You Got Rejected or Deferred in the Early Round. Now What?

By
UFit College Consulting

December is the time of the year that students find out whether they have been accepted, rejected, or deferred from the colleges they applied to during the early application process.   It is a stressful time for students, as they focus on their first semester grades, while trying not to think about decision day. If you received an acceptance, congratulations! An acceptance needs no further discussion other than remembering that if your acceptance is to an early action (EA) school, you can still choose to apply to additional schools during the for regular decision process. If you have been accepted to an early decision (ED) school, you will be attending that school, barring any extenuating circumstances.

Now, let’s talk about the difficult news of receiving a rejection letter from your early decision or early action school.  Is it going to feel devastating? Yes. No one likes to receive a rejection, but don't lose hope. Even though receiving a rejection from a school can be demoralizing and make you feel that you are not going to receive an acceptance anywhere else, we want to remind you that colleges reject strong candidates all the time. A college decision is often about your fit with the college. Perhaps it had too many similar candidates and had to make the difficult decision to accept only a few of these candidates. Remember that you will be a good fit at many colleges and receiving bad news from one is not a litmus test of your future college acceptances. You should not let this rejection discourage you from continuing on your college journey. Keep your chin up, apply to more schools during the regular decision round and soon you will likely have multiple options from which you can choose your home for the next four years.

What if you are deferred? Unfortunately, it may feel like you are in no-man’s-land. However, the good news here is that the college did consider you a strong candidate for their school, but they likely want to see more. They might be interested in your first semester grades to confirm your academic trends and get a full picture of you as a student in order to re-evaluate your application during regular decision with the rest of the applicant pool. Remember that colleges are looking to fill a class that is diverse and they will sometimes need to reconsider your application in the regular round to ensure they achieve this goal. Every year, colleges accept students who are deferred in the early round, so finish your semester strong and continue to excel in your activities. 

As a deferred candidate, there are many things you can do to stay visible. You can communicate with your regional admissions officer by reiterating your interest in the school and sending an update on your first semester grades and any awards or honors you have received or activities you have started since your early application was submitted. Your high school  guidance counselor will be sharing your first quarter grades with the school as well. Most schools will require you to send these updates, but you can also connect with your regional admissions officer to express your continued interest.

Here are some suggestions for when and how should you correspond with your regional admissions officer after a deferral decision: 

• Wait a couple of days, or even weeks, before you start to write a letter of continued interest. This will give you time to be thoughtful and positive in your correspondence.  
• Be specific in the letter and list the many ways you would contribute to the college community. 
• Make sure you don’t sound angry or defensive.
• If the school is your number one choice, you should state that. 
• If you have any updates that were not in your original application, you can mention them.
• Proofread your letter to make sure there are no spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.
• Email your letter to your regional admissions officer. Sign the letter using your full name, the name of your high school, and your application ID .
• ​Once you have emailed your letter of intent, only contact your admissions representative if you receive any significant new awards or honors, and keep the update short and succinct.

If you would like help writing a letter of continued interest or polishing your applications for the regular decision round, please reach out to our certified college counselors at UFit College Consulting.