Making Your Decision After the Colleges Make Theirs: Application Denied or Deffered

What You Can Do If You Are Deferred

Students who find themselves deferred still face uncertainty about the final outcome, and it is hard to predict the chance of admission during the regular cycle. Statistically, it is never very high. The regular pool is likely to be large and strong, and the admissions staff feels an obligation to treat everyone fairly. The admissions office may provide information in your letter about the percentage of applicants who were deferred. If not, they may tell you if you call and ask. You can also see whether your high school counselor can find out from the admissions office how close you came to admission. Some colleges will provide this information, and it can help you assess your chances in the regular cycle. But if you can’t get this information, don’t worry. Just knowing your chances isn’t going to increase them.

What can you do to increase your chance of admission if you have been deferred? A letter reaffirming your strong interest in the college is a good idea. Asking your high school counselor to send a similar note with your midyear grades is also appropriate. If you have received any significant new honors (this is rare, of course) or participated in any noteworthy activities since you first applied, you should include this information in the letters you and your counselor send. Finally, finishing the fall semester strongly can only help. During the regular cycle, unlike the early review, colleges will have access to your fall semester grades. If those grades are good, it will help you. In fact, that may be one reason you were deferred: so that they could see your semester grades. In the absence of information to the contrary, the best approach to dealing with deferral is to assume that your chances of being admitted during the regular cycle are the same as they would have been had you first applied regular decision. No more and no less. Major changes in your file are fairly rare after December, and you should never count on a deferral turning into an offer of admission.

Be prepared whatever the outcome. Because most early application outcomes cannot be predicted with certainty, students applying early must have a well-developed list of additional schools in reserve, with applications ready to go (or, if you are proactive, well-organized, and impatient, already sent out by the time a decision arrives on December 15). Depending on how optimistic you were about your early application to begin with, it can be psychologically quite deflating to be denied or deferred. You want to avoid, if at all possible, having to complete new applications when your confidence may be shaken.

Above all, don’t get discouraged! Try to remember that the outcome depends not only on your submitting a strong application, but also on the quality and number of other early applications the school received that year. It also depends to a great extent on the priorities of each admissions office. All of these are out of your hands. Focus on what you can control. If you have prepared your college list wisely, you will have good choices at the end, regardless of the outcome at any particular college.