We get it – you were dreaming of wearing the ol’ maroon and gold, but you found out you were deferred instead. We wish we could wave a magic college admissions wand and automatically get you in, but that doesn’t exist (yet) (we’re working on it). With the wisdom only hindsight can give us, we want to tell you that it’s okay to be sad about this, you will still go to college, and you’re also not done with your BC application journey. You’ve been given another shot! After you take a beat to have all the feelings you’re having, it’s time to jump into action, because we’ve got some things to add to your to-do list.

If you are reading this post, things haven’t turned out exactly as planned. You applied to Swarthmore Early Decision because you wanted an answer, early. Accepted or rejected, at least you would have an answer. But now you’re here, with a deferral decision, and everything is up in the air. You can walk away from Swarthmore at this point and not push it out of your mind. You can even pull your application if you want. We think that would be a little silly though. You applied to Swarthmore ED because it is your dream school, so the least you can do is to see it through to a final decision. And if there are things you can do to strengthen your application, even better. The good news is that there are. 

Pomona, it’s a hard school to get into. Last cycle, they boasted an acceptance rate of 7% and an ED acceptance rate of 13%. While that might technically be almost double, that’s still around the acceptance rate of schools like Berkeley, Georgetown, and Wellesley. Pomona tells us that they defer around 10-15% of their ED applicants, so if you’ve been deferred, you’re in a rare group! And we have good news: you still have a shot.

If you are reading this post, things have not gone to plan. You applied to Williams Early Decision because you wanted a decision, early. If it was an acceptance, that would be preferred. If it was a rejection, at least you know where you stand. But now you have this deferral, and you don’t really know what to do about it. You’re neither in nor out, and Williams doesn’t give you a ton of guidance for what to do next. First, though, let’s make sense of where you stand.

This wasn’t the situation you had in mind. Applying to Wake Forest Early Decision I or Early Action (for First-Gen Students) may have felt like a safe stretch, or maybe it was a big dream you knew not to bet on — but, either way, this isn’t the way you thought it would go. A yes would have been amazing and a no would have been a massive bummer, but a maybe wasn’t part of the plan. Now you’re here, reading this post, on the receiving end of a deferral, wondering what comes next.

Chances are that you are reading this because things didn’t go as planned. You didn’t know if you would get into Carnegie Mellon Early Decision, but at least if you didn’t get in, you’d know where you stood. Now you are somewhere awkwardly in the middle between being a fit for Carnegie Mellon and not being what they are looking for.

If you’re reading this post, Barnard was your dream school. This wasn’t the plan. You were hoping to get in, and may have had a backup strategy if you didn’t, but it’s likely you were not planning for a maybe. A deferral is just that — a deeply dissatisfying maybe. You might get in, but you can’t count on it. There are things you can do to nearly guarantee you aren’t accepted in the regular decision round, though, and things you can do to greatly improve your chances of admission.

College admissions is stressful, and a deferral from a dream school doesn’t help. When Northeastern deferred you, it probably felt pretty icky. It’s not a no — which is awesome! But it’s also far from a yes and now you’re in this uncomfortable middle-ground where you can’t count on anything, but you also can’t count yourself out.