Six Steps to Take if You Are Deferred From a College

The school seemed like a perfect fit. You visited. You interviewed. You even wrote the optional supplemental essays. And you still got deferred to the regular applicant pool or, worse yet, rejected from your first choice ED or EA school.

Even though getting deferred is disappointing, you are in good company. Since more and more students are applying ED and EA for a limited number of spots, many students will learn this week that they have been deferred and they too are wondering, What next?

For starters, don't nag the office of admissions. The Internet is rife with humorous, often outrageous stories of students who tried to woo and wow their way into a college, usually to no avail. Skip the box of candy and instead, try these six steps to increase your odds of admission during the RD round:

1) Let them know they're still #1: Write a deferral letter informing the college that they are still your first choice, and let them know about any additional accomplishments you have accrued since filing your application. However, be sure to follow any instructions the admissions office sends regarding exactly how to send this letter/statement. "Students shouldn't just assume that they can write an email to the admissions office, and that will suffice and go into their files," says Anjali Nadig, A Bloc of Writers' college consultant.

2) Demonstrate interest. Anjali also suggests scheduling a campus visit and interview if you have not already done so, because this can show demonstrated interest. "Attending any high school admissions counselor visits could also help, as it's likely that the counselor is the one reading all applications coming from that high school (especially for the more selective schools)."

3) Send additional information. Sometimes applicants are deferred because the school needs more information before making a decision. They might want to see new standardized test scores and whether your grades remained stable or improved during senior year; the school will review your grades again, so it's crucial to ace midterms.

4) Take a more serious look at Plan B. What other schools are on your short list of places you'd like to attend if you end up being rejected by your EA or ED school come spring? If you don't have at least three or four schools on this list, run, don't walk, to see your guidance counselor, and/or make an appointment with our college consultant. Also consider applying ED2, which is similar to ED but with a January deadline. You're going to hear a lot of people say, "It all works out in the end." But that's only true if your list is balanced and realistic, not skewed in one direction, like a photograph that's off-center.

5) Figure out what a deferral means at your EA/ED school. At most schools, EA and ED have three possible outcomes: admission, deferral, or rejection. Do some research to try to gauge your chances of admission. This is tricky, but it could help you understand just how stiff the competition is, and help you recalibrate your list for the next round of applications. A note about rejections: If you are rejected from a school where you applied ED or EA, there is no recourse aside from applying again next year. Unless this is a route you had seriously considered before, let the rejection sink in, and plan your next move.

6) Have a professional review your essays. You can't change essays you've already submitted to a school, but you can write and upload a new Common App essay for the RD and ED2 round. Most students don't put in the necessary time and don't take the essay seriously enough; sometimes they just don't know how to write a college essay. And they don't realize any of this until it's almost too late.

At A Bloc of Writers, we do more than just fix typos. We help you write a strong college essay that compels college admissions officers to move your application to the accepted pile. A killer essay can get you into the college of your dreams -- we've seen it happen year after year!