Early Action/Decision Deferral - What To Do?

Level 3 - Advanced Concepts

Welcome! By now many of you who applied early action/decision have received an initial decision. 

Hopefully, you received an acceptance letter, but statistically, you were most likely deferred into the general pool.

While that can feel deflating, you should not feel discouraged. Deferral is the most common outcome for those who apply early action/early decision because it gives colleges and universities the greatest flexibility to shape their class.

Accept too many students upfront and you may be extremely limited in who you can admit in the regular pool. 

So if you do find yourself in a place where you have been deferred to the general application pool, what can you do?

Writing A Letter Of Continued Interest

We have written about this before in the context of the waitlist, but applicants can submit a letter of continued interest. 

If you missed that, you can read about it here:

This letter of continued interest is a little different though. It can be broken down slightly differently. 

Remember, a deferral in this stage says that you are competitive, but just not the most competitive applicant in the pool. That’s not a bad thing. It means you are a maybe.