Some of the early decision deadlines have already passed, and many more early applications are due in a few weeks. With this in mind, we wanted to look ahead and set our blog readers up with an action plan should you be deferred early decision. Here are the steps: 

1. Feel your feelings on the day that you get deferred. Be upset, annoyed, stressed, anxious, and dejected. Cry if you want! Every year, people reach out to us after being deferred. They’re confused, and sadly most don’t have a backup plan. This is why we’re writing this blog now. Especially this year, there is a good chance that you will not be accepted early decision. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try if you’re within range at your early decision school, but you should be submitting your applications with an understanding that deferral is a possibility.

2. Create a new college list, and/or evaluate your existing list. If you’re truly unprepared and have no backup list at all, it’s time to go back to basics. Look at your metrics: grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities. Then think about what you’re looking for in an ideal college environment. What do you want to study? Is location a factor? Are you leaning towards a smaller liberal arts school, or is a big state school going to make you happy? The most important metric is admissions viability. Make a list of 10-15 schools that you want to apply to, and then streamline from there. It’s critical that your college list is accurately comprised of safety, target, and reach schools. But here’s the thing: you need to be honest with yourself about how your application will stand up at these new schools on your list. A lot of people think that a reach school is any school that you want to go that’s hard to get into. This is false. You should still be within range. So, if accepted students are scoring 32-34 on their ACT, you need a 32 for it to be considered a reach for you. It can be helpful to identify specific offerings that you love about your E.D. school, and then look for similar findings elsewhere.

3. Make a detailed Google document with new deadlines and requirements. Send all of the supporting materials (grades, transcripts, scores, letters of recommendation, etc.) to the all of the schools of your list.

4. Revisit your common app essay. We know. This is, in our opinion, the most painful to-do on this list besides the original feelings stage. Ask someone to read it without telling them anything about what you think it’s about. Ask them what personality trait they think you’re trying to convey. Read it again. Edit it and make it better.

5. Finish all of your regular decision supplements. Remember the detailed Google doc we mentioned? Copy and paste all of the supplemental questions onto it and look for overlap. You’re going to have a write a ton of essays, and you should be deliberate about how you spend your time. Under no circumstance should you copy and paste from supplement to supplement, but you might be able to streamline the process by perfecting a version of your origin story.

6. Reevaluate your stance on your Early Decision school. Is it still your top choice? There is an insane amount of pressure put on high school students to choose an E.D. school. And with all of the removed, your feelings might have changed. Perhaps when you were doing research for your new college list, you found a better fit. Or now that you’ve had time to think, you’re actually more excited to hear back from your regular decision schools. Figure out how you’re feeling before you move on to the last step.

7. If your Early Decision school is still your top choice, you should reach out to them. We call this a deferral package, and you should only send one if the school that you were deferred from is truly your top choice. We like to think of this as an update, which means that you need to have accomplished something since applying. A huge mistake that students make is giving up, or going through the motions, once they get deferred. This isn’t good because it’s really hard to update your dream school if you’ve stopped doing well in the (virtual) classroom and pursuing things outside of school. To write your deferral package, reintroduce yourself to the school. Tell them why you want to go there, and be specific! Talk about classes, professors, extracurricular activities, and anything else specific that has this school your top choice. Send in your updated grades, and tell them what you’ve kept working on. You can also include another (new) recommendation letter. The most important thing to show is growth and continued commitment.

We suggest sending your deferral package out in January or February. When working with 91̽�� clients, we send them via email to the admissions office. If you’ve been in contact with someone, you can send it to them as well, but please do not harass the admissions committee. You should once reach out once, so make it count.

It’s our hope that following these steps will provide some structure to the difficult post-deferral time period. If you’d like more help, contact us here.