you are, how much you like the school, and ask what else you can do. LISTEN to any clues he or she might give you in the conversation. It’s important YOU make this call NOT your parents. We had one student discover that by not visiting her early school she was at a disadvantage. She immediately made plans to visit. Do NOT stalk the admissions office, but fine to make one call.

Ask your guidance counselor to call both to support you, and to find out anything about WHY – any missing items? Tough year? Huge rise in applicants? School support is critical. Pay special attention to school policies as they vary by school. It’s sad to be deferred simply because you didn’t follow a particular school’s rules.

Ask a senior year teacher to write you a letter of support, if appropriate.

If you happen to know the headmaster/principal of your current school well, you can ask him/her to call or write on your behalf.

February:

By the last week in February, you want to write a “deferral letter” stressing the following info:
- Anything NEW. Report updated grades, scores, awards and prizes. You can start with “Since my deferral, I …” Don’t waste space on insignificant achievements as they can weaken your case.
- Any interesting extracurricular additions or achievements.
- An impassioned paragraph on WHY the school is still your first choice. Summarize and stress WHAT YOU WOULD ADD to the college campus? Be specific!
- Don’t forget to include your Name and Social Security #. Send this deferral letter to the admissions officer covering your area! (Try to get his or her email address, if possible, rather than a mailing address).

Have your school send your updated transcript including all new grades.

March:

In early March, CALL again and speak to your regional admissions officer to touch base. Ask if he/she got the letter, stress that the school is your first choice, and mention a few notable accomplishments (I pulled my grades up to all A’s and had the best quarter of my high school career…). You can email if they do not accept calls.

SOME FINAL ADVICE

IF you have any strings to pull, now is the time to pull them (EX: trustee pals, fundraising ties, etc.) There’s no guarantee this will have an effect but it certainly can’t hurt.

Lastly, while we want you to advocate for yourself, don’t become an annoyance. Being a polite semi-pest based on the action plan above will be acceptable. You don’t want to stalk the admissions office. Keep it to one initial call, one letter, and one follow-up call.

YOU ARE NOT JUST A DEFERRAL

You are so much more! Don’t let this deferral eviscerate your confidence. Stay focused, follow the plan above to increase your odds of climbing off the deferral list and remember that the odds these past few years have been at all time lows and you stood out enough not to be rejected. This truly is saying something…

Be sure to send stellar application materials to the rest of the incredible schools on your list for the regular round. Start NOW working on amazing essays if you haven’t done these yet.