Deferrals and Waitlists - What are they and what can you do?
Do not despair if you have been deferred or waitlisted! You are not out of the game, and what you do next can greatly impact the final results. Most importantly: do everything you can to keep your grades up!
DEFERRALS
There have been a fair amount of deferrals in the decisions that have been released thus far, many from colleges that are increasingly popular and receiving a tremendous quantity of applications.
What does this mean? There could be many reasons behind a deferral:
The college could have received more applications than they anticipated and could not process them all by their pre-announced decision date - not much you can do about that!
You are well qualified and admissible, but you have not demonstrated interest, and they are protecting their yield by waiting to hear how interested you are
You are on the cusp, and they want to review your application again with any new information you can provide, especially first-semester grades and a letter of continued interest, to consider you among the pool of regular decision applicants
Your application was missing something at the time of the deadline, and they pushed your application to the regular decision round
What can you do? Here are the next steps to take:
Please forward me your deferral letter ASAP so I have the info and deadlines. Procedures change yearly, and I cannot access these letters without you!
FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. This is the most important step to action if you are deferred. We will provide colleges with everything they allow (and nothing they don’t) by the deadline.
Heed the deadline. I had planned to send this note after the holidays but know some deferral action deadlines are near term, so we need to work over winter or spring break.
Set up a quick Zoom with me to review the requirements and make a plan.
Depending on what colleges will allow, we will talk about writing a “letter of continued interest” with an update of what you’ve been up to since you submitted your application, a possible additional letter of recommendation, and sending a note to admissions to alert them if your first semester grades will not be available by the deadline.
Demonstrate Interest! Most of you have a demonstrated interest tracker that you have been keeping track of your touchpoints with the school. What more can you do? Open and read their emails, online virtual tour, book an official visit, reach out to a professor in your academic area of interest, visit their social media accounts, etc. See what you’ve already done and do something more!
WAITLISTS
When the regular decision notifications come out, there is a chance that you could be waitlisted, which is different than being deferred, but still, you are in the game!
What does this mean?
Colleges offer admission to a certain number of students with the assumption that an estimated percentage will actually deposit and enroll. They want to make sure they have housing and seats in freshman-level courses to accommodate everyone who enrolls. Depending on how well they estimate, they can sometimes go to the waitlist to fill open spots. Every year is very different, so I can help you find statistics on how many were taken from a waitlist in past years, but generally, that information isn’t very helpful in predicting what will happen this year. Many times, they won’t go to the waitlist at all or they don’t take waitlisted students until after the universal deposit deadline of May 1 and can offer students a spot all summer long.
What can you do? Here are the next steps to take:
Follow the same deferral steps above. I can help you navigate a final effort to make your case but know that it is now more of a numbers game than an application game at this point, as you are essentially waiting for students to choose a different school and leave a spot open.
Overall, the best advice is to focus on the admission offers you have, choose the best option, and get excited about it! Love the ones who love you back, and don’t dwell for long about those colleges that have waitlisted you. If you get a pleasant surprise and get off the waitlist, you can revisit your love for the school:)
FINAL THOUGHTS
We created a balanced college list way back when we started, knowing that you’d have a few that might not go your way. But you have/will have a lot of other acceptances to choose from, as creating choices was at the heart of our college list-building process. Get excited about the options you have! Go to admitted student days, talk to current students (I can help!), and look at the requirements for your major.
Lastly, once you have all your decisions in, including merit and need-based aid packages, and not before, for schools you are absolutely sure you can rule out, withdraw your application, or let them know you don’t plan to attend. This is a courtesy to other students who might be on the waitlist and really want that spot - hopefully, others will do the same for you!
