Mid-December brought early decisions, and for a lot of strong students the answer was neither yes nor no. Deferred. The application moves to the Regular Decision pool and gets read again in March.
Students hear “not good enough.” What the college is actually saying is “we’d like to see your first-semester grades and anything new before we decide.” That’s a different sentence.
The letter of continued interest
Most colleges that defer will accept — and a few explicitly invite — one short update from the student. Not the parent. Not a stack of new recommendations. One letter, sent by email to the regional admissions officer or uploaded through the portal, whichever the college’s instructions say.
It has three paragraphs:
- Still your first choice. If that’s true, say it plainly. If the school allows it, say you’d enroll if admitted. Don’t say it if you wouldn’t.
- What’s new since November. Grades, a leadership change, a project finished, a job. Specific and short. “I finished the robotics season as lead programmer; our team qualified for states” beats three sentences about passion.
- One specific reason. A program, a professor’s lab, a course sequence — something that shows the student has looked past the brochure.
Three hundred words. Proofread. Send once. Then stop.
What not to do
Don’t call the admissions office to ask why. Don’t have a relative who went there write in. Don’t send a second letter in February. Admissions readers keep notes, and “persistent” is not the note you want.
The real move
A deferral changes nothing about the Regular Decision calendar. January 1 and January 15 deadlines are days away. The student who spends the holidays mourning the deferral and then rushes four supplements on January 14 has made the deferral worse. The student who finishes the other applications well has given themselves options the deferral can’t take away.
Finish the applications. Keep the grades up — mid-year reports go out soon and they’re read. Then let March come.
A deferral is one college asking for more time. It’s not a verdict on the student, and it’s certainly not a verdict on the family. Write the letter, and get back to work.
By Jeff Thompson, Phortex Campus · January 14, 2025 · ← All posts