You did it! You submitted your Early Decision and Early Action applications, and you are now resisting the urge to refresh your email as you await good news. For many students, the next few weeks will be filled with dreams of acceptance and worries about rejection. But there is another response you might receive from colleges: deferral.
WHAT DOES BEING DEFERRED MEAN?
When a student is deferred, it means the college has postponed making a decision about his or her application and will take another look at the student’s materials in the regular decision round. As we noted last year, there are a number of reasons a college might defer a student, including lower grades/test scores, an extracurricular profile that is not quite “high impact” enough, or an overall rise in the number of applications the school has received.
TTA TOP TIP: We know this is easier said than done, but try not to take the deferral personally. Even with top scores and strong grades, a deferral simply highlights how incredibly competitive the early admission landscape has become.
While deferrals can be frustrating, you should remain optimistic. After all, being deferred means you are still in the running for possible admission in a few months! At the most competitive schools, typically 5-10% of deferred students are later admitted. Top schools like Harvard defer up to 80% of early applicants, but reject most of them in the regular round. Take heart! There are schools like Barnard’s Class of 2026, that only deferred 10% of their early decision applicants to the regular decision round. For the Class of 2026, Williams College deferred 180 applicants out of their total early round applicant pool of 814. Of these 180, (typically) between 20 (11.11% acceptance rate) to 30 (16.66% acceptance rate) students were accepted in the spring’s regular decision round.
Deferral/Denial and Waitlist Analysis & Guidance
Launch an action plan to maximize your chances of admission.
DEFERRED? HERE IS YOUR ACTION PLAN
In the event you are deferred, you will want to show schools that you are a strong candidate who deserves serious consideration in the regular round. To ensure you are prepared to do that, we recommend that you take several steps NOW, including:
Earning strong grades.
Grades are the most important piece of your application, and all colleges will want to see you doing well in school. In some cases, colleges defer a student specifically because they want to see how that student performs in the first term of senior year. Especially if your grades “wobbled” a bit junior year, colleges might defer you to see if your senior-year grades trend in the right direction. Make sure they do!
Retaking the SAT or ACT, if necessary.
While most colleges are officially test-optional, many schools still hope to see students submitting strong test scores to distinguish themselves. If your test scores aren’t within range for your chosen school (i.e., in the top half of the school’s middle 50% range), consider taking the February ACT or the March SAT, depending on your stronger test. If you can bring up your scores, that will make you a more competitive applicant.
Building a strong relationship with a senior-year teacher.
We encourage deferred students to submit an additional letter of recommendation from a senior-year teacher to their target school in mid-January. If you start building a strong relationship with at least one of your teachers now, you’ll be in a good position to ask for such a letter before winter break.
Boosting your extracurricular profile.
Along with your mid-semester grades, updated testing, and additional letter of recommendation, we suggest deferred students submit a one-page deferral letter in mid-January. As part of this letter, you should address what you have done since you submitted your application—and it’s very helpful if you have new achievements to discuss! With this in mind, we recommend that you use this time to apply for awards and scholarships. You might also publish an article or a peer-reviewed paper, launch a community initiative, or take an extracurricular class in one of your fields of interest. If college admissions officers weren’t blown away by the extracurricular profile detailed in your application, these additional activities can help you stand out in the regular round.
DEFERRED OR DENIED?
We realize this can feel overwhelming, especially on top of tackling regular round applications. If you are deferred or denied in the early round and need some help polishing your profile and putting together your materials, our Deferral/Denial Analysis & Guidance Program can help.
- Applying to U.S. Colleges as an International Student - May 7, 2024
- Seniors: How to Finish the Year Strong - January 18, 2024
- Discover Stanford - November 16, 2023
